Word studies · Hebrew · Strong's H6944
קֹדֶשׁ · qôdesh · appears 469 times in the Old Testament
In one line: Set apart as God's, and unlike the ordinary.
Who among the gods is like You, O LORD? Who is like You—majestic in holiness, revered with praises, performing wonders?
Exodus 15:11
Qodesh is holiness — being set apart for God, the quality that distinguishes what belongs to Him from what is ordinary.
Qodesh names holy things, holy times and holy places: the sanctuary, the sabbath, the offerings, and above all God's own character. Israel is called to be holy because He is, so holiness moves from cultic separation to moral and communal life.
Qodesh comes from qadash, to be set apart or consecrated, and the root's fundamental idea is separation rather than moral perfection — something removed from common use and devoted to God. Hebrew intensifies by repeating, which is why the innermost room is the qodesh haqodashim, “holy of holies.”
English “holy” has come to mean pious or morally impressive; the Hebrew starts with belonging. Understanding that a pot could be holy — because it was set aside for the sanctuary — makes sense of a people being called holy before they are good.
Qodesh (H6944) appears 425 times in the Hebrew Bible, and its doubled form is the Hebrew way of saying “the holiest” — literally the holy of holies.
Holiness is first God's own otherness — “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts” — and only then a demand on His people, who are holy because they are His. That order keeps sanctification from being self-improvement: it is living out an ownership already established.
Set one ordinary thing apart for God this week — an hour, a room, a sum of money — and let it be used for nothing else. Holiness begins as belonging before it becomes behavior.
a sacred place or thing; rarely abstract, sanctity
“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
Exodus 3:5The remainder of the grain offering shall belong to Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the food offerings to the LORD.
Leviticus 2:3The number of all the males a month old or more was 8,600. They were responsible for the duties of the sanctuary.
Numbers 3:28But you are to take your holy things and your vow offerings and go to the place the LORD will choose.
Deuteronomy 12:26The Commander of the LORD’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.
Joshua 5:15“There is no common bread on hand,” the priest replied, but there is some consecrated bread—provided that the young men have kept themselves from women.”
1 Samuel 21:4Press and hold holiness in any chapter and this study opens on the verse you are reading, with the lexicons, every occurrence and the commentaries beside it. The Bible is free to read.
Scripture quoted from the Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Strong's definitions are public domain. Counts come from The Pillar's own tagged text.