guarding

הֲיִנְטֹר לְעוֹלָם (Yirmiyahu 3:5), will He keep it forever, וְנוֹטֵר הוּא לְאֹיְבָיו (Nachum 1:2), He keeps it for His enemies, לֹא אֶטּוֹר לְעוֹלָם (Yirmiyahu 3:12), I will not keep it forever, לֹא־תִקֹּם וְלֹא־תִטֹּר (Vayikra 19:18), do not take revenge and do not keep it, and שָׂמֻנִי נֹטֵרָה אֶת־הַכְּרָמִים (Shir HaShirim 1:6), they set me to keep the vineyards; all of them are keeping. The Targum renders וַיִּשְׁמֹר (Bereishis 26:5), and he kept, as וּנְטַר, and he kept.

From this sense the thing set up for arrows to be shot at is called a מַטָּרָה: וַיְקִימֵנִי לוֹ לְמַטָּרָה (Iyov 16:12), He set me up for Himself as a mark, and with an alef in place of the heh, כַּמַּטָּרָא לַחֵץ (Eichah 3:12), like a mark for the arrow. Likewise derived from this sense is בַּחֲצַר הַמַּטָּרָה (Yirmiyahu 32:2), in the court of the guard, as the same sense is put in וַיֶּאֱסֹף אֹתָם אֶל־מִשְׁמָר (Bereishis 42:17), he gathered them into ward; and likewise בְּשַׁעַר הַמַּטָּרָה (Nechemiah 12:39), at the gate of the guard, where the guards used to stand.

עֵדֹתֶיךָ נָצָרְתִּי (Tehillim 119:22), I have kept Your testimonies, נֹצֵר תְּאֵנָה יֹאכַל פִּרְיָהּ (Mishlei 27:18), one who guards a fig tree eats its fruit, לְנֹצְרֵי בְרִיתוֹ (Tehillim 25:10), to those who keep His covenant, נְצֹר לְשׁוֹנְךָ מֵרָע (Tehillim 34:14), guard your tongue from evil, and וּבְרִיתְךָ יִנְצֹרוּ (Devarim 33:9), and they keep Your covenant; the sense of all of them is guarding. With the first root letter dropped, צוֹר תְּעוּדָה (Yeshayahu 8:16), keep the testimony, which Targum Yonasan renders נְבִיָא טַר סַהֲדוּתָא, prophet, keep the testimony.

וּנְצֻרוֹת וְלֹא יְדַעְתָּם (Yeshayahu 48:6), kept things, and you did not know them, are things kept, too lofty to be reached and known; וְהַנִּשְׁאָר וְהַנָּצוּר (Yechezkel 6:12), the one who is left and the one who is kept, is one kept from being reached; and שִׁית זוֹנָה וּנְצֻרַת לֵב (Mishlei 7:10), in a harlot's attire and guarded of heart, is שמורת לב, guarded of heart, meaning that no man can take her and entice her, but she entices men.

From this sense comes מִמִּגְדַּל נוֹצְרִים (Melachim II 17:9), from the tower of the watchers: they are the lookouts who stand in the tower, a tower not for settlement but for the lookout to stand in. So too קראו נֹֽצְרִים בְּהַר אֶפְרָיִם (Yirmiyahu 31:6), watchmen call out on Mount Efraim: the lookouts and keepers call out קומו ונעלה ציון, arise and let us go up to Tzion. Or נצרים there may be a people called after their place, but the first is the right one. Rabbi Yonah explained נֹצְרִים בָּאִים מֵאֶרֶץ הַמֶּרְחָק (Yirmiyahu 4:16), נֹצְרִים come from a distant land, as a people called after Nevuchadnetzar, and Radak's father explained it so as well.

וּבַנְּצוּרִים יָלִינוּ (Yeshayahu 65:4), and they lodge among the ruins, and כְּעִיר נְצוּרָה (Yeshayahu 1:8), like a ruined city, are of the sense of חרבה, ruin. From this sense his father explains וּנְצֻרַת לב, that is, חרבת דעת, ruined of understanding; he wrote that so it stands in the words of the philosopher, ישבו עולמם בחרבן שכלם, they settle their world in the ruin of their intellect; and on this reading it is said of the harlot that she is חרבת שכל, ruined of mind.

In another sense, וְנֵצֶר מִשָּׁרָשָׁיו יִפְרֶה (Yeshayahu 11:1), and a shoot from his roots will bear fruit, and כְּנֵצֶר נִתְעָב (Yeshayahu 14:19), like a loathsome shoot; their sense is יונק או ענף, a sucker or a branch. כְּנֵצֶר נִתְעָב means: as a man throws away the loathsome shoot that does not thrive, pulling it out of its pit and casting it off, so you were cast out of your grave.

וְאָבִיו שָׁמַר אֶת־הַדָּבָֽר (Bereishis 37:11), and his father kept the matter, and וּשְׁמָרוֹ כְּרֹעֶה עֶדְרֽוֹ (Yirmiyahu 31:10), and he will guard him as a shepherd his flock. A guarding can also keep others off: אֲנִי שָׁמַרְתִּי אָרְחוֹת פָּרִֽיץ (Tehillim 17:4), I guarded the paths of the robber, is that I guarded them so that no man should walk in them, because of בִּדְבַר שְׂפָתֶיךָ, the word of Your lips, that You had said; and in the same way לִשְׁמֹר אֶת־דֶּרֶךְ עֵץ הַֽחַיִּֽים (Bereishis 3:24), to guard the way to the tree of life. In שִׁיתָה י"י שָׁמְרָה לְפִי (Tehillim 141:3), שָׁמְרָה is a command, guard: set a right word in my mouth, Hashem, and guard it from sin, in the way of וּמֵי"י מַעֲנֵה לָשׁוֹן (Mishlei 16:1), and from Hashem is the answer of the tongue. Or שָׁמְרָה may be a noun on the pattern of חָכְמָה, wisdom, and עָרְמָה, shrewdness: set a guard for my mouth.

וְרַק־אַתֶּם שִׁמְרוּ מִן־הַחֵרֶם (Yehoshua 6:18), and only you, guard from the cherem: each man is to guard his fellow from it, for if one takes, all of you are punished for not having guarded. That is what it says there, וְשַׂמְתֶּם אֶת־מַֽחֲנֵה יִשְׂרָאֵל לְחֵרֶם, and you will make the camp of Yisrael a cherem; and that is why Yisrael were punished over Achan, and why it says חָטָא יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yehoshua 7:11), Yisrael has sinned, because they did not guard that no man take from it.

לֹֽא־תִשְׁמוֹר עַל־חַטָּאתִֽי (Iyov 14:16) can mean that You watch over nothing but my sin, as אֵֽין־טוֹב בָּֽאָדָם שֶׁיֹּאכַל וְשָׁתָה (Koheles 2:24), there is no good in man that he eat and drink, where the sense is only that he eat. Or it means You will not wait: You punish me at once and give me no time. Like it are Chazal's words (Berachos 3a) שמור לי על הפתח, keep for me at the door, which Radak explains as wait for me.

וַיִּתֵּן אֹתָם בְּמִשְׁמַר (Bereishis 40:3), and he put them in the מִשְׁמַר, is a prison, that is, a place where they would be kept. כִּי־מִשְׁמֶרֶת אַתָּה עִמָּדִי (Shmuel I 22:23), for you are a מִשְׁמֶרֶת with me, means entrusted and kept. מִכָּל־מִשְׁמָר נְצֹר לִבֶּךָ (Mishlei 4:23) is: more than any keeping, guard your heart.

Close to this sense are the watches, all of them waking, rousing and keeping the times: בְּאַשְׁמֹרֶת הַבֹּקֶר (Shemos 14:24), in the morning watch, and רֹאשׁ הָֽאַשְׁמֹרֶת הַתִּֽיכוֹנָה (Shoftim 7:19), at the head of the middle watch. Chazal say (Berachos 3a) that the night has three watches, and so it appears from the pasuk that speaks of the middle watch. That is why a city's watchman is called so, since he is awake at night, guards the city and knows the hours of the night. אָחַזְתָּ שְׁמֻרוֹת עֵינָי (Tehillim 77:5), You held the watches of my eyes: as though You had seized and held them fast, so that my eyes stay always awake and I do not sleep. Rabbi Moshe HaKohen took it from the first sense, reading שְׁמֻרוֹת as an adjective like שׁוֹמְרוֹת, guarding ones, the eyelids that guard the eyes: You held my eyelids, so that they did not close and I did not sleep.

וְשֹׁקֵט הוּא אֶל־שְׁמָרָיו (Yirmiyahu 48:11), and he has been quiet on his lees, and הַקֹּֽפְאִים עַל־שִׁמְרֵיהֶם (Tzefaniah 1:12), those congealed upon their lees. הִשָּׁמֵר וְהַשְׁקֵט (Yeshayahu 7:4), השמר and be quiet, is from this sense: sit upon your lees in rest and in quiet. It is accented on the last syllable, whereas in the sense of guarding the accent falls on the one before. Rav Saadiah Gaon took it as guarding, which comes to: guard yourself from making war, and be quiet, do not fear.

כְּשָׁמִיר חָזָק מִצֹּר (Yechezkel 3:9), like a shamir, harder than flint; בְּצִפֹּרֶן שָׁמִיר (Yirmiyahu 17:1), with a point of shamir; and מִצּוּר הַֽחַלָּמִֽישׁ (Devarim 8:15), out of the flinty rock, which the Targum Yerushalmi renders שמרי טינרא, the shamir of the rock. Some read בְּצִפֹּרֶן שָׁמִיר as the hard iron, named so for its strength, as the hard rock is called שמיר. In another sense שָׁמִיר is a thorn: קוֹץ שָׁמִיר תַּֽעֲלֶה (Yeshayahu 32:13), thorn, shamir, shall come up, which Radak glosses קוץ ושמיר, thorn and shamir; and שָׁמִיר וָשַׁיִת תֹּאכֵל (Yeshayahu 9:17), it shall consume shamir and shayis, shamir being one of the kinds of thorns.