Ezekiel 20:20

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Keep my Sabbaths holy, and they will be a sign between me and you, so you may know that I am the Lord your God.”

Hebrew Names Version
and make my Shabbatot holy; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.

King James Version
And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.

English Standard Version
and keep my Sabbaths holy that they may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.'

New American Standard Bible
'Sanctify My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, so that you may know that I am the LORD your God.'

New Century Version
Keep my Sabbaths holy, and they will be a sign between me and you. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God."

Amplified Bible
'Sanctify My Sabbaths and keep them holy; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know [without any doubt] that I am the LORD your God.'

World English Bible
and make my Sabbaths holy; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am Yahweh your God.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And sanctifie my Sabbaths, and they shall bee a signe betweene mee and you, that ye may knowe that I am the Lord your God.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
'Sanctify My sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.'

Legacy Standard Bible
Keep My sabbaths holy; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am Yahweh your God.'

Berean Standard Bible
Keep My Sabbaths holy, and they will be a sign between us, so that you may know that I am the LORD your God."

Contemporary English Version
I told them to respect my Sabbath to show that they were my people and that I was the Lord their God.

Complete Jewish Bible
and keep my shabbats holy; and they will be a sign between me and you, so that you will know that I am Adonai your God."

Darby Translation
and hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I [am] Jehovah your God.

Easy-to-Read Version
Show that my days of rest are important to you. Remember, they are a special sign between us. I am the Lord , and these days show you that I am your God."

George Lamsa Translation
And hallow my sabbaths: and they shall be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.

Good News Translation
Make the Sabbath a holy day, so that it will be a sign of the covenant we made, and will remind you that I am the Lord your God.

Lexham English Bible
And treat my Sabbaths as holy, and they will be a sign between me and between you that you may know that I, Yahweh, am your God.'

Literal Translation
And keep My sabbaths holy, and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am Jehovah your God.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
halowe my Sabbathes: for they are a token betwixte me & you, that ye maye knowe, how yt I am the LORDE.

American Standard Version
and hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am Jehovah your God.

Bible in Basic English
And keep my Sabbaths holy; and they will be a sign between me and you so that it may be clear to you that I am the Lord your God.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
and hallow My sabbaths, and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God.

King James Version (1611)
And hallow my Sabbaths, and they shall be a signe betweene mee and you, that yee may know that I am the Lord your God.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Halowe my Sabbathes, for they are a token betwixt me and you: that ye may knowe howe that I am the Lord your God.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
and hallow my sabbaths, and let them be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.

English Revised Version
and hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And halowe ye my sabatis, that it be a signe bitwixe me and you, and that it be knowun, that Y am youre Lord God.

Update Bible Version
and hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am Yahweh your God.

Webster's Bible Translation
And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I [am] the LORD your God.

New English Translation
Treat my Sabbaths as holy and they will be a reminder of our relationship, and then you will know that I am the Lord your God."

New King James Version
hallow My Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.'

New Living Translation
and keep my Sabbath days holy, for they are a sign to remind you that I am the Lord your God.'

New Life Bible
Keep My Days of Rest holy, and they will be something special to see between Me and you. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.'

New Revised Standard
and hallow my sabbaths that they may be a sign between me and you, so that you may know that I the Lord am your God.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
My sabbaths also, hallow ye, - And they shall become a sign betwixt me and you, That it may be known that I Yahweh am your God.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And sanctify my sabbaths, that they may be a sign between me and you: and that you may know that I am the Lord your God.

Revised Standard Version
and hallow my sabbaths that they may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I the LORD am your God.

Young's Literal Translation
And My sabbaths sanctify, And they have been for a sign between Me and you, To know that I, Jehovah, [am] your God.

Contextual Overview

¹¹"‘I gave them laws for living, showed them how to live well and obediently before me. I also gave them my weekly holy rest days, my "Sabbaths," a kind of signpost erected between me and them to show them that I, God , am in the business of making them holy. ¹³"‘But Israel rebelled against me in the desert. They didn't follow my statutes. They despised my laws for living well and obediently in the ways I had set out. And they totally desecrated my holy Sabbaths. I seriously considered unleashing my anger on them right there in the desert. But I thought better of it and acted out of who I was, not by what I felt, so that I might be honored and not blasphemed by the nations who had seen me bring them out. But I did lift my hand in a solemn oath there in the desert and promise them that I would not bring them into the country flowing with milk and honey that I had chosen for them, that jewel among all lands. I canceled my promise because they despised my laws for living obediently, wouldn't follow my statutes, and went ahead and desecrated my holy Sabbaths. They preferred living by their no-god idols. But I didn't go all the way: I didn't wipe them out, didn't finish them off in the desert. ¹⁸"‘Then I addressed myself to their children in the desert: "Don't do what your parents did. Don't take up their practices. Don't make yourselves filthy with their no-god idols. I myself am God , your God: Keep my statutes and live by my laws. Keep my Sabbaths as holy rest days, signposts between me and you, signaling that I am God , your God." ²¹"‘But the children also rebelled against me. They neither followed my statutes nor kept my laws for living upright and well. And they desecrated my Sabbaths. I seriously considered dumping my anger on them, right there in the desert. But I thought better of it and acted out of who I was, not by what I felt, so that I might be honored and not blasphemed by the nations who had seen me bring them out. ²³"‘But I did lift my hand in solemn oath there in the desert, and swore that I would scatter them all over the world, disperse them every which way because they didn't keep my laws nor live by my statutes. They desecrated my Sabbaths and remained addicted to the no-god idols of their parents. Since they were determined to live bad lives, I myself gave them statutes that could not produce goodness and laws that did not produce life. I abandoned them. Filthy in the gutter, they perversely sacrificed their firstborn children in the fire. The very horror should have shocked them into recognizing that I am God .'

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Ezekiel 20:12, Ezekiel 44:24, Exodus 20:11, Exodus 31:13-17, Nehemiah 13:15-22, Isaiah 58:13, Jeremiah 17:22, Jeremiah 17:24, Jeremiah 17:27

Reciprocal: Exodus 31:17 - a sign Leviticus 18:2 - General Deuteronomy 32:27 - lest their Joshua 4:6 - a sign Nehemiah 9:14 - madest Psalms 50:7 - I am Psalms 81:5 - for a Isaiah 56:2 - keepeth the Mark 2:27 - General Romans 4:11 - the sign

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And hallow my sabbaths,.... Or keep them holy, by abstaining from worldly business on them; by observing all the duties of religion, private and public, to be performed on such days:

and they shall be a sign between me and you; of present and future good; :-;

that ye may know that I [am] the Lord your God; not only acknowledge him to be the Lord their God, by observing his laws, and sanctifying his sabbaths; but also have a larger experience of his grace and goodness, as their covenant God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The probation in the wilderness. The promise was forfeited by those to whom it was first conditionally made, but was renewed to their children.

Ezekiel 20:11

The “statutes” were given on Mount Sinai, and repeated by Moses before his death (Exodus 20:1 ff; Deuteronomy 4:8).

In them - Or, through them: and in Ezekiel 20:13.

Ezekiel 20:12

See Exodus 31:13. The Sabbath was a sign of a special people, commemorative of the work of creation, and hallowed to the honor of Yahweh, the covenant-God. As man honored God by keeping the Sabbath holy, so by the Sabbath, God “sanctified” Israel and marked them as a holy people. Therefore to profane the Sabbath was to abjure their Divine Governor.

Ezekiel 20:13

My sabbaths they greatly polluted - Not by actual non-observance of the sabbatical rest in the wilderness, but in failing to make the day holy in deed as well as in name by earnest worship and true heart service.

Ezekiel 20:18

The book of Deuteronomy contains the address to “the children” of those who perished in the wilderness. The whole history of Israel was a repetition of this course. The covenant was made with one generation, broken by them, and then renewed to the next.

Ezekiel 20:25

The “judgments whereby they should not live” are those spoken of in Ezekiel 20:18, and are contrasted with the judgments in Ezekiel 20:13, Ezekiel 20:21, laws other than divine, to which God gives up those whom He afflicts with judicial blindness, because they have willfully closed their eyes, Psalms 81:12; Romans 1:24.

Ezekiel 20:26

To pass through - The word also means to “set apart,” as the firstborn to the Lord Exodus 13:12. They were bidden to “set apart” their firstborn males to the Lord. They “caused them to pass through the fire” to Moloch. An instance of their perversion of God’s laws.