Word study

Sanctuary

5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: sanctuary, sanctuaries. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.

At a glance

How often each original word is translated “sanctuary” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • קֹדֶשׁ qôdeshsacred, sanctitytranslated this way 71 times of its 437 uses · Strong’s H6944Noun  ·  Translated: holy 192, sanctuary 42, sacred 31, according to the sanctuary 24

    Exodus 28:35 Aaron must wear the robe whenever he ministers, and its sound will be heard when he enters or exits the sanctuary before the LORD, so that he will not die.

    Leviticus 4:6 The priest is to dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle some of it seven times before the LORD, in front of the veil of the sanctuary.

    Full study and all 379 verses →
  • מִקְדָּשׁ miqdâshsacred place, sanctuarytranslated this way 67 times of its 74 uses · Strong’s H4720Noun  ·  Translated: sanctuary 60, sanctuaries 5, holy places 2

    Exodus 15:17 You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of Your inheritance — the place, O LORD, You have prepared for Your dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, Your hands have established.

    Leviticus 12:4 The woman shall continue in purification from her bleeding for thirty-three days. She must not touch anything sacred or go into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are complete.

    Full study and all 72 verses →
  • דְּבִיר debîrshrinetranslated this way 15 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H1687Noun  ·  Translated: inner sanctuary 13, sanctuary 2, interwoven 1

    1 Kings 6:5 Against the walls of the temple and the inner sanctuary, Solomon built a chambered structure around the temple, in which he constructed the side rooms.

    2 Chronicles 4:20 the lampstands of pure gold and their lamps, to burn in front of the inner sanctuary as prescribed;

    Full study and all 16 verses →
  • הֵיכָל hêkâlpalace, templetranslated this way 8 times of its 78 uses · Strong’s H1964Noun  ·  Translated: temple 56, palace 7, outer sanctuary 6, palaces 4

    1 Kings 6:33 In the same way he made four-sided doorposts of olive wood for the sanctuary entrance.

    Ezekiel 41:1 Then the man brought me into the outer sanctuary and measured the side pillars to be six cubits wide on each side.

    Full study and all 74 verses →
  • חִיצוֹן chîtsônouter, externaltranslated this way 3 times of its 24 uses · Strong’s H2435Adjective  ·  Translated: outer 14, outside 3, outer sanctuaries 2, faced the outer 2

    1 Kings 6:29 Then he carved the walls all around the temple, in both the inner and outer sanctuaries, with carved engravings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers.

    Ezekiel 41:17 In the space above the outside of the entrance to the inner sanctuary on all the walls, spaced evenly around the inner and outer sanctuary,

    Full study and all 24 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ἅγιος hágiosset apart, holy, sacredtranslated this way 3 times of its 231 uses · Strong’s G40Adjective  ·  Translated: Holy 149, saints 60, of 5, Holy Place 5

    Hebrews 8:2 and who ministers in the sanctuary and true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.

    Hebrews 9:1 Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary.

    Full study and all 221 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
  2. Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.

What the Bible says about sanctuary: passages by topic →

Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.