What Does Ezra 4:17 Mean in the King James?
Then sent the king an answer unto Rehum the chancellor, and to Shimshai the scribe, and to the rest of their companions that dwell in Samaria, and unto the rest beyond the river, Peace, and at such a time.
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
A royal answer travels under the word for wholeness, but the greeting alone does not tell you what the answer will do.
THE MEANING
A message reaches you carrying both movement and a greeting of wholeness. The greeting names peace at the threshold, while the verse leaves the answer’s substance distinct from that greeting. A word of peace can open a message without proving what it brings.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that a message beginning with “Peace” is therefore itself peace-making.
THE ROOT
שְׁלוּחַ
shelûaḥ
GROWS FROM
שׁלח
To send forth, send away, or release.
“sent” in this verse is shelûaḥ. The Aramaic form carries the same root as Hebrew shalach, where sending and releasing belong to one motion. Here, the king’s answer is dispatched; the root also holds the wider sense of letting something go from its sender.
ALSO GROWS
shalach: To send, send forth, or release.
שָׁלַח
This verb shows the broader movement inside “sent”: something is sent out from where it was held.
shaliach: An emissary; one who is sent.
שָׁלִיחַ
The emissary’s identity comes from being sent, echoing the answer’s movement from the king to its recipients.
שְׁלָם
shelām
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
Wholeness, completeness, or well-being.
“Peace” in this verse is shelām. The Aramaic greeting is cognate with Hebrew shalom, whose sense reaches beyond quiet to wholeness. That wholeness is named as the answer’s greeting, but its presence in the greeting does not itself establish what the message accomplishes.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Peace, wholeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This familiar branch reveals the fuller sense carried by the greeting: a wish for a whole condition.
shalem: Whole, complete, intact.
שָׁלֵם
This adjective makes the root’s underlying idea visible: peace is connected to being whole.
THE PATTERN
A greeting of peace can stand at the threshold of a message or sending, naming wholeness before its contents or work unfold.
Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you.Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.THE THREAD
Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.Ezra’s royal answer travels with peace in its greeting; here, peace and sending are joined in one utterance. The connection is structural: wholeness stands at the threshold of movement.
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