What is Shalom?
Most people understand shalom to mean “peace” in the sense of “the absence of conflict.” While correct, this reflects the end result of biblical shalom, not the substance. To get at the substance of shalom, we have to begin with the verb, since Hebrew is primarily a language of action, not of concepts, a language that favors the dynamic over the static.
This much is clear shalom, no matter how casual its use, is tied directly to justice. Even in biblical times, the slogan was true “No Justice, No Peace.” We’ll see just how true as we unpack the range of meanings that shalom has in the biblical text. We begin with the verb, with the action of “doing shalom.”
In concrete, everyday use, the verb form of shalom means “to pay.” This payment is not a gift or a favor, but is an obligation arising out of an agreement you and I might enter. Such an agreement demands a relationship of trust. We must be willing to trust each other and to respect what that trust requires, otherwise one of us might ignore or distort our obligations. When we fulfill those obligations, we are doing shalom.
The Bible also uses shalom as a legal term. In the Book of Exodus, the section following the Ten Commandments includes lots of concrete applications. Among them are 14 practical rules about losing, stealing, or damaging someone else’s property. Here’s the first one:
If someone leaves a pit open, or digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, the owner of the pit shall make restitution, giving money to the animal’s owner, but keeping the dead animal (Exod. 2133-34).
The Hebrew word that is translated “shall make restitution” is the verb form of shalom. Here the issue is not so much relationship as responsibility-like the sign you might see today in pottery shops “You break it, you bought it.” Put another way, if I cause you loss, I’m obliged to make good for what I’ve destroyed or taken. Again, I’m not doing you a favor, or acting out of the goodness of my heart. I’m doing what justice demands. That, too, is doing shalom.
So, when the Bible uses shalom as a verb, it’s talking about holding up my side of an agreement, or making restitution if I have deprived you of something that is rightfully yours-even if I did it unknowingly or by mistake. Both these uses involve tangible, precise actions-actions that produce or restore an element of equilibrium.
As a noun, shalom has the basic meaning of “sufficiency.” Again, the context is concrete. The sufficiency involves food, shelter, clothing, land, or work. It also includes the feeling of being satisfied because one’s legitimate desires have been met. Note that I said desires, not needs. Biblical shalom is not sufficiency in the sense of having just enough to get by. It is sufficiency on a grander scale. It is sufficiency in the face of abundance, not sufficiency in the face of scarcity…. View Article
