Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Philip, Jack et al:

The reason is that in Biblical Hebrew, שלום doesn’t mean “peace”,
rather it has the meaning of making full an action. The word for
“peace” is שקט. Hence in Deuteronomy 32:41, the message is “I cause
vengeance to return to my enemies, and to those who hate me, I’ll
repay in full.”

I don’t know when the term acquired its modern meaning of “peace”, all
I know is that in Biblical usage, it refers to fullness,

Karl W. Randolph.

> Dear Listees,
> Deut 32:41 reads, אָשִׁיב נָקָם לְצָרָי, וְלִמְשַׂנְאַי אֲשַׁלֵּם
> This may not be new to many, but I find it interesting that see the last
> word in the stitch, i.e. אֲשַׁלֵּם , root,שלם so often used to denote peace
> is being used here in totally non-peaceful terms as: “to requite/ revenge,
> repay”?
> What are you thoughts on this please?
> Many thanks,
> Philip Engmann
>