What Does 2 Samuel 20:3 Mean in the King James?

And David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in ward, and fed them, but went not in unto them. So they were shut up unto the day of their death, living in widowhood.

2 Samuel 20:3 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The root of “keep” is the root of “ward”: the women move from guarding the house to being held under guard.

THE MEANING

A person can be kept alive while being denied freedom and intimacy. The women receive food, yet they are shut away, and widowhood becomes the condition under which they live until death.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse undoes the belief that provision alone proves someone is being cared for: food can sustain life while control removes agency and relationship.

THE ROOT

מִשְׁמָר

mishmar

GROWS FROM

שׁמר

shamar

Guard, keep watch, preserve by watching over.

English makes “keep” and “ward” sound unrelated, but both grow from ⁨שׁמר⁩ (shamar), meaning “to keep or guard.” The women first keep the house, then are placed under keeping themselves, a reversal of who is guarding whom.

ALSO GROWS

shamar: To keep, guard, or watch.

שָׁמַר

This verb describes the task the women are left to do for the house, linking their former role to their later confinement.

mishmeret: A watch, guard duty, or charge.

מִשְׁמֶרֶת

This related noun carries the sense of being held under watch, showing the confinement within “ward.”

THE PATTERN

Keeping a person alive, watching over them, and releasing them are distinct acts.

And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.

Genesis 40:3 · KJVThe ward is a keeping that binds, making visible how containment differs from protection.

The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

Psalm 121:7 · KJVThe same Hebrew root describes preservation here, showing that keeping can shelter as well as confine.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

Luke 4:18 · KJVRelease is named as a distinct act for captives; sustaining someone inside confinement is not the same as setting them free.

THE THREAD

The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

Psalm 121:7 · KJV

Psalm 121 uses ⁨שׁמר⁩ (shamar, “keep” or “guard”) for preservation, while 2 Samuel uses the same root for the women’s former task and their ward. The shared root shows its range; what the keeping does to the person gives it its force.

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