Psalm 85:10 · Symbol · Peace
The Words Shalom and Eirene
Shalom and eirene run through Scripture from greetings and blessings to the peace made through the cross.
Jacob asked after his uncle's health at a well in Haran with the same Hebrew word Isaiah gave to the Prince of Peace.
Loving devotion and faithfulness have joined together; righteousness and peace have kissed.
- The word
- שָׁלוֹם (shalom), H7965
- First appears
- Genesis 15:15 “You, however, will go to your fathers in…”
Summary
Israel used shalom to ask after a person's health, to greet a guest and to send a friend on his way. The prophets used it for the peace God promises, for the name Gideon gave his altar and for the false peace of those who flattered the nation. In the New Testament the Greek noun eirene carries the same range, from peace between people and safety to the peace of Christ's kingdom. Each use takes its sense from the verse in which it stands.
- Shalom (H7965) stands 236 times in 208 verses, and Jeremiah, Isaiah and the Psalms hold 87 of those uses.
- The lexicon glosses shalom as being safe and well, and as welfare, health, prosperity and peace.
- The verb shalem (H7999) means to be safe or completed, and in many of its uses it means to repay or to make restitution.
- Eirene (G1515) stands 91 times in the New Testament, and the lexicon ties one of its senses to shalom as the Septuagint used it.
Shalom in Greeting and Question
In Genesis and Kings the noun names a peaceful death, a steward's assurance and the safety a visitor asks about.
Shalom is the Old Testament's Hebrew noun and eirene the New Testament's Greek one, and together they stand more than three hundred times. Peace is one of the values Scripture asks of every believer, and these two words carry it through both Testaments.
The question this study answers is what the two words meant to the writers who used them, and how far that meaning reaches. That reach runs from a greeting between neighbours to the name of an altar and the title of the Messiah.
Joseph's steward calmed Joseph's frightened brothers with the same noun, rendered "It is fine" (Genesis 43:23).
You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.This is the first use of shalom in the order of the canon, inside the covenant the LORD made with Abram in Genesis 15.
When Joram saw Jehu, he asked, “Have you come in peace, Jehu?” “How can there be peace,” he replied, “as long as the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?”Here the usual question is put to an armed man riding in, and his answer decided between peace and war for the king who asked it.
Where Shalom and Eirene Stand
The Hebrew noun leads the count, and the Greek words built on eirene are rare.
Of the six words, two carry almost all the uses.
| Word | Sense in the lexicon | Uses | Books with the most uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hebrew | |||
| shalom, שָׁלוֹם, H7965, noun | safe, well, happy, friendly | 236 | Jeremiah 31, Isaiah 29, Psalms 27; 31 books in all |
| Greek | |||
| eirene, εἰρήνη, G1515, noun | peace; by implication, prosperity | 91 | Luke 14, Romans 10, Ephesians 8; 25 books in all |
| eireneuo, εἰρηνεύω, G1514, verb | to be (act) peaceful | 4 | Mark, Romans, 2 Corinthians and 1 Thessalonians, one use each |
| eirenikos, εἰρηνικός, G1516, adjective | pacific | 2 | Hebrews and James, one use each |
| eirenopoios, εἰρηνοποιός, G1518 | peaceable; rendered peacemaker | 1 | Matthew alone |
| eirenopoieo, εἰρηνοποιέω, G1517, verb | to be a peace-maker | 1 | Colossians alone |
eirenopoios, εἰρηνοποιός, G1518, eirenopoieo, εἰρηνοποιέω, G1517, verb
Shalom and eirene book by book1 figure
Jeremiah, Isaiah and the Psalms use shalom most often, and Luke and Romans use eirene most often.
| Book | Uses |
|---|---|
| Shalom (H7965) in the Hebrew Bible | |
| Jeremiah | 31 |
| Isaiah | 29 |
| Psalms | 27 |
| 2 Kings | 20 |
| 1 Samuel | 17 |
| 2 Samuel | 16 |
| Genesis | 15 |
| 1 Kings | 11 |
| Judges | 10 |
| Ezekiel | 7 |
| 1 Chronicles | 6 |
| 2 Chronicles | 6 |
| Zechariah | 6 |
| Deuteronomy | 5 |
| Eirene (G1515) in the New Testament | |
| Luke | 14 |
| Romans | 10 |
| Ephesians | 8 |
| Acts | 7 |
| John | 6 |
2 Samuel, Genesis, 1 Kings, Judges, Ezekiel, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Zechariah and 7 more
The counts are those of the STEP Bible tagging, and a printed concordance may differ by one or two.
Shalom in the Blessing, the Altar and the Prophets
The priests blessed Israel with shalom, Gideon named an altar with it, and the prophets promised it and warned against its counterfeit.
The blessing Israel's priests spoke over the people ends with this noun: "may the LORD lift up His countenance toward you and give you peace" (Numbers 6:26).
So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.The tagged Hebrew gives the altar's name as two words, YHWH shalom, the divine name followed by the noun.
Gideon gave the altar that name after the LORD answered his fear with "Peace be with you" (Judges 6:23).
Seek the prosperity of the city to which I have sent you as exiles. Pray to the LORD on its behalf, for if it prospers, you too will prosper.”The noun stands three times in this verse, and the tagged text glosses it welfare where the Berean text renders prosperity.
You will keep in perfect peace the steadfast of mind, because he trusts in You.Where the Berean text reads perfect peace, the Hebrew says the noun twice, shalom shalom.
They dress the wound of My people with very little care, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace at all.The false prophets doubled the same noun, and Jeremiah adds it a third time to deny that the peace exists.
Isaiah gives the child born to rule the title sar shalom, which the Berean text renders "Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6).
Isaiah 26:3, Jeremiah 6:14
Shalom, Shalem and the Sense of Wholeness
Exodus, Kings and the lexicon show how far the idea of completion reaches.
The lexicon defines shalom as "safe, i.e. (figuratively) well, happy, friendly; also (abstractly) welfare, i.e. health, prosperity, peace". The word wholly appears in the entry only among the idioms by which the King James Version renders it.
The sense of wholeness comes from the verb shalem (H7999), which shares the noun's letters and which the lexicon defines as "to be safe (in mind, body or estate); figuratively, to be (causatively, make) completed". A word's meaning is set by its use, so the verb's sense may stand behind some uses of the noun without being read into every one of them.
The verb stands 116 times in 107 verses, and the lexicon gives it two senses, to complete and to ally. Many of its uses concern paying back, and all 18 of its uses in Exodus stand in the laws of compensation of Exodus 21:34 to 22:15.
But if it happens after sunrise, there is guilt for his bloodshed. A thief must make full restitution; if he has nothing, he himself shall be sold for his theft.The Hebrew doubles the verb here, shallem yeshallem, and the Berean text renders the pair as full restitution.
Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar he had built for the LORD, burning incense with them before the LORD. So he completed the temple.The verse holds the peace offerings, shelamim, and the verb shalem, rendered completed, side by side.
The noun shelem (H8002), which names the peace offering, shares the same letters, and 30 of its 87 uses are in Leviticus.
Eirene and the Words Built on It
Four Greek words built on eirene stand beside it in the New Testament.
The lexicon gives eirene four senses. The first two are public peace, or freedom from war, and peace between persons. The third is a state of security and safety, as in the Septuagint, where eirene stands for shalom, and the fourth is the spiritual peace of Christ's kingdom.
From the third sense comes the farewell "go in peace", which Jesus spoke to the woman who had anointed His feet: "Your faith has saved you; go in peace" (Luke 7:50).
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.The beatitude gives the peacemaker his promise, the name sons of God.
and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross.The verb eirenopoieo, to make peace, stands only here, and the peace it names is made through the blood of the cross.
The verb eireneuo, to be at peace, stands four times, among them Paul's command to "live at peace with everyone" (Romans 12:18). The adjective eirenikos, peaceable, stands twice, for the harvest that discipline yields in Hebrews 12:11 and for the wisdom from above in James 3:17.
Christ Named as Peace
Paul uses eirene of Christ Himself, who joined Jew and Gentile into one people.
For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has torn down the dividing wall of hostilityPaul's noun is eirene, and the peace he names here is a person, who removed the hostility between two peoples.
Paul opens his letter to the Romans with "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 1:7).
Voices on the Words
Two commentators read shalom in a psalm and in a prophet.
1697 to 1771 · John Gill
Gill stands here for the peace denied to the wicked.
“There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. They have no share in the peace made by the blood of Christ; they have no true, solid, inward peace of conscience; nor will they have any part in the happiness and prosperity of the church and people of God in the latter day, which will but add to their uneasiness; and will have no lot and portion in the eternal peace which saints enjoy in the world to come; and of this there is the strongest assurance, since God, the covenant God of his people, has said it.”
John Gill · Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) · on Isaiah 57:21Reformed
1834 to 1892 · Charles Spurgeon
Spurgeon stands here for shalom in the name of Jerusalem.
Read the page on Charles Spurgeon
“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Peace was her name, pray that her condition may verify her Title — Abode of Peace, peace be to thee. Here was a most sufficient reason for rejoicing at the thought of going up to the house of the Lord, since that sacred shrine stood in the centre of an area of peace: well might Israel pray that such peace should be continued. In a church peace is to be desired, expected, promoted, and enjoyed. If we may not say ‘Peace at any price, ‘yet we may certainly cry ‘Peace at the highest price.’”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 6 · on Psalm 122:6
The Lord of Peace
Paul closes his second letter to the Thessalonians with a prayer for peace.
Across both Testaments these two words describe peace as a gift that comes from God to His people, whether it is asked in a greeting, spoken in a blessing or promised by a prophet.
Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.Paul's prayer reaches every circumstance of his readers' lives.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- STEP Bible TBESH and TBESG glosses (Tyndale House, Cambridge, CC BY 4.0), the Greek glosses based on Abbott-Smith (1922), with the Strong's definitions (1890) the rows carry.
- STEP Bible, Translators Amalgamated Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament, the tagged texts (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0.
- James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, with its dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek words of the original (1890)
- G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), the entry for eirene.
- Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, vol. 6 (1882), on Psalm 122:6.
- John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748 to 1763), on Isaiah 57:21.
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