Ezekiel 20:12

12 Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the LORD made them holy.

Ezekiel 20:12 in Other Translations

12 Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them.

12 Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.

12 And I gave them my Sabbath days of rest as a sign between them and me. It was to remind them that I am the LORD, who had set them apart to be holy.

12 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.

12 I also gave them My Sabbaths to serve as a sign between Me and them, so they will know that I am the Lord who sets them apart as holy.

Ezekiel 20:12 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 20:12

Moreover, also, I gave them my sabbaths
The Targum is,

``the days of the sabbaths;''

or sabbath days, the seventh day sabbaths, which recurring throughout the year are many; but, besides these, there were the year of remission, for the seventh year sabbath; and the jubilee year, the great sabbath of all, once in fifty years; yea, Kimchi thinks the feasts, such as the passover are included: now these are distinguished from the statutes and judgments, or the precepts of the law, which were of a moral nature; these being ritual and ceremonial, and were peculiar to the Jews, and continued but for a while; however, they were gifts, and valuable ones, of considerable use and significance: to be a sign between me and them;
of his being their God, and they being his people; of his favour and good will to them, and of the, obligations they were under to him; of his having separated and distinguished them from all other nations of the world; these sabbaths being only given to them as a memorial of their deliverance out of Egypt, and as a pledge of their entering into the land of rest; and of the future rest to be enjoyed by Christ, and in heaven, to all eternity; for these were shadows of things to come, ( Colossians 2:16 Colossians 2:17 ) ; that they might know that I [am] the Lord that sanctify them;
separate them from other nations, and, by such means and opportunities, begin and carry on the work of sanctification in them; for the sabbaths, and the services of them, were useful to such purposes; as Lord's days, and the work of them, are now.

Ezekiel 20:12 In-Context

10 Therefore I led them out of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness.

11 I gave them my decrees and made known to them my laws, by which the person who obeys them will live.

12 Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the LORD made them holy.

13 “ ‘Yet the people of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They did not follow my decrees but rejected my laws—by which the person who obeys them will live—and they utterly desecrated my Sabbaths. So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and destroy them in the wilderness.

14 But for the sake of my name I did what would keep it from being profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.

Cross References

• 1. S Exodus 20:10
• 2. S Exodus 31:13
• 3. Jeremiah 17:22
• 4. S Leviticus 20:8