What Does Jeremiah 29:7 Mean in the King James?
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 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
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
“peace” in this verse is shalom. 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.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.THE THREAD
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.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.
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