What Does Leviticus 19:3 Mean?
Each of you shall fear your mother and your father, and guard my sabbaths; I am the LORD your God.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your God.THE KEY
The same Hebrew root used here for fearing parents appears later in the chapter for fearing God, placing family regard inside the language of reverence.
THE MEANING
Your mother and father stand within the verse’s command to fear, while the LORD’s sabbaths stand within its charge to guard. Both are held under the present claim, “I am the LORD your God.”
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The sacred is confined to religious time. Here, the command places fear toward parents beside keeping the LORD’s sabbaths under one declaration.
THE ROOT
תִּירָאוּ
tira’u
GROWS FROM
י־ר־א
y-r-ʾ
Fear, be afraid, or revere.
The verb here is from the same root the chapter later uses for fearing God. Its reach holds parental fear and fear before God in a shared word-family, while the verse’s distinct objects keep the relation clear.
ALSO GROWS
yir’ah: Fear, reverence.
יִרְאָה
This noun shares the root behind the command and names fear in relation to God as well as to people.
morā: Dread, fear.
מוֹרָא
This related form shows the root can carry real force, not merely polite regard; that weight stays audible in the command toward parents.
תִּשְׁמְרוּ
tishmeru
GROWS FROM
ש־מ־ר
sh-m-r
Guard, watch, keep.
“guard” in this verse is tishmeru. Within “keep,” this root carries watchfulness and guarding. Its branches name a watchman and an entrusted charge, making the sabbaths appear as time held under care.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: Watcher, guardian.
שֹׁמֵר
This form makes the guarding in “keep my sabbaths” concrete: one stands watch over what is entrusted.
mishmeret: Guard duty, charge, watch.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
The same root can name an assigned watch, casting sabbath keeping as attention to entrusted time.
THE PATTERN
Reverence for God enters ordinary life through family obligations and the guarding of set-apart time.
Remember the sabbath day, to set it apart.Give weight to your father and your mother, which is the first commandment with promise.He said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.THE THREAD
You shall rise up before the gray head, and adorn the face of the elder, and stand in awe of your God. I am the LORD.The same root י־ר־א (y-r-ʾ, fear or revere) appears here toward mother and father and in verse 32 toward God. Its return places family regard and fear before God in one field of reverence, while keeping their objects distinct.
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