mikdash · sanctuary

What it means

mikdash (מִקְדָּשׁ) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “sanctuary”.

A place set apart for God; also a holy thing. Said too of the shrines of other gods.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. The place set apart for YHWH, or other gods.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Sanctuary: a place set apart for God. It is formed from the root קדשׁ (holy, set apart), the same as קֹדֶשׁ (holiness, H6944). It is said of the dwelling, of the temple and, in the plural, also of places of worship.

• The place God asks to be made for him Exodus 25:8Exodus 15:17
• Revering the sanctuary and not profaning it Leviticus 19:30Leviticus 20:3
• The sanctuary in Ezekiel's vision Ezekiel 37:26Ezekiel 44:9
• The sanctuary profaned Daniel 11:31Lamentations 2:20
• Entering the sanctuaries of El Psalms 73:17

Historical and cultural background

YHWH says: “And they shall make me a sanctuary, and I will dwell in their midst” (Exodus 25:8). In the law, the one who does not purify himself “has defiled the sanctuary of YHWH” (Numbers 19:20).

How we translate it

“Sanctuary” 64 times and “sanctuaries” 8; once “holy place” and once “holy part of it”, in passages where it names a space within the whole. It is distinct from הֵיכָל, which this edition translates “temple, palace”.

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• sanctuary ×64
• sanctuaries ×8
• holy part of it ×1
• holy place ×1

Where it appears

• Exodus×2
• Leviticus×9
• Numbers×5
• Joshua×1
• 1 Chronicles×2
• 2 Chronicles×5
• Nehemiah×1
• Psalms×5
• Isaiah×4
• Jeremiah×2
• Lamentations×3
• Ezekiel×30
• Daniel×3
• Amos×2

• Exodus 15:17

  You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance, the place for you to dwell in that you have made, YHWH, the sanctuary, Adonai, that your hands have established.

• Exodus 25:8

  And they shall make me a sanctuary, and I will dwell in their midst.

• Leviticus 12:4

  She shall remain thirty days and three days in the blood of purification; she shall not touch any holy thing and she shall not come into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are completed.

• Leviticus 16:33

  He shall make expiation for the holy sanctuary, and for the tent of meeting and the altar he shall make expiation, and for the priests and for all the people of the assembly he shall make expiation.

• Leviticus 19:30

  You shall keep my Sabbaths and fear my sanctuary. I am YHWH.

• Leviticus 20:3

  And I will set my face against that man and cut him off from among his people, because he has given some of his offspring to Molech, so as to make unclean my sanctuary and to profane my holy name.

• Leviticus 21:12

  And he shall not go out from the sanctuary, and he shall not profane the sanctuary of his Elohim, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his Elohim is on him. I am YHWH.

• Leviticus 21:23

  only he shall not go to the veil and shall not come near to the altar, for he has a defect, so that he does not profane my sanctuaries; for I am YHWH, who sanctifies them.”

• Leviticus 26:2

  You shall keep my Sabbaths and fear my sanctuary. I am YHWH.

• Leviticus 26:31

  And I will make your cities a ruin and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will not smell your pleasing aroma.

• Numbers 3:38

  And those who camp in front of the dwelling on the east, in front of the tent of meeting, toward the sunrise, are Moses and Aaron and his sons, keeping the charge of the sanctuary, as the charge of the sons of Israel; and the stranger who comes near shall be put to death.

• Numbers 10:21

  And the Kohathites, who carried the sanctuary, set out; and the dwelling was set up before they arrived.

• Numbers 18:1

  And YHWH said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father’s house with you shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary; and you and your sons with you shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood.

• Numbers 18:29

  From all your gifts you shall set apart every contribution for YHWH, from all the best of it, the holy part of it from it.

• Numbers 19:20

  But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, for he has defiled the sanctuary of YHWH; the water of impurity has not been splashed on him; he is unclean.

• Joshua 24:26

  And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the instruction of Elohim; and he took a great stone and set it up there under the oak that was in the sanctuary of YHWH.

• 1 Chronicles 22:19

  Now set your heart and your soul to seek YHWH your Elohim. So arise and build the sanctuary of YHWH Elohim, so as to bring the ark of the covenant of YHWH and the holy utensils of Elohim into the house that is built for the name of YHWH.”

• 1 Chronicles 28:10

  See now that YHWH has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary. Be strong and do it.”

• 2 Chronicles 20:8

  They lived in it and built for you in it a sanctuary for your name, saying,

• 2 Chronicles 26:18

  They stood against Uzziah the king and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to YHWH, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful, and this will not be for your honor from YHWH Elohim.”

• 2 Chronicles 29:21

  They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats for a sin offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for Judah; and he told the sons of Aaron, the priests, to offer them on the altar of YHWH.

• 2 Chronicles 30:8

  Now do not stiffen your necks like your fathers; give your hand to YHWH, and come to his sanctuary which he has sanctified forever, and serve YHWH your Elohim, and his burning anger will turn away from you.

• 2 Chronicles 36:17

  He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or the very old; he gave them all into his hand.

• Nehemiah 10:39

  For to the chambers the sons of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the contribution of the grain, the new wine, and the oil; and there are the utensils of the sanctuary, and the priests who minister, and the gatekeepers and the singers. And we will not abandon the house of our Elohim.

• Psalms 68:35

  Awesome is Elohim from your sanctuaries; the El of Israel, he gives strength and vigor to the people. Blessed be Elohim.

• Psalms 73:17

  until I entered into the sanctuaries of El; I understood their end.

• Psalms 74:7

  They cast into the fire your sanctuary; to the ground they have profaned the dwelling of your name.

• Psalms 78:69

  And he built like the heights his sanctuary, like the earth he founded forever.

• Psalms 96:6

  Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

• Isaiah 8:14

  And he will become a sanctuary, and a stone to strike against and a rock to stumble over for both houses of Israel, a snare and a trap for the inhabitant of Jerusalem.

• Isaiah 16:12

  And it will happen, when he appears, when Moab wearies himself on the high place and comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not be able.

• Isaiah 60:13

  The glory of Lebanon will come to you, the cypress, the elm, and the boxwood together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and the place of my feet I will honor.

• Isaiah 63:18

  For a little while your holy people possessed it; our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.

• Jeremiah 17:12

  A throne of glory, on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.

• Jeremiah 51:51

  We are ashamed, for we have heard reproach; disgrace has covered our faces, for strangers have come into the sanctuaries of the house of YHWH.

• Lamentations 1:10

  The adversary has spread out his hand over all her precious things; for she has seen nations enter her sanctuary, those concerning whom you commanded, “They shall not enter into your assembly.”

• Lamentations 2:7

  Adonai has rejected his altar; he has repudiated his sanctuary; he has handed over into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have raised their voice in the house of YHWH as on a day of appointed feast.

• Lamentations 2:20

  See, YHWH, and look: to whom have you dealt thus? Should women eat their fruit, the children raised with care? Should there be killed in the sanctuary of Adonai priest and prophet?

• Ezekiel 5:11

  Therefore, as I live, declares Adonai YHWH, surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, I too will withdraw, and my eye will not spare, and I too will not show pity.

• Ezekiel 8:6

  And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel is doing here, to go far from my sanctuary? And yet you will again see great abominations.”

And 34 more times.