Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths.

EZEKIEL 22:8KJV
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Ezekiel 22:8 (KJV)

What does Ezekiel 22:8 mean?

Ezekiel 22:8 presents God’s charge against Jerusalem: the city has treated what belongs to him as unworthy of respect and has treated his Sabbaths as ordinary. The accusation places disregard for sacred things alongside other wrongs named in the passage.

God speaks to Jerusalem as though the city were a person. After the accusations about mistreatment of others in verse 7, verse 8 turns to the people’s treatment of what God calls his own. The Sabbaths were days set apart for rest.

The Hebrew behind Ezekiel 22:8

  • “despised” — בָּזָה (bazah): The word often carries the sense of treating something as unimportant or beneath notice. Here it describes the attitude shown toward God’s holy things.
  • “profaned” — חָלַל (chalal): The word can mean treating something set apart as though it were ordinary. Here it describes what the people have done to God’s Sabbaths.
  • “things” — קֹדֶשׁ (qodesh): The word refers to what is holy or set apart. With “mine,” it points to things belonging specially to God.

Why Ezekiel 22:8 matters

  • The accusation joins wrongs against people with disregard for what belongs to God. Verse 8 follows charges in verse 7 about how parents, foreigners, and people without family protection were treated.
  • God’s words make the charge personal. The phrases “mine holy things” and “my sabbaths” present the treatment of these things as an offense against him.

Where else these words appear

“despised” Hebrew H959 · used in 41 verses

  • Genesis 25:34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.
  • Esther 3:6 And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had shewed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai.
  • Isaiah 37:22 This is the word which the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.

“sabbaths” Hebrew H7676 · used in 89 verses

  • Exodus 16:23 And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.
  • Leviticus 26:35 As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.
  • Nehemiah 13:21 Then I testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the wall? if ye do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth came they no more on the sabbath.

“profaned” Hebrew H2490 · used in 131 verses

  • Genesis 4:26 And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.
  • Judges 20:31 And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to smite of the people, and kill, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goeth up to the house of God, and the other to Gibeah in the field, about thirty men of Israel.
  • Isaiah 56:6 Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;