What Does 1 Chronicles 26:16 Mean?
To Shuppim and Hosah westward, with the gate Shallecheth, by the raised road of the ascent, watch against watch.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
To Shuppim and Hosah the lot came forth westward, with the gate Shallecheth, by the causeway of the going up, ward against ward.THE KEY
With Hosah, whose name means refuge, assigned to the westward gate and watch set against watch, refuge appears as a threshold held by paired vigilance.
THE MEANING
The verse presents passage as both open and guarded: a way leads upward, while watch stands watch across the threshold. Refuge is held through shared attention, with each station facing another.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that safety rests on one vigilant person carrying the whole burden; here the watch is set ward against ward.
THE ROOT
חֹסָה
Ḥosah
GROWS FROM
חסה
To seek refuge or take shelter.
Hosah’s name comes from the root for seeking refuge. Beside a guarded gate, refuge becomes something held at a real threshold, not merely an idea.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāsâ: To seek refuge, take shelter.
חָסָה
The verb keeps refuge tied to the act of entering shelter.
maḥseh: Refuge, shelter.
מַחְסֶה
This noun names the shelter that the root’s action seeks.
מִשְׁמָר
mishmār
GROWS FROM
שׁמר
To keep, guard, or watch.
“watch against watch” in this verse is mishmār. The repeated ‘ward against ward’ comes from the language of watch and guard-duty. The verse’s paired stations make protection reciprocal: each watch faces another.
ALSO GROWS
shāmar: To keep, guard, watch.
שָׁמַר
This verb is the seed beneath the assigned ward.
mishmeret: A charge, watch, or guard-duty.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
The related word shows that guarding can be an assigned responsibility shared across stations.
שַׁלֶּכֶת
Shallekheth
GROWS FROM
שלך
To throw or cast down; the gate name is commonly understood as ‘casting down.’
“gate Shallecheth” in this verse is Shallekheth. The gate’s name is connected with the act of casting down. Beside Hosah, whose name carries refuge, the verse places shelter and the casting away of what does not belong at a guarded threshold.
ALSO GROWS
hishlīkh: He cast or threw away.
הִשְׁלִיךְ
This form shows the root’s sense of casting something out from a place.
hashlēkh: Cast or throw away.
הַשְׁלֵךְ
The imperative preserves the same root-action of casting away.
THE PATTERN
A passage stays secure when watch is distributed across facing stations and sustained through time.
And I said to them, Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot, and while they stand by, let them shut the doors and bar them. And appoint watches of the settlers of Jerusalem, every one in his watch, and every one facing his own house.I have set keepers upon your walls, O Jerusalem, who shall never hush, day or night; you who remind the LORD, do not hold your tongue.who are guarded by the strength of God through trust, unto deliverance prepared to be unveiled in the last season.THE THREAD
Look, the watcher of Israel neither nods nor sleeps.The same root, שׁמר (shamar), lies beneath ‘ward’ here and ‘keepeth’ in the psalm. The paired human watch at the gate opens into an image of keeping that does not sleep.
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