What Does Leviticus 22:9 Mean?
They shall therefore keep my watch, lest they carry falling short for it, and die because of it, if they pierce it. I the LORD set them 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
They shall therefore keep mine ordinance, lest they bear sin for it, and die therefore, if they profane it: I the LORD do sanctify them.THE KEY
In Hebrew, “keep my ordinance” is “guard my charge,” a doubled shamar-root that places human care within the LORD’s act of setting people apart.
THE MEANING
A sacred charge carries real consequences: treating it as common brings guilt and death. The verse also names the LORD as the one setting the people apart.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The charge does not make its keepers the source of their holiness; the LORD says, “I the LORD do sanctify them.”
THE ROOT
וְשָׁמְרוּ
veshameru
GROWS FROM
שמר
sh-m-r
Guard, watch, keep.
“watch” in this verse is veshameru. The verb “keep” and the noun translated “ordinance” come from the same root: the Hebrew reads as guarding the charge. English separates the action from its object, while the Hebrew repeats the image of watchful care.
ALSO GROWS
mishmeret: Charge, duty, or guard post.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This is the word rendered “ordinance” here, so the verse pairs shamar, “keep,” with mishmeret, “charge.”
shomer: Keeper or watchman.
שֹׁמֵר
The watchman branch makes the root’s guarding sense visible: keeping the charge is active watchfulness.
מְקַדְּשָׁם
mekaddesham
GROWS FROM
קדש
q-d-sh
Set apart, mark as distinct.
“set apart” in this verse is mekaddesham. The verse closes with the LORD as the one who sets the people apart. This root also names set-apartness and the sanctuary, placing their guarded charge within a wider language of belonging to God.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart.
קָדוֹשׁ
This familiar branch names the state the LORD brings about in the people.
miqdash: Sanctuary, a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
The sanctuary carries the same root into a place marked as set apart, echoing the verse’s language about the people.
THE PATTERN
The charge is guarded within the LORD’s act of setting people apart.
You shall guard closely the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you.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 may the God of wholeness himself set you apart through and through, and may your whole breath, living soul, and body be kept blameless until the presence of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One.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."Exodus uses the same Hebrew roots: shamar for keeping the sabbaths and q-d-sh for the LORD setting the people apart. Seeing both roots together reveals the same pattern in Leviticus: guarding the charge and being set apart belong together.
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