What Does Leviticus 22:32 Mean?
Nor shall you pierce my set-apart nature; but I will be set apart among the children of Israel. I am the LORD who sets you apart.
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
Neither shall ye profane my holy name; but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel: I am the LORD which hallow you,THE KEY
The LORD’s name (שֵׁם, shem: name and nature) is made visible among the very people he sets apart.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s name is his nature, and the people he sets apart are where that nature becomes visible. He is the one who hallows them; their treatment of his name can profane or honor what he is.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The LORD’s name is only a title, untouched by how the people he sets apart live.
THE ROOT
וְנִקְדַּשְׁתִּי
wenikdashti
GROWS FROM
קדשׁ
q-d-sh
Set apart; mark as belonging to what is sacred.
“set apart” in this verse is wenikdashti. The same root appears when the LORD is hallowed among Israel and when he hallows Israel. The name’s distinctness becomes visible in a people whose set-apartness comes from him.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart; holy.
קָדוֹשׁ
This names the quality the verse says must be recognized in the LORD’s name.
miqdash: Sanctuary; a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
The shared root connects setting apart with a place marked as belonging to God.
תְחַלְּלוּ
teḥallelū
GROWS FROM
חלל
ḥ-l-l
Make common; treat as ordinary or profane.
“pierce” in this verse is teḥallelū. This verb names the movement opposite to setting apart: what belongs to the LORD is treated as common. Set beside the repeated קדשׁ (q-d-sh: set apart) root, it reveals the verse’s contrast between making common and recognizing what is sacred.
ALSO GROWS
ḥol: Common; ordinary.
חֹל
This gives the command’s profaning a concrete shade: treating what is set apart as common.
ḥillul: Profanation; desecration.
חִלּוּל
This noun names the act the verse forbids, making the sacred common.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s set-apartness becomes visible through the people he sets apart.
Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, "Surely my sabbaths you shall guard, for it is a sign between me and you through your generations, that you may perceive that I am the LORD who sets you apart."And I will set apart my great name, which was pierced among the nations, which you pierced in the midst of them, and the nations will know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD, when I am set apart in you before their eyes.And for their sake I set myself apart, that they also might be set apart through the truth.THE THREAD
Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, "Surely my sabbaths you shall guard, for it is a sign between me and you through your generations, that you may perceive that I am the LORD who sets you apart."The same קדשׁ (q-d-sh: set apart) root appears in “sanctify you,” making explicit that the LORD is the source of his people’s set-apartness. Leviticus 22:32 joins that act to the way his name is seen among them.
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