What Does 2 Kings 4:26 Mean?
Run now, I pray you, to meet her, and say to her, Is there wholeness with you, with your husband, with the child? And she answered, There is 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
Run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well.THE KEY
The Hebrew repeats the same word, shalom, in every question and in her answer, so the exchange turns on wholeness.
THE MEANING
The repeated question reaches across you and those nearest to you, your spouse and your child, and asks whether wholeness is present. The answer gives one word, shalom, without describing the circumstances or explaining them. The verse holds that word beside what remains unstated.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It unsettles the belief that naming wholeness requires denying a crisis; the answer gives no explanation of what is happening.
THE ROOT
שָׁלוֹם
shalom
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
sh-l-m
To be whole, complete, or sound.
The Hebrew asks, “Is there shalom for you?” and repeats shalom in the reply. The word holds wholeness in view without giving a full report of circumstances.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Whole, complete, or sound.
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes the sense of wholeness inside the question visible beneath the English “well.”
shillem: To repay, recompense, or make good.
שִׁלֵּם
The same root reaches from being whole to making good, bringing restoration into the word’s wider family.
THE PATTERN
Wholeness is named as something sought, sustained, and given even when circumstances remain undescribed.
Turn aside from evil and do good; seek wholeness and pursue it.You will keep in wholeness upon wholeness the one whose shaped mind rests upon you, for in you he leans his full weight.Wholeness I leave with you; my wholeness I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be stirred, and do not let it shrink.THE THREAD
You will keep in wholeness upon wholeness the one whose shaped mind rests upon you, for in you he leans his full weight.“Perfect peace” translates shalom shalom: the same Hebrew word heard in every question and in the answer here, repeated for emphasis. The shared root lets “It is well” resonate as a word of wholeness without turning it into a description of every circumstance.
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