'Watch' in the Bible
And Mizpah, for he said, May the Lord keep watch on us when we are unable to see one another's doings.
Now his brothers went to keep watch over their father's flock in Shechem.
It is a watch-night before the Lord who took them out of the land of Egypt: this same night is a watch-night to the Lord for all the children of Israel, through all their generations.
And in the morning watch, the Lord, looking out on the armies of the Egyptians from the pillar of fire and cloud, sent trouble on the army of the Egyptians;
And you are to keep watch for the Lord at the door of the Tent of meeting day and night for seven days, so that death may not come to you: for so he has given me orders.
Only take care, and keep watch on your soul, for fear that the things which your eyes have seen go from your memory and from your heart all the days of your life; but let the knowledge of them be given to your children and to your children's children;
So keep watch on yourselves with care; for you saw no form of any sort on the day when the voice of the Lord came to you in Horeb out of the heart of the fire:
And Joshua said, Let great stones be rolled against the mouth of the hole, and let men keep watch by it:
So keep watch on yourselves, and see that you have love for the Lord your God.
So Gideon and the three hundred men who were with him came to the outer line of tents, at the start of the middle watch, when the watchmen had only then taken their stations; and the horns were sounded and the vessels broken.
So now, get up by night, you and your people, and keep watch in the field secretly;
Now on the day after, Saul put the people into three bands, and in the morning watch they came to the tents of the Ammonites, and they went on attacking them till the heat of the day: and those who were not put to death were put to flight in every direction, so that no two of them were together.
Then in that night Saul sent men to David's house to keep watch on him so as to put him to death in the morning: and David's wife Michal said to him, If you do not go away to a safe place tonight you will be put to death in the morning.
And Saul said to him, Why have you made designs against me with the son of Jesse, giving him food and a sword and getting directions from the Lord for him, and helping him to take up arms against me, and to be on the watch to make a secret attack on me as he is doing now?
And David said to his men, Put on your swords, every one of you. And every man put on his sword; and David did the same; and about four hundred men went up with David, and two hundred kept watch over their goods.
And David said to Abner, Are you not a man of war? is there any other like you in Israel? why then have you not kept watch over your lord the king? for one of the people came in to put the king your lord to death.
What you have done is not good. By the living Lord, death is the right fate for you, because you have not kept watch over your lord, the man on whom the Lord has put the holy oil. Now see, where is the king's spear, and the vessel of water which was by his head?
But Absalom went in flight. And the young man who kept the watch, lifting up his eyes, saw that a great band of people was coming down the slope by the way of the Horons; and the watchman came and gave word to the king, saying, I saw men coming down by the way of the Horons, from the hillside.
So Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, made designs against Joram. (Now Joram and all the army of Israel were keeping watch on Ramoth-gilead because of Hazael, king of Aram:
And he gave them orders, saying, This is what you are to do: the third part of you, who come in on the Sabbath and keep the watch of the king's house,
And the two divisions of you, who go out on the Sabbath and keep the watch of the house of the Lord,
To Hosah, the door on the west, by the door of Shallecheth, at the footway which goes up, watch by watch.
Palal, the son of Uzai, made good the wall opposite the angle and the tower which comes out from the higher part of the king's house, by the open space of the watch. After him was Pedaiah, the son of Parosh.
But we made our prayer to God, and had men on watch against them day and night because of them.
And at the same time I said to the people, Let everyone with his servant come inside Jerusalem for the night, so that at night they may keep watch for us, and go on working by day.
And I said to them, Do not let the doors of Jerusalem be open till the sun is high; and while the watchmen are in their places, let the doors be shut and locked: and let the people of Jerusalem be put on watch, every one in his watch, opposite his house.
In addition the door-keepers, Akkub, Talmon, and their brothers who kept watch at the doors, were a hundred and seventy-two.
And the chiefs of the Levites: Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua, the son of Kadmiel, with their brothers opposite them, to give blessing and praise as ordered by David, the man of God, watch against watch.
Mattaniah, and Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, Akkub, were door-keepers keeping the watch at the store-houses of the doors.
And they kept the watch of their God, and were responsible for making things clean, and so did the music-makers and the door-keepers, as it was ordered by David and Solomon his son.
Will anyone take him when he is on the watch, or put metal teeth through his nose?
My voice will come to you in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I send my prayer to you, and keep watch.
From his house he keeps watch on all who are living on the earth;
If the Lord is not helping the builders, then the building of a house is to no purpose: if the Lord does not keep the town, the watchman keeps his watch for nothing.
You keep watch over my steps and my sleep, and have knowledge of all my ways.
He keeps watch on the ways which are right, and takes care of those who have the fear of him.
And keep watch over your heart with all care; so you will have life.
Keep a watch on your behaviour; let all your ways be rightly ordered.
In your walking, it will be your guide; when you are sleeping, it will keep watch over you; when you are awake, it will have talk with you.
He who keeps a watch on his mouth keeps his life; but he whose lips are open wide will have destruction.
The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.
The Lord keeps watch over the spirit of man, searching all the deepest parts of the body.
He who keeps watch over his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles.
Thorns and nets are in the way of the twisted: he who keeps watch over his soul will be far from them.
Do not keep a secret watch, O evil-doer, against the fields of the upright man, or send destruction on his resting-place:
If you see the poor under a cruel yoke, and law and right being violently overturned in a country, be not surprised, because one authority is keeping watch on another and there are higher than they.
And the watchman gave a loud cry, O my lord, I am on the watchtower all day, and am placed in my watch every night:
Be shamed, O Zidon: for the sea, the strong place of the sea has said, I have not been with child, or given birth; I have not taken care of young men, or kept watch over the growth of virgins
And I will keep you and this town safe from the hands of the king of Assyria: and I will keep watch over this town.
Then the Lord said to me, You have seen well: for I keep watch over my word to give effect to it.
And so a lion from the woods will put them to death, a wolf of the waste land will make them waste, a leopard will keep watch on their towns, and everyone who goes out from them will be food for the beasts; because of the great number of their sins and the increase of their wrongdoing.
For there are sinners among my people: they keep watch, like men watching for birds; they put a net and take men in it.
Let everyone keep watch on his neighbour, and put no faith in any brother: for every brother will certainly be tricking his brother, and every neighbour will go about saying evil.
But when he was at the Benjamin door, a captain of the watch named Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, who was stationed there, put his hand on Jeremiah the prophet, saying, You are going to give yourself up to the Chaldaeans.
O daughter of Aroer, take your station by the way, on the watch: questioning him who is in flight, and her who has got away safe, say, What has been done?
Let the flag be lifted up against the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, put the watchmen in their places, make ready a surprise attack: for it is the Lord's purpose, and he has done what he said about the people of Babylon.
A watch is kept on my sins; they are joined together by his hand, they have come on to my neck; he has made my strength give way: the Lord has given me up into the hands of those against whom I have no power.
So I will be like a lion to them; as a cruel beast I will keep watch by the road;
As for Ephraim, what has he to do with false gods any longer? I have given an answer and I will keep watch over him; I am like a branching fir-tree, from me comes your fruit.
Put no faith in a friend, do not let your hope be placed in a relation: keep watch on the doors of your mouth against her who is resting on your breast.
I will take my position and be on watch, placing myself on my tower, looking out to see what he will say to me, and what answer he will give to my protest.
Be on the watch for false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inside they are cruel wolves.
But be on the watch against men: for they will give you up to the Sanhedrins, and in their Synagogues they will give you blows;
And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.
Keep watch, then, because you are not certain of the day or of the hour.
Then says he to them, My soul is very sad, even to death: keep watch with me here.
And he comes to the disciples, and sees that they are sleeping, and says to Peter, What, were you not able to keep watch with me one hour?
Keep watch with prayer, so that you may not be put to the test: the spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is feeble.
And seeing that they had trouble in getting their boat through the water, because the wind was against them, about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea; and he would have gone past them;
And he said to them, Take care to be on the watch against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.
And in his teaching he said, Be on your watch against the scribes, whose pleasure it is to go about in long robes and be respected in the market-places,
Take care, keep watch with prayer: for you are not certain when the time will be.
It is as when a man who is in another country for a time, having gone away from his house, and given authority to his servants and to everyone his work, gives the porter an order to keep watch.
So you are to keep watch: because you are not certain when the master of the house is coming, in the evening, or in the middle of the night, or at the cock's cry, or in the morning;
And he said to them, My soul is very sad, even to death: be here a little time, and keep watch.
And he came, and saw them sleeping, and said to Peter, Simon, are you sleeping? were you not able to keep watch one hour?
Keep watch with prayer, so that you may not be put to the test; the spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is feeble.
When the strong man armed keeps watch over his house, then his goods are safe:
And they kept watch on him, and sent out secret representatives, who were acting the part of good men, in order that they might get something from his words, on account of which they might give him up to the government and into the power of the ruler.
But keep watch at all times with prayer, that you may be strong enough to come through all these things and take your place before the Son of man.
But Saul got knowledge of their design. And they kept watch day and night on the roads out of the town, so that they might put him to death:
And having taken him, he put him in prison, with four bands of armed men to keep watch over him; his purpose being to take him out to the people after the Passover.
And when Herod was about to take him out, the same night Peter was sleeping in chains between two armed men, and the watchmen were keeping watch before the door of the prison.
So keep watch, having in mind that for three years without resting I was teaching every one of you, day and night, with weeping.
And when we came into Rome, they let Paul have a house for himself and the armed man who kept watch over him.
Be on the watch, unmoved in the faith, and be strong like men.
In Damascus, the ruler under Aretas the king kept watch over the town of the people of Damascus, in order to take me:
Brothers, if a man is taken in any wrongdoing, you who are of the Spirit will put such a one right in a spirit of love; keeping watch on yourself, for fear that you yourself may be tested.
With prayers and deep desires, making requests at all times in the Spirit, and keeping watch, with strong purpose, in prayer for all the saints,
Be on the watch against dogs, against the workers of evil, against those of the circumcision:
Give yourselves to prayer at all times, keeping watch with praise;
But be on the watch for him, for he was violent in his attacks on our teaching.
Give ear to those who are rulers over you, and do as they say: for they keep watch over your souls, ready to give an account of them; let them be able to do this with joy and not with grief, because that would be of no profit to you.
So make your minds ready, and keep on the watch, hoping with all your power for the grace which is to come to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
Because, like sheep, you had gone out of the way; but now you have come back to him who keeps watch over your souls.
But the end of all things is near: so be serious in your behaviour and keep on the watch with prayer;
Keep watch over the flock of God which is in your care, using your authority, not as forced to do so, but gladly; and not for unclean profit but with a ready mind;