What Does Exodus 16:28 Mean in the King James?

And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?

Exodus 16:28 · 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.

THE KEY

The verse frames refusal as a continuing choice to stop guarding what has already been entrusted.

THE MEANING

The verse names a live tension: instruction can be heard and still refused. To keep it is also to guard it, holding it in attention and action. “How long” makes the duration of refusal visible.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that refusal is only confusion about what is asked: the verse names a refusal to guard instruction already made known.

THE ROOT

לִשְׁמֹר

lishmor to keep

GROWS FROM

שמר

sh-m-r

Guard, watch over, keep.

“keep” in this verse is lishmor to keep. Alongside the sense of keeping, shamar carries the image of guarding and watching. The verse holds action and attention together: what is entrusted is not only followed but kept under care.

ALSO GROWS

shomer: One who keeps watch or guards.

שֹׁמֵר

This branch makes visible the attentive keeper implied by the command to keep.

mishmeret: A guarded responsibility or watch.

מִשְׁמֶרֶת

It shows that keeping can mean carrying an entrusted responsibility over time.

THE PATTERN

Instruction becomes lived through steady keeping and guarding.

Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee.

Deuteronomy 6:17 · KJVThe same keeping is described as sustained care for what has been entrusted.

Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.

Psalm 119:4 · KJVKeeping is joined to diligence, giving the act the quality of continued attention.

But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.

Luke 11:28 · KJVHearing and keeping appear together: received instruction continues into action.

THE THREAD

And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Exodus 20:6 · KJV

The same Hebrew root, ⁨שמר⁩ (sh-m-r), appears in “keep” here and in the present verse. One names refusal to guard the instruction; the other connects keeping the commandments with love.

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