What Does Judges 13:4 Mean in the King James?
Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing:
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 begins with guarding: set-apartness reaches what enters the body before its purpose is visible.
THE MEANING
You meet set-apartness at the body’s threshold: what enters is guarded while a life still hidden from sight is being set apart. The verse makes this boundary concrete, showing that a purpose can be held in view before it becomes visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that set-apartness begins only with public action: here the boundary reaches bodily intake before the life’s purpose appears.
THE ROOT
הִשָּׁמְרִי
hishameri
GROWS FROM
שמר
shamar
Guard, keep, watch over.
The command carries the sense of keeping watch over oneself, so the listed boundaries are the shape that vigilance takes. English “beware” can sound like a moment of caution; this root also carries the sense of sustained custody.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: Watcher, guard.
שֹׁמֵר
The same root names one who stands watch, linking the command to active protection.
mishmeret: Guard, charge, or watch.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch makes the caution feel like an ongoing charge rather than a passing warning.
טָמֵא
ṭāmēʾ
GROWS FROM
טמא
Be unclean or become defiled.
The word belongs to a root that names both an unclean state and the act of defiling. That connection makes the boundary about a condition being guarded, not merely a category on a food list.
ALSO GROWS
ṭumʾāh: Impurity, uncleanness.
טֻמְאָה
The noun names the state that the boundary keeps at a distance.
ṭimmēʾ: Defile, render unclean.
טִמֵּא
This verb shows the same root describing how that state comes about.
THE PATTERN
A life set apart is guarded through concrete boundaries at the body’s thresholds before its purpose becomes visible.
He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried.But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?THE THREAD
The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.The command behind “beware” is הִשָּׁמְרִי (hishameri, guard yourself), from שָׁמַר (shamar, guard or keep); Psalm 121:7 uses the same root in “preserve.” The shared word family joins watchfulness with preservation: guarding is also being held in keeping.
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