What Does Proverbs 16:7 Mean in the King James?

When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.

Proverbs 16:7 · KJV

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

The LORD’s peace here is not merely an enemy growing quiet; it is hostility being brought toward wholeness.

THE MEANING

When your ways please the LORD, even an enemy can be brought into peace with you. The verse presents that change as the LORD’s work, and its peace carries the sense of wholeness, not merely a pause in conflict.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that an enemy’s hostility must be permanent or that peace depends entirely on your power to win them over.

THE ROOT

יַשְׁלִם

yashlim

GROWS FROM

שׁ־ל־ם

sh-l-m

To be whole or complete; in a causative form, to make whole or bring to peace.

“At peace” can sound like a ceasefire, but yashlim comes from the same root as shalom, wholeness and well-being. The verse pictures the LORD bringing even an enemy relationship toward wholeness.

ALSO GROWS

shalom: Wholeness, well-being, peace.

שָׁלוֹם

This is the familiar word for peace, showing the deeper texture of what the LORD brings about between the person and their enemies.

shalem: Whole, complete.

שָׁלֵם

This branch makes visible the shared root’s sense of completeness beneath the peace described in the verse.

THE PATTERN

Ways shaped by God open relationships toward peace, so opposition need not have the last word.

Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.

Proverbs 3:17 · KJVThe paired language of ways and peace echoes this verse’s link between a pleasing way and peace with others.

Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.

Psalm 34:14 · KJVPeace is presented as a path that can be sought even when conflict is present.

If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

Romans 12:18 · KJVPeace with others remains possible even when a relationship has limits beyond one’s control.

THE THREAD

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

Isaiah 26:3 · KJV

“Perfect peace” renders the doubled Hebrew shalom, from the same root as yashlim in Proverbs 16:7. Isaiah shows this peace as sustained wholeness; Proverbs extends it into a relationship with an enemy.

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