What Does Ecclesiastes 8:2 Mean in the King James?
I counsel thee to keep the king’s commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God.
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 “king’s commandment” is literally פִּי־מֶלֶךְ (pi melekh, “the king’s mouth”), so the verse places a ruler’s spoken authority beside an oath of God.
THE MEANING
Your place under human authority is held together with the oath of God; the king’s spoken word and sacred accountability occupy the same frame. The verb behind “keep” also means guard and watch, giving obedience the feel of attentive custody.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a human command exists outside accountability before God.
THE ROOT
שְׁמֹר
shemor
GROWS FROM
שׁמר
sh-m-r
guard, watch, keep
The same root carries the senses of keeping, guarding, and watching, so the king’s speech is something held under attentive custody. English “keep” can sound passive; the Hebrew root opens it into active watchfulness.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: watchman, keeper
שֹׁמֵר
The watchman branch makes the guarding sense visible: keeping means staying alert to what is entrusted.
mishmeret: guard duty, charge
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
A charge is something placed under watch, linking the king’s command to a responsibility that must be kept.
שְׁבוּעָה
shevuah
GROWS FROM
שׁבע
sh-b-ʿ
swear, bind by oath
The oath is a binding spoken commitment, placing the king’s command in a frame of pledged accountability. The same consonants also form the word for “seven,” an echo of completeness around the solemn pledge.
ALSO GROWS
nishba: swore, bound oneself by oath
נִשְׁבַּע
This verb branch shows the oath as an act that binds the speaker beyond the moment of speaking.
sheva: seven
שֶׁבַע
The shared consonants give the oath a resonance of completeness, deepening its sense of a solemn bond.
THE PATTERN
Commands and oaths carry weight because the person bound by them remains accountable before God.
Why then hast thou not kept the oath of the LORD, and the commandment that I have charged thee with?But all the princes said unto all the congregation, We have sworn unto them by the LORD God of Israel: now therefore we may not touch them.Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.THE THREAD
The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.The Hebrew verb שָׁמַר (shamar, keep/guard/watch) appears here twice, rendered “preserve,” and shares the root behind “keep” in Ecclesiastes. That root frames the king’s command as something guarded, while the psalm shows the reader also held in God’s keeping.
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