What Does Genesis 42:17 Mean in the King James?
And he put them all together into ward three days.
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
“Ward” is מִשְׁמָר (mishmar), a place of keeping and watch: the brothers are gathered into custody under someone else’s authority.
THE MEANING
You can be gathered into a condition where movement is held under another’s watch. The verse gives that custody a measured span of three days: confinement is real, bounded, and imposed.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁמָר
mishmar
GROWS FROM
שמר
To keep, guard, or watch.
“ward” in this verse is mishmar. The word for this guarded place grows from the same root as keeping watch. The context makes it confinement, while the root carries the act of holding something under guard.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: Keeper or guard
שֹׁמֵר
The same root names the one who watches over those held in custody.
mishmeret: Charge, watch, or guard duty
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch shows that keeping can be an assigned watch, not just a place where someone is held.
THE PATTERN
To be kept is to live within a keeper’s authority: the same act can confine, guard, or preserve.
And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.THE THREAD
The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.In Genesis 42:17, the brothers enter a מִשְׁמָר (mishmar), a guarded holding place; Psalm 121 uses the same שמר root for the LORD’s keeping. The shared root makes the difference depend on who holds the watch: Joseph’s custody confines, while the psalm’s keeper preserves.
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