KEEPER, KEEPERS. The rendering of a number of Heb. and Gr. words:

1. נָטַר֒, H5757, to keep, watch guard, used in Song of Solomon 8:11, 12 of a keeper of vineyards.

2. נָצַר, H5915, to watch, guard, keep (a vineyard). Job says (27:17) that the house which a wicked man builds is like “a booth which a watchman (KJV keeper) makes,” the reference being to a temporary shelter constructed in a vineyard in which a watchman could look out for thieves during the time of harvest.

3. רֹ֣עֵה, shepherd, herdsman; used in Genesis 4:2 in reference to Abel who was “a keeper of sheep.”

4. שַׂר, H8569, captain, chief; used of the keeper of the prison in which Joseph was kept (Gen 39:21, 22, 23).

5. שָׁמַר, H9068, to keep watch, preserve. This is used by Cain, who asked, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen 4:9), of shepherds (1 Sam 17:20, 22), the keeper of either the royal wardrobe or that of the priests of the Temple (2 Kings 22:14), the keeper of the king’s forest (Neh 2:8; 3:29); the keepers of the gates either of the camp of the Israelites or of the Tabernacle (1 Chron 9:19), the keeper of a vineyard (Song of Solomon 1:6), the keepers of the threshold of the Temple (Jer 52:24). The word is used in a fig. sense of the arms and hands of the human body in Ecclesiastes 12:3.

6. Νεωκόρος, temple-sweeper. In the NT (RSV) “keeper” appears only in Acts 19:35 (KJV “worshipper”).

7. Φυλάκες, guards or sentries (Matt 28:4; Acts 5:23; 12:6, 19) describes soldiers detailed to stand guard over a place or a person. The compound noun δεσμοφύλαξ, G1302, (Acts 16:27, 36) is tr. “jailor.”