Reference: Guard Body-guard
Hastings
The former is used in English Version almost exclusively for the body-guard of royal and other high-placed personages, such as Nehemiah (Ne 4:22 f.) and Holofernes (Jdt 12:7). 'Body-guard' occurs only 1Es 3:4 RV of the 'guard' (AV) of Darius. The members of the body-guard of the Pharaoh of Ge 37:35 and of Nebuchadnezzar (2Ki 25:8 etc.) are, in the original style, 'slaughterers (of animals for food),' not as Revised Version margin 'executioners.' Those composing the body-guard of the Hebrew kings, on the other hand, are styled 'runners' (1Sa 22:17 RV and marg., 2Ki 10:25; 11:4 etc.), one of their duties being to run in front of the royal state-chariot (cf. 2Sa 15:1; 1Ki 1:5). In 1Ki 14:28 we hear of a guard-chamber. The office of 'the captain of the guard' was at all times one of great dignity and responsibility. David's body-guard consisted of foreign mercenaries, the Cherethites and Pelethites (see p. 122), commanded by Benaiah (2Sa 20:23 compared with 2Sa 23:23). The famous Pr