What Does 1 Chronicles 26:16 Mean in the King James?
To Shuppim and Hosah the lot came forth westward, with the gate Shallecheth, by the causeway of the going up, ward against ward.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
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.
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 unto them, Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun be hot; and while they stand by, let them shut the doors, and bar them: and appoint watches of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, every one in his watch, and every one to be over against his house.I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence,Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.THE THREAD
Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.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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