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Bible Dictionaries
Guard Body-Guard
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or GUARD BODY-GUARD . The former is used in EV [Note: English Version.] almost exclusively for the body-guard of royal and other high-placed personages, such as Nehemiah ( Nehemiah 4:22 f.) and Holofernes ( Jdt 12:7 ). ‘Body-guard’ occurs only 1E Esther 3:4 RV [Note: Revised Version.] of the ‘guard’ (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ) of Darius. The members of the body-guard of the Pharaoh of Genesis 37:35 and of Nebuchadnezzar ( 2 Kings 25:8 etc.) are, in the original style, ‘slaughterers (of animals for food),’ not as RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ‘executioners.’ Those composing the body-guard of the Hebrew kings, on the other hand, are styled ‘ runners ’ ( 1 Samuel 22:17 RV [Note: Revised Version.] and marg., 2 Kings 10:25; 2 Kings 11:4 etc.), one of their duties being to run in front of the royal state-chariot (cf. 2 Samuel 15:1 , 1 Kings 1:5 ). In 1 Kings 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 ( 2 Samuel 20:23 compared with 2 Samuel 23:23 ). The famous Prætorian guard of the Roman emperors is mentioned in Philippians 1:13 RV [Note: Revised Version.]; also Acts 28:16 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] in a passage absent from the best texts and RV [Note: Revised Version.] .
A. R. S. Kennedy.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Guard Body-Guard'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/g/guard-body-guard.html. 1909.
