Miqdāsh comes from the root qādash (H6942), meaning 'to be holy' or 'to set apart.' It refers to any place consecrated for God's worship, but most often specifically to the Tabernacle and Temple. The term captures the idea that God has a designated dwelling place among his people — a sacred zone where heaven and earth meet. It appears 75 times in the Hebrew Bible and is used broadly for Israelite worship sites as well as for foreign shrines (pejoratively) and even metaphorically for God himself as Israel's sanctuary in exile (Ezekiel 11:16).
The concept of miqdāsh is central to Israel's understanding of God's presence. The Tabernacle and Temple were not merely religious buildings; they were microcosmic representations of creation — the place where God's heavenly rule was reflected on earth. Defiling the miqdāsh (by sin, idolatry, or impurity) was treated as an assault on God's holiness (Leviticus 20:3). The loss of the Temple to Babylon was devastating precisely because it appeared to mean God had abandoned his miqdāsh. In Revelation, the New Jerusalem itself is God's ultimate sanctuary — the city that needs no Temple because God dwells directly with his people.