Shalom: More Than the Absence of War

Ask an English speaker what peace is and you will be told what it is not: no war, no noise, no trouble. The Hebrew word that stands behind peace in your Old Testament is not an absence at all. It is a fullness, and a whole city, a whole harvest and a whole person can have it or lack it.

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Lesson 2 of 12 · Hebrew

Shalom is wholeness: a state in which nothing is missing and nothing is broken, in a body, a household, a harvest, a city, a people, or between a people and God. Peace is the English word for it, and peace is what a war leaves behind when it stops, which is a fraction of the thing. The Old Testament greets with it, blesses with it, mourns its absence and warns against its counterfeit, and every one of those uses is about completeness rather than quiet. Read peace in your Bible as "everything as it should be," and the verses grow.

The blessing that ends with it

The oldest blessing in the Bible, still said over congregations, builds to this word and stops.

‘Yahweh bless you, and keep you. Yahweh make his face to shine on you, and be gracious to you. Yahweh lift up his face toward you, and give you peace.’ — Numbers 6:24–26 · WEB

Read the comment on Yahweh Bless You and Keep You

Give you peace: the last thing asked, after keeping, shining and favor, because it is the sum of them. The priests were told to say this over Israel, and the word they were to end on is the one the whole blessing was for.

שָׁלוֹם shâlôwm H7965

or שָׁלֹם; from שָׁלַם; safe, i.e. (figuratively) well, happy, friendly; also (abstractly) welfare, i.e. health, prosperity, peace; [idiom] do, familiar, [idiom] fare, favour, [phrase] friend, [idiom] great, (good) health, ([idiom] perfect, such as be at) peace(-able, -ably), prosper(-ity, -ous), rest, safe(-ty), salute, welfare, ([idiom] all is, be) well, [idiom] wholly.

The root means to be complete, to be whole, to be paid in full — the verb from it is used of settling a debt and of finishing a building. Shalom is the noun: completeness, soundness, welfare, safety, prosperity, and, because a whole people is at rest, peace. To ask how someone is, in Hebrew, is to ask after their shalom, and the answer is about their whole condition, not their mood. English chose the narrowest corner of the word.

Wholeness of every kind

Watch the word move through things English would never call peace.

“He asked them of their welfare, and said, “Is your father well, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he yet alive?”” Genesis 43:27 · WEB
Joseph asks after his father’s welfare: is the old man whole, is he well. The word is shalom.
“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Those who love you will prosper.” Psalm 122:6 · WEB
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: for the city’s wholeness, its walls, its trade, its worship, its people.
“For a child is born to us. A son is given to us; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6 · WEB
Prince of Peace: the ruler under whom nothing is missing and nothing is broken.
“Mercy and truth meet together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” Psalm 85:10 · WEB
Righteousness and peace kiss: two words this series will meet twice, and they belong together.

A greeting, a prayer, a title and a picture, and in each the word means the same thing: the condition in which everything is as it should be. Note the third. The child of Isaiah 9 is not called the prince of quiet.

The counterfeit

Because the word means so much, its misuse is a prophet’s theme. Jeremiah’s sharpest sentence is about people who use the word when the thing is absent.

They have healed also the hurt of my people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace. — Jeremiah 6:14 · WEB

Read the comment on Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace

Peace, peace, when there is no peace. The false prophets were not lying about the absence of war; there was no war yet. They were announcing wholeness over a nation that was broken, and the word makes the lie precise. The same warning stands in Ezekiel, where a wall is whitewashed and called sound, and in Paul, who tells the Thessalonians what happens when people say peace and safety. A word that means everything is well is the easiest word to say falsely.

What it costs

Isaiah’s fourth song of the servant puts the word in a sentence that the New Testament would build on.

But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed. — Isaiah 53:5 · WEB

Read the comment on Despised and Rejected by Men

The punishment that brought our peace was on him: the older versions say the chastisement of our peace, and either way the word is shalom — the punishment that produces our wholeness. Whatever else that verse means, it says that shalom is not free and not natural; something is broken and someone pays to mend it. When Jesus says, on the last night, that he leaves his disciples peace and gives it not as the world gives (John 14:27), the Greek is eirene, but the thing is shalom, and the price is about to be paid.

What the word asks

The word is a greeting, and a greeting is a wish. To say shalom to someone is to wish them whole, in body, house, work and standing with God, and the Old Testament never lets the wish stay a word. Seek the peace of the city where you are exiled, Jeremiah tells the captives (29:7), and pray for it, because in its shalom you will have shalom. Peace is something you seek for others, and the word carries the whole of what you are seeking.