Hebrew word · H8108
שׇׁמְרָה
shamerah
guard
'A guard, a watch': the stationed guarding of something. This exact noun occurs only here, but it belongs to the very common root šmr: 'keep, guard, watch over, observe'. The related nouns are shomer (watchman), mishmar (guard post) and ashmurah (a night watch).
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
guard, watch
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
'A guard, a watch': the stationed guarding of something. This exact noun occurs only here, but it belongs to the very common root šmr: 'keep, guard, watch over, observe'. The related nouns are shomer (watchman), mishmar (guard post) and ashmurah (a night watch).
- Against the English
BSB and most modern versions have 'guard'. KJV, WEB and YLT have 'a watch', which in 1611 meant a watchman or guard post. Today 'watch' first suggests a wristwatch or 'watch out', so the military picture fades.
- How it drifted
In older English 'a watch' meant a body of guards or a sentry duty (cf. 'the night watch'). That sense now survives mostly in set phrases.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The root is common across the Semitic languages for guarding. Compare Isaiah 21:11, 'Watchman (shomer), what of the night?', a fitting echo for an evening psalm. Proverbs 13:3 pairs the same two roots as this verse: 'He who guards (nōṣēr) his mouth keeps (shōmēr) his life.' The Septuagint renders it phylakē, 'guard, garrison'.
Where it appears
Psalms · 1
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Psalm 141:3 שָׁמְרָ֣ה a guard
Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch at the door of my lips.
Here: A noun that appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. It comes from the common root šmr, 'to keep watch'. It means a guard or sentry post: something stationed, not just a feeling of caution.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.