What Does 1 Kings 22:44 Mean in the King James?
And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Peace here is something made between distinct parties: shalom is relational wholeness, not merely a private feeling.
THE MEANING
The verse presents wholeness as something that can exist between people who remain distinct: Jehoshaphat’s peace is with Israel’s king. It speaks now to the reader’s relationships, showing peace as a condition in the space between people as well as within them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that peace is only inner calm; here, peace is made between two parties.
THE ROOT
שָׁלוֹם
shalom
GROWS FROM
שׁ־ל־ם
sh-l-m
To be whole, complete, or intact.
The verse says Jehoshaphat makes shalom with another ruler: wholeness takes form in a relationship between them. English “peace” can sound like a state of mind, while shalom also carries the sense of things being whole and intact.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes the wholeness within shalom visible.
shillem: to repay or make restitution
שִׁלֵּם
This branch links the same root with restoring what is owed, another way a relationship can be brought back toward wholeness.
יְהוֹשָׁפָט
Yehoshafat
GROWS FROM
שׁ־פ־ט
sh-p-t
The root shaphat means to judge or govern; the name means “YHWH has judged.”
“Jehoshaphat” in this verse is Yehoshafat. The name carries judgment into a verse about making peace. The verse holds judgment and relational wholeness in the same scene without saying that one erases the other.
ALSO GROWS
shofet: judge
שֹׁפֵט
This branch names the one who judges, echoing the judgment carried in Jehoshaphat’s name.
mishpat: judgment, justice
מִשְׁפָּט
This branch shows how the name’s root extends from judging to the ordering of a matter.
THE PATTERN
Wholeness becomes visible when distinct parties enter a bond that changes the relationship between them.
And they rose up betimes in the morning, and sware one to another: and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.THE THREAD
And the LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him: and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon; and they two made a league together.Both verses use שָׁלוֹם (shalom), meaning peace and wholeness, for the relationship between two rulers. The second verse makes the bond visible in a league, showing how this peace exists between them rather than only within either one.
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