What Does Jeremiah 29:7 Mean?
And seek the wholeness of the city where I have carried you away, and pray to the LORD for it, for in its wholeness you will have 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 seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.THE KEY
Your wholeness is woven into the wholeness of the place you inhabit.
THE MEANING
This verse places your well-being inside the well-being of the place you inhabit, even when that place feels unfamiliar. The city’s wholeness is not scenery around a private life; it is part of the shared condition in which your own wholeness unfolds. Prayer gives voice to concern for that wider place before the LORD.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that private well-being can be wholly secured while the surrounding community’s well-being is ignored.
THE ROOT
שָׁלוֹם
shalom
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
to be whole, complete, or sound
The repeated שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness) binds the city and the reader: Hebrew uses the same word for both. Shalom is broader than private calm; the verse locates personal wholeness within a wider shared life.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: whole, complete, sound
שָׁלֵם
This adjective makes the root’s sense of wholeness visible in the word for the city’s peace.
shelamim: well-being or peace offerings
שְׁלָמִים
The same root names offerings associated with shared well-being, placing shalom in communal life.
shillem: to repay, recompense, or make good
שִׁלֵּם
This verb can describe what is made good or brought to completion, echoing the root’s concern with what is restored.
THE PATTERN
A person’s wholeness is bound to the wholeness of the community they inhabit.
Ask for the wholeness of Jerusalem; those who love you are at ease.And the work of alignment will be wholeness, and the service of alignment will be stillness and trust for the ages.I urge you therefore, first of all, that requests, prayers, approaches, and giving of thanks be made for all humankind. For kings, and for all who stand above; that we may lead a still and whole life in all awe and weight.THE THREAD
Ask for the wholeness of Jerusalem; those who love you are at ease.Psalm 122:6 uses the same Hebrew word, שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness), for Jerusalem’s peace. Read beside Jeremiah, it reveals that the city’s wholeness and the person’s well-being belong to one shared reality.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us