What Does Zechariah 14:20 Mean?
In that day there is upon the bells of the horses, SET APART TO THE LORD; and the pots in the house of the LORD are like the sprinkling bowls before the altar.
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
In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar.THE KEY
The word stamped on a priest’s gold plate now appears on horse bells: what is set apart reaches the ordinary world.
THE MEANING
The horse bells and the pots in the LORD’s house carry the same designation: HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD. Ordinary equipment stands beside the altar’s vessels within one field of belonging to the LORD.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that only objects reserved for worship can be set apart dissolves here: even horse bells and household pots bear the sacred designation.
THE ROOT
קֹדֶשׁ
qodesh
GROWS FROM
קדשׁ
q-d-sh
To set apart or consecrate; to be sacred.
Qodesh names the state of being set apart for the LORD. Its root also names what is holy, the act of consecrating, and the sanctuary itself, so the inscription on horse bells gives the ordinary audible world a sanctuary identity.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Holy; set apart.
קָדוֹשׁ
This adjective describes the quality carried by the inscription on the bells.
qiddesh: To consecrate; to set apart.
קִדֵּשׁ
This verb shows that holiness includes the act of designating something for the LORD.
miqdash: Sanctuary; a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
The same root that names the sanctuary now marks objects beyond its walls.
THE PATTERN
Set-apartness reaches from designated sanctuary objects into the ordinary things and work of life.
And you will make a blossom of pure gold, and open upon it, like the openings of a seal, Set-Apart to the LORD.And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah is set apart to the LORD of hosts; all who slaughter come and take from them, and boil in them; and in that day there is no more a Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts.Therefore I urge you, brothers, through the compassions of God, to set your bodies beside God as a living sacrifice, set apart, well-pleasing to him, which is your true service.THE THREAD
And you will make a blossom of pure gold, and open upon it, like the openings of a seal, Set-Apart to the LORD.Exodus bears the same Hebrew phrase, קֹדֶשׁ לַיהוָה (qodesh la-YHWH, “set apart to the LORD”), on the high priest’s gold plate. Zechariah places that inscription on horse bells, extending the priestly designation into the ordinary world.
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