Exodus 20:8

Summary

Exodus 20:8 opens the sabbath commandment with the instruction to remember the day of the sabbath, with the stated purpose of setting it apart as holy. The verse uses two verbal forms — an infinitive absolute for "remember" and an infinitive construct for "to sanctify" — rather than standard finite imperative verbs.

Key words

• Za.khor ("remember", H2142) — qal infinitive absolute. This form, standing in for a finite imperative, gives the command an emphatic, almost formulaic weight rather than a simple direct order.
• Yom ("day of", H3117) — masculine singular noun in the construct state, meaning it must be followed by another noun to complete its sense ("day of X").
• ha-Shabbat ("the sabbath", H7676) — feminine singular noun with the definite article ha (H9009), functioning as the noun completing the construct chain begun by yom.
• ka.de.sh-o ("to sanctify it", H6942 + H9033) — piel infinitive construct with the preposition le (H9005) attached, plus a third-person pronominal suffix -o ("it/him", H9033) referring back to the day. The piel stem intensifies the basic sense of "being holy" into an active "setting apart as holy."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built from two infinitives rather than two ordinary finite verbs, which is a syntactic feature not visible in most translations. The first, za.khor, is an infinitive absolute functioning imperativally — a construction Biblical Hebrew uses to state a command with particular emphasis, distinct from the more common second-person imperative form. The object of this command is introduced by the untranslated marker 'et (H0853), followed by the construct phrase yom ha-shabbat, literally "the day of the sabbath": yom ("day of") is grammatically bound to ha-shabbat ("the sabbath"), which carries the definite article.

The second clause, le-qadesho, attaches the preposition le ("to") to the piel infinitive qadesh ("to sanctify," intensive stem of the root meaning "to be holy," H6942), and adds the suffix -o ("it") that refers back to "the day." This construction expresses purpose or means — the remembering is oriented toward or accomplished through the act of sanctifying the day. The suffix ties the sanctifying action grammatically to the sabbath day itself, rather than to a general holiness concept.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew infinitive absolute za.khor with the imperative Μνήσθητι ("remember"), a standard finite verb form, and translates the construct phrase as τὴν ἡμέραν τῶν σαββάτων. The Vulgate similarly uses the finite construction "Memento ut... sanctifices" ("remember that you sanctify"), turning the Hebrew's two infinitives into a main verb plus a subordinate purpose clause with a finite subjunctive verb, a structure closer to Latin syntax than to the Hebrew infinitival forms.