What Does 1 Kings 2:13 Mean?
And Adonijah son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. And she said, Do you come in wholeness? And he said, In wholeness.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bath-sheba the mother of Solomon. And she said, Comest thou peaceably? And he said, Peaceably.THE KEY
The spoken promise of peace carries a deeper test: shalom is wholeness, so the intention within the encounter reveals what the word contains.
THE MEANING
You hear a claim of peace and watch to see what it carries. The Hebrew שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness and welfare) names more than a courteous tone; it speaks of an encounter made whole. The intention that follows gives the greeting its substance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A peaceful greeting by itself guarantees peaceful intent.
THE ROOT
שָׁלוֹם
shalom
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole, complete, or intact; to make whole or make good.
“in wholeness” in this verse is shalom. Here, שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness and welfare) is the word spoken as “peaceably.” Its root also reaches completeness and making good, so the verse places the speaker’s claim beside the intention the encounter reveals.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, welfare, peace.
שָׁלוֹם
This is the word spoken here: peace carries the sense of well-being and an encounter made whole.
shalem: Whole, complete, intact.
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes the depth of the greeting visible: wholeness describes a condition, not just a reassuring sound.
shillem: To repay, recompense, or make good.
שִׁלֵּם
The same root can describe making good what is owed, linking wholeness with what is set right.
THE PATTERN
Peace is wholeness made visible through the way people pursue and inhabit their relationships.
Turn aside from evil and do good; seek wholeness and pursue it.If it is possible, as far as your reach extends, live in wholeness with all people.THE THREAD
I am wholeness; but when I speak, they are for war.The same Hebrew word, שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness and welfare), appears in both verses. Psalm 120:7 makes the tension audible between a word of peace and the conflict surrounding it, opening the greeting here as a question about the wholeness the encounter actually carries.
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