What Does Genesis 41:10 Mean in the King James?
Pharaoh was wroth with his servants, and put me in ward in the captain of the guard’s house, both me and the chief baker:
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 word translated “ward” comes from the same Hebrew root as “keep”: Joseph is described as held under watch.
THE MEANING
The verse places Pharaoh’s anger and Joseph’s confinement in the same frame: Joseph and the chief baker are put under guard. The Hebrew word for “ward” comes from a root meaning to keep watch, so the confinement is pictured as a guarded place. The account names Joseph’s condition without making it his whole story.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁמָר
mishmar
GROWS FROM
שׁמר
To keep, guard, or watch over.
The Hebrew word for “ward” is built from שׁמר, the root for keeping watch. That root also describes guarding a garden or keeping a charge; the same family of words can describe care or confinement, with the surrounding scene showing which is meant.
ALSO GROWS
shamar: To keep, guard, or watch over.
שָׁמַר
This verb supplies the root of mishmar; Joseph is placed in a watched enclosure.
shomer: A keeper or watchman.
שֹׁמֵר
The person who watches and the guarded place belong to the same word family.
mishmeret: A charge, duty, or watch.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch shows the root can name an assigned responsibility to guard, as well as the custody Joseph experiences here.
THE PATTERN
Confinement can hold a person’s body while their words still reach others.
And they said unto him, We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belong to God? tell me them, I pray you.And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.THE THREAD
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.The Hebrew word translated “keep” here comes from the same root, שׁמר, as the word translated “ward” in Genesis 41:10. In one verse it is guarding a garden; in the other, it is custody over a person, the context turns the same root toward care or confinement.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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