שָׁמַר shâmar

Meaning

properly, to hedge about (as with thorns), i.e. guard; generally, to protect, attend to, etc.

In the King James Version: beward, be circumspect, take heed (to self), keep(-er, self), mark, look narrowly, observe, preserve, regard, reserve, save (self), sure, (that lay) wait (for), watch(-man).

Derivation: a primitive root;

Where it is used

• Deuteronomy 23:9 When you are encamped against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every wicked thing.
• Deuteronomy 23:23 Be careful to follow through on what comes from your lips, because you have freely vowed to the LORD your God with your own mouth.
• Deuteronomy 24:8 In cases of infectious skin diseases, be careful to diligently follow everything the Levitical priests instruct you. Be careful to do as I have commanded them.
• Deuteronomy 26:16 The LORD your God commands you this day to follow these statutes and ordinances. You must be careful to follow them with all your heart and with all your soul.
• Deuteronomy 26:17 Today you have proclaimed that the LORD is your God and that you will walk in His ways, keep His statutes and commandments and ordinances, and listen to His voice.
• Deuteronomy 26:18 And today the LORD has proclaimed that you are His people and treasured possession as He promised, that you are to keep all His commandments,
• Deuteronomy 27:1 Then Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people: “Keep all the commandments I am giving you today.
• Deuteronomy 28:1 “Now if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God and are careful to follow all His commandments I am giving you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
• Deuteronomy 28:9 The LORD will establish you as His holy people, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways.
• Deuteronomy 28:13 The LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you will only move upward and never downward, if you hear and carefully follow the commandments of the LORD your God, which I am giving you today.
• Deuteronomy 28:15 If, however, you do not obey the LORD your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
• Deuteronomy 28:45 All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, since you did not obey the LORD your God and keep the commandments and statutes He gave you.
• Deuteronomy 28:58 If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name—the LORD your God—
• Deuteronomy 29:9 So keep and follow the words of this covenant, that you may prosper in all you do.
• Deuteronomy 30:10 if you obey the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
• Deuteronomy 30:16 For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and increase, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.
• Deuteronomy 31:12 Assemble the people—men, women, children, and the foreigners within your gates—so that they may listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and to follow carefully all the words of this law.
• Deuteronomy 32:46 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to carefully follow all the words of this law.
• Deuteronomy 33:9 He said of his father and mother, ‘I do not consider them.’ He disregarded his brothers and did not know his own sons, for he kept Your word and maintained Your covenant.
• Joshua 1:7 Above all, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe all the law that My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper wherever you go.
• Joshua 1:8 This Book of the Law must not depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in all you do.
• Joshua 6:18 But keep away from the things devoted to destruction, lest you yourself be set apart for destruction. If you take any of these, you will set apart the camp of Israel for destruction and bring disaster upon it.
• Joshua 10:18 So Joshua said, “Roll large stones against the mouth of the cave, and post men there to guard them.
• Joshua 22:2 and told them, “You have done all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, and you have obeyed my voice in all that I commanded you.
• Joshua 22:3 All this time you have not deserted your brothers, up to this very day, but have kept the charge given you by the LORD your God.
• Joshua 22:5 But be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments, to hold fast to Him, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
• Joshua 23:6 Be very strong, then, so that you can keep and obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, not turning aside from it to the right or to the left.
• Joshua 23:11 Therefore watch yourselves carefully, that you love the LORD your God.
• Joshua 24:17 For the LORD our God brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and performed these great signs before our eyes. He also protected us throughout our journey and among all the nations through which we traveled.
• Judges 1:24 and when the spies saw a man coming out of the city, they said to him, “Please show us how to get into the city, and we will treat you kindly.”
• Judges 2:22 In this way I will test whether Israel will keep the way of the LORD by walking in it as their fathers did.”
• Judges 7:19 Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after the changing of the guard. They blew their horns and broke the jars that were in their hands.
• Judges 13:4 Now please be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, and not to eat anything unclean.
• Judges 13:13 So the angel of the LORD answered Manoah, “Your wife is to do everything I told her.
• Judges 13:14 She must not eat anything that comes from the vine, nor drink any wine or strong drink, nor eat anything unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her.”
• 1 Samuel 1:12 As Hannah kept on praying before the LORD, Eli watched her mouth.
• 1 Samuel 2:9 He guards the steps of His faithful ones, but the wicked perish in darkness; for by his own strength shall no man prevail.
• 1 Samuel 7:1 Then the men of Kiriath-jearim came for the ark of the LORD and took it into Abinadab’s house on the hill. And they consecrated his son Eleazar to guard the ark of the LORD.
• 1 Samuel 9:24 So the cook picked up the leg and what was attached to it and set it before Saul. Then Samuel said, “Here is what was kept back. It was set apart for you. Eat, for it has been kept for you for this occasion, from the time I said, ‘I have invited the people.’” So Saul dined with Samuel that day.
• 1 Samuel 13:13 “You have acted foolishly,” Samuel declared. “You have not kept the command that the LORD your God gave you; if you had, the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time.
• 1 Samuel 13:14 But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought a man after His own heart and appointed him ruler over His people, because you have not kept the command of the LORD.”
• 1 Samuel 17:20 So David got up early in the morning, left the flock with a keeper, loaded up, and set out as Jesse had instructed him. He reached the camp as the army was marching out to its position and shouting the battle cry.
• 1 Samuel 17:22 Then David left his supplies in the care of the quartermaster and ran to the battle line. When he arrived, he asked his brothers how they were doing.
• 1 Samuel 19:2 so he warned David, saying, “My father Saul intends to kill you. Be on your guard in the morning; find a secret place and hide there.
• 1 Samuel 19:11 Then Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and kill him in the morning. But David’s wife Michal warned him, “If you do not run for your life tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!”
• 1 Samuel 21:4 “There is no common bread on hand,” the priest replied, “but there is some consecrated bread—provided that the young men have kept themselves from women.”
• 1 Samuel 25:21 Now David had just said, “In vain I have protected all that belonged to this man in the wilderness. Nothing that belongs to him has gone missing, yet he has paid me back evil for good.
• 1 Samuel 26:15 So David said to Abner, “You are a man, aren’t you? And who in Israel is your equal? Why then did you not protect your lord the king when one of the people came to destroy him?
• 1 Samuel 26:16 This thing you have done is not good. As surely as the LORD lives, all of you deserve to die, since you did not protect your lord, the LORD’s anointed. Now look around. Where are the king’s spear and water jug that were by his head?”
• 1 Samuel 28:2 David replied, “Then you will come to know what your servant can do.” “Very well,” said Achish. “I will make you my bodyguard for life.”
• 1 Samuel 30:23 But David said, “My brothers, you must not do this with what the LORD has given us. He has protected us and delivered into our hands the raiders who came against us.
• 2 Samuel 11:16 So as Joab besieged the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew the strongest enemy soldiers were.
• 2 Samuel 15:16 Then the king set out, and his entire household followed him. But he left behind ten concubines to take care of the palace.
• 2 Samuel 16:21 Ahithophel replied, “Sleep with your father’s concubines, whom he has left to take care of the palace. When all Israel hears that you have become a stench to your father, then the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.”
• 2 Samuel 18:12 The man replied, “Even if a thousand shekels of silver were weighed out into my hands, I would not raise my hand against the son of the king. For we heard the king command you and Abishai and Ittai, ‘Protect the young man Absalom for my sake.’
• 2 Samuel 20:3 When David returned to his palace in Jerusalem, he took the ten concubines he had left to take care of the palace, and he placed them in a house under guard. He provided for them, but he no longer slept with them. They were confined until the day of their death, living as widows.
• 2 Samuel 20:10 Amasa was not on guard against the dagger in Joab’s hand, and Joab stabbed him in the stomach and spilled out his intestines on the ground. And Joab did not need to strike him again, for Amasa was dead. Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bichri.
• 2 Samuel 22:22 For I have kept the ways of the LORD and have not wickedly departed from my God.
• 2 Samuel 22:24 And I have been blameless before Him and kept myself from iniquity.
• 2 Samuel 22:44 You have delivered me from the strife of my people; You have preserved me as the head of nations; a people I had not known shall serve me.