Hebrew word · H821

אַשְׁמוּרָה

be'ashmoret

watch

A night watch. Related forms include ʾašmōret. From the root šāmar, 'to guard, keep'. It means one shift of guard duty, a fixed part of the night.

Appears 7 times in 7 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated October 24, 2026

What it means

watch (a period of time), night-watch

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

Range of meaning: A night watch. Related forms include ʾašmōret. From the root šāmar, 'to guard, keep'. It means one shift of guard duty, a fixed part of the night.
Against the English: KJV/WEB/ESV/NASB 'a watch in the night' is accurate, but most modern readers no longer know a 'watch' was a unit of time. NLT's 'as brief as a few night hours' explains the image correctly.
How it drifted: 'Watch' as a period of night-time duty is now archaic outside military and naval use, so readers may hear 'keeping watch' or even a wristwatch.
Used elsewhere in the period: Israel's older system seems to have had three night watches: 'the morning watch' (Exodus 14:24), 'the middle watch' (Judges 7:19), 'the beginning of the watches' (Lamentations 2:19). In the Roman period there were four (Mark 6:48, 'the fourth watch'). The Talmud records a rabbinic debate over three versus four (Berakhot 3a). Psalm 63:6 and 119:148 speak of meditating 'in the watches of the night'.

Range of meaning: From shamar, 'to keep, guard'. An ashmurah/ashmoret is a night watch, one of the shifts into which the night was divided for guard duty. Biblical Israel seems to have counted three: the 'beginning of the watches' (Lamentations 2:19), the 'middle watch' (Judges 7:19) and the 'morning watch' (here; 1 Samuel 11:11). So the morning watch is roughly the last third of the night, ending at first light.
Against the English: English 'morning watch' or 'morning' (NLT has 'just before dawn') can sound like after sunrise. The Hebrew points to the dark hours before dawn. The Egyptians are routed in darkness, and by the time 'morning appeared' (v. 27) the sea is already coming back.
How it drifted: Modern English 'morning' starts at sunrise or even at midnight on the clock. The ancient watch system is unfamiliar, so the hour gets moved later than it was.
Used elsewhere in the period: Saul attacks the Ammonite camp 'in the morning watch' and routs them (1 Samuel 11:11), a near-identical military setting. Gideon strikes at 'the beginning of the middle watch' (Judges 7:19). Psalms 63:6, 90:4 and 119:148 use 'watches' for the night hours. Later, rabbinic debate (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 3a) asks whether the night had three or four watches; the Roman reckoning of four lies behind the 'fourth watch' of Mark 6:48. Scripture also has a recurring theme of God helping 'at the turning of morning' (Psalm 46:5; Isaiah 37:36; Psalm 30:5), studied by J. Ziegler.

Range of meaning: 'Ashmurah/'ashmoret, from shamar ("to guard"), is a night watch, one of the shifts into which the hours of darkness were divided for guard duty. It also became a general way of measuring time at night ("I meditate in the night watches," Ps 63:6; 119:148). Tikhon means "middle" or "central." Together the phrase is the middle of three night watches.
Against the English: The English "middle watch" is accurate. Readers who know the New Testament may assume four watches (Mark 6:48, "the fourth watch of the night"), but that is the Roman system adopted later. A "middle" watch implies three.
Used elsewhere in the period: The Hebrew Bible names the other two watches as well: "the beginning of the watches" (Lam 2:19) and "the morning watch" (Exod 14:24; 1 Sam 11:11). Both of those passages are also stories of God's sudden victory at night or at dawn. The Mishnah (Berakhot 1:1) and the Talmud (b. Ber. 3a–b) record a rabbinic debate over whether the night has three or four watches. That shows the three-watch division was still remembered as the older Israelite way of counting.

Exodus · 1

Exodus 14:24 בְּאַשְׁמֹ֣רֶת in [the] watch of

At morning watch, however, the LORD looked down on the army of the Egyptians from the pillar of fire and cloud, and He threw their camp into confusion.

Here: A 'watch' was one shift of the night guard. The word marks a stretch of night hours, not a clock-time, and it carries a military feel: sentries, a camp, the night before a battle.

Judges · 1

Judges 7:19 הָאַשְׁמֹ֣רֶת the watch

Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after the changing of the guard. They blew their horns and broke the jars that were in their hands.

Here: One of the divisions of the night during which a shift of sentries kept guard. It comes from the same root as "guards" later in the verse.

1 Samuel · 1

1 Samuel 11:11 בְּאַשְׁמֹ֣רֶת in [the] watch of

The next day Saul organized the troops into three divisions, and during the morning watch they invaded the camp of the Ammonites and slaughtered them, until the hottest part of the day. And the survivors were so scattered that no two of them were left together.

Psalms · 3

Psalm 63:6 בְּ֝אַשְׁמֻר֗וֹת in [the] night-watches

When I remember You on my bed, I think of You through the watches of the night.

Here: 'In the watches.' The night was divided into guard shifts called watches. The plural points to the whole night passing, shift by shift. The speaker wakes at intervals, or lies awake, and God is still on his mind.
Psalm 90:4 וְאַשְׁמוּרָ֥ה and a watch

For in Your sight a thousand years are but a day that passes, or a watch of the night.

Here: A night watch: one of the shifts, about a third of the night, when guards stood duty. The poet goes from a day down to a few hours: a thousand years is not even a full day, it is one shift of the night.
Psalm 119:148 אַשְׁמֻר֑וֹת [the] night-watches

My eyes anticipate the watches of night, that I may meditate on Your word.

Lamentations · 1

Lamentations 2:19 אַשְׁמֻר֔וֹת [the] night-watches

Arise, cry out in the night from the first watch of the night. Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to Him for the lives of your children who are fainting from hunger on the corner of every street.

Here: The divisions of the night kept by sentries. "At the head of the watches" means as each watch begins, so the cry goes on all night, shift after shift.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.