What Does 1 Samuel 25:16 Mean in the King James?
They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
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
The wall here is a shepherding presence that stays with vulnerable life through every hour.
THE MEANING
When you are tending something vulnerable, protection can take the form of a presence that stays beside the work through night and day. This wall keeps watch while the flock is being cared for, so shelter includes steadfast company.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that you must leave vulnerable work before you can be safe: protection stays near while the tending continues.
THE ROOT
רֹעִים
roʿim shepherding
GROWS FROM
רעה
רעה (rāʿāh) means to pasture, tend, or shepherd a flock.
The Hebrew word behind “keeping” names the ongoing work of tending the flock, binding protection to sustained care. Its branch מִרְעֶה (mirʿeh, pasture) names where the flock feeds; together they reveal shelter as care that stays close enough to guard and provide.
ALSO GROWS
rāʿāh: To pasture, tend, or shepherd.
רָעָה
This verb shows that the protection described here is bound to the active care of the flock.
mirʿeh: Pasture or grazing place.
מִרְעֶה
This branch names the place where a flock is sustained, extending shepherding from watchful care to provision.
THE PATTERN
Steady presence becomes shelter by guarding vulnerable life through changing conditions.
The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.And of Benjamin he said, The beloved of the LORD shall dwell in safety by him; and the Lord shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders.Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.THE THREAD
A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.The Hebrew word for “shepherd” here shares the root רעה (rāʿāh) with the shepherding word in 1 Samuel 25:16. The same root that describes people guarding a flock now names the LORD as the one who tends the reader.
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