What Does Numbers 3:8 Mean in the King James?
And they shall keep all the instruments of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the charge of the children of Israel, to do the service of the tabernacle.
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
“Keep” and “charge” both grow from shamar, so guarding what is entrusted is part of the service itself.
THE MEANING
Your shared life holds together through both the work people see and the care that makes the work possible. What sustains the gathering and the responsibility carried for others belong to one service.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that sacred service is only the visible act: keeping what makes that service possible belongs to it too.
THE ROOT
שָׁמְרוּ
shamru
GROWS FROM
שׁמר
š-m-r
to guard, watch over, keep
“keep / charge” in this verse is shamru. English gives “keep” and “charge” different names, but both come from shamar. Mishmeret is a guarded or kept responsibility, so the verse joins watching over the entrusted things with carrying the community’s charge.
ALSO GROWS
mishmeret: charge, guard duty, custody
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This is the word rendered “charge” in the verse; its shared root connects that responsibility directly to keeping watch.
shomer: keeper, watchman
שֹׁמֵר
This branch names the one who guards, making the act of keeping in the verse a form of attentive care.
עֲבֹדָה
avodah
GROWS FROM
עבד
ʿ-b-d
to serve, work
The verse uses the service family for both “to do” and “service”: the work is itself a way of serving. Paired with shamar, service includes both tending what is entrusted and carrying out the work.
ALSO GROWS
avad: to serve, work
עָבַד
The phrase “to do the service” uses this verb family, showing that the work of caring for the tabernacle is service.
eved: servant
עֶבֶד
This branch names one who serves, linking the work in the verse to the posture of service.
THE PATTERN
Entrusted things and responsibilities are sustained by guarding them and serving through them.
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.THE THREAD
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.Genesis 2:15 pairs the same roots found here: avad, “serve or work,” and shamar, “keep or guard.” There, the garden is both worked and kept; here, the instruments and the community’s charge are held through service and watchfulness.
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