Word studies · Hebrew · Strong's H8104
שָׁמַר · shâmar · appears 469 times in the Old Testament
In one line: To guard something valuable — including God's word.
The LORD will guard you from all evil; He will preserve your soul.
Psalm 121:7
Shamar is to keep — to guard, watch over and preserve, whether a garden, a command, or a person.
Shamar covers keeping the commandments, keeping the sabbath, and God keeping His people. Its very first uses set the range: the man is to keep the garden, and Cain asks whether he is his brother's keeper — the answer the rest of Scripture gives is yes.
Shamar's basic image is hedging about, as with thorns — putting a protective boundary around something valuable. From that come the senses of guarding, watching, and observing a command, all of which involve keeping something intact.
English “keep the commandments” sounds like compliance; the Hebrew sounds like guarding treasure. The same verb that watches a flock at night watches over God's words, which changes obedience from a rule kept to a trust protected.
Shamar (H8104) appears 433 times in the Hebrew Bible, and Numbers 6:24 uses it for God's own keeping: “the LORD bless you and keep you.”
God's keeping is the ground of human keeping — “he who keeps you will not slumber” comes before any command that His people keep His ways. That order makes obedience a response to protection rather than a bid for it.
Pick one command you have been treating as a rule and ask what it is guarding. Keeping is easier when you can see what would be lost if you didn't.
properly, to hedge about (as with thorns), i.e. guard; generally, to protect, attend to, etc.
Then the LORD God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.
Genesis 2:15“Depart from me!” Pharaoh said to Moses. “Make sure you never see my face again, for on the day you see my face, you will die.”
Exodus 10:28You must remain at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting day and night for seven days and keep the LORD’s charge so that you will not die, for this is what I have been commanded.”
Leviticus 8:35But the Levites are to camp around the tabernacle of the Testimony and watch over it, so that no wrath will fall on the congregation of Israel. So the Levites are responsible for the tabernacle of the Testimony.”
Numbers 1:53and command the people: ‘You will pass through the territory of your brothers, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, so you must be very careful.
Deuteronomy 2:4Above 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 1:7Press and hold keep / guard in any chapter and this study opens on the verse you are reading, with the lexicons, every occurrence and the commentaries beside it. The Bible is free to read.
Scripture quoted from the Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Strong's definitions are public domain. Counts come from The Pillar's own tagged text.