A consecrated thing or place, especially, a palace , sanctuary (whether of Jehovah or of idols) or asylum
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H4720, miqdāš, is a Hebrew noun for a sanctuary, holy place, or something consecrated. It most often names Israel's tabernacle or temple sanctuary, its holy precincts, or objects belonging to sacred service.
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Full entry for מִקְדָּשׁ (H4720) · Open the biblical lexicon
H4720, miqdāš, is a Hebrew noun for a sanctuary, holy place, or something consecrated. It most often names Israel's tabernacle or temple sanctuary, its holy precincts, or objects belonging to sacred service.
The BSB source-word alignment has 75 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the sanctuary (15), My sanctuary (12), a sanctuary (4), His sanctuary (3), in the sanctuary (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 15:17. Its strongest book concentrations include Ezekiel (31), Leviticus (9), 2 Chronicles (5), Numbers (5).
H4720, miqdāš, is a Hebrew noun for a sanctuary, holy place, or something consecrated. It most often names Israel's tabernacle or temple sanctuary, its holy precincts, or objects belonging to sacred service. In a few striking passages, the Lord Himself is called a sanctuary. The noun does not mean that every religious building contains God, that sacred space protects wrongdoing, or that holiness can be possessed by an institution.
The passage must identify whose sanctuary it is, what consecrates it, and how God's presence and covenant judgment relate to it. Exodus 25 gives the foundational purpose: Israel is to make a sanctuary so that the Lord may dwell among them, according to the pattern He provides. The structure serves divine presence; it does not contain or domesticate God. Leviticus commands reverence for His sanctuary alongside Sabbath keeping and covenant holiness.
Reverence is directed to the Lord whose sanctuary it is, not to unchecked human officials or a building's reputation. Psalm 73 describes discernment received upon entering God's sanctuary. The psalmist's struggle over the prosperity of the wicked is reframed by worship and their final end. This is not a promise that entering a religious room bypasses careful thinking.
The sanctuary locates the question within God's reality, judgment, and presence. Lamentations 2 provides the severe counterpoint: the Lord can reject His altar and abandon His sanctuary in judgment. Sacred history does not make a place immune when covenant rebellion persists. Isaiah 8 says the Lord will be a sanctuary and also a stone of stumbling to the houses of Israel.
Ezekiel 11 speaks to displaced people excluded by Jerusalem's residents and promises that God Himself has been a sanctuary for them among the nations. Together these passages refuse to confine access to God within the claims of those controlling land or buildings. They also do not erase the exile setting, the promise of gathering, or the Lord's holiness. Ezekiel 47 envisions water flowing from the sanctuary and sustaining abundant fruit and healing leaves.
The image belongs to a prophetic temple vision. It can nourish Christian hope and canonical reflection, but it must not be converted into a medical cure claim, a commercial product, or a geographic prediction. H4720 therefore opens a theology of holy presence with accountability. God's sanctuary can be revered, entered, defiled, destroyed, restored, or named in relation to God Himself.
Faithful communities honor holy space while remembering that the Holy One protects exiles, judges corrupt worship, and cannot be controlled by those who hold a key.
H4720 names sanctuary space and consecrated things, especially the tabernacle and temple, while Isaiah and Ezekiel can speak of the Lord Himself as sanctuary. Its witness includes presence, reverence, discernment, exile, judgment, loss, and restorative hope.
And they are to make a sanctuary for Me, so that I may dwell among them.
Israel is commanded to make a sanctuary so that the Lord may dwell among them according to His revealed pattern.
You must keep My Sabbaths and have reverence for My sanctuary. I am the Lord.
Reverence for the Lord's sanctuary stands beside Sabbath keeping within a chapter of covenant holiness and neighbor responsibility.
Until I entered God’s sanctuary; then I discerned their end.
Entering God's sanctuary reframes the psalmist's confusion about the wicked by revealing their end before God.
And He will be a sanctuary—but to both houses of Israel a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, to the dwellers of Jerusalem a trap and a snare.
The Lord Himself will be a sanctuary, yet the same holy presence becomes a stone of stumbling to resistant Israel.
Therefore declare that this is what the Lord God says: ‘Although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries to which they have gone.’
God promises displaced Israelites that He has been a sanctuary for them among the nations despite exclusionary claims from Jerusalem.
Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of all kinds will grow. Their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. Each month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will be used for food and their leaves for healing.”
In Ezekiel's temple vision, life-giving water from the sanctuary sustains unfailing fruit and leaves for healing.
The Lord has rejected His altar; He has abandoned His sanctuary; He has delivered the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy. They have raised a shout in the house of the Lord as on the day of an appointed feast.
The Lord rejects His altar and abandons His sanctuary in covenant judgment, overturning assumptions of institutional immunity.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Sacred space set apart by consecration, functioning as God's dwelling or refuge for His people.
Sacred space set apart by consecration, functioning as God's dwelling or refuge for His people.
a consecrated thing or place, especially, a palace, sanctuary (whether of Jehovah or of idols) or asylum BDB: sacred place Usage: chapel, hallowed part, holy place, sanctuary.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 74 lexical occurrence verses.
מִקְדָּשׁ is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Ezekiel 11 gives H4720 a pastoral center for people excluded from sacred geography. Jerusalem's residents treat the exiles as far from the Lord and claim the land for themselves, but God says He has been a sanctuary for the displaced in the countries where they have gone. His presence is not captured by those who remain near the building. The promise then moves toward gathering and renewal, so it neither celebrates displacement nor abandons Israel's covenant hope.
Lamentations prevents institutional presumption from the other direction. The Lord rejects His altar and abandons His sanctuary in judgment. A sacred place cannot use God's name as insulation from unfaithfulness. Psalm 73 still values entering God's sanctuary as the setting in which the psalmist's moral confusion is reoriented, and Ezekiel 47 envisions life flowing from restored holy space.
These texts hold presence, judgment, and hope together. Churches should care for places dedicated to worship, but holiness is not a property deed or a leader's shield. The God who meets His people also sees exiles, judges corruption, and sends life beyond guarded boundaries.
Ezek.11.16
H4720 is a masculine noun formed from the Hebrew holiness family. Singular and plural forms can name sanctuary space, holy precincts, or consecrated things. Possessive wording and construct relationships often identify whose sanctuary or which sacred sphere is meant.
The New Testament centers God's dwelling and access in Christ, speaks of God's people as His temple, and looks toward a city where God and the Lamb are its temple. Those developments should be traced canonically rather than by claiming that every temple or sanctuary term is a direct lexical equivalent of H4720.