What Does Psalm 120:7 Mean in the King James?
I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.
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 Hebrew says “I am peace”, wholeness is the speaker’s nature, even when others answer with war.
THE MEANING
You can stand as wholeness while others choose conflict in response to your words. Their hostility does not turn your peace into war; the verse holds both directions side by side.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that another person’s hostility proves your own orientation toward peace was false.
THE ROOT
שָׁלוֹם
shalom
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole, complete, or sound; to bring to wholeness.
The Hebrew phrase is “I am peace,” naming the speaker as wholeness rather than merely someone who prefers calm. This root also describes what is complete and what is made good or repaid, giving peace a shade of restoration.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Whole, complete, sound.
שָׁלֵם
This branch shows that shalom holds the sense of wholeness beneath the English word “peace.”
shillem: To make good, repay, or recompense.
שִׁלֵּם
This branch connects wholeness with making something good or restoring what is due, beyond simply keeping the quiet.
אֲדַבֵּר
adabber
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak or utter; the related noun can mean a word or matter.
“speak” in this verse is adabber. Speech and the matter spoken share this root, so the verse places the speaker’s words alongside the hearers’ response. It does not say that speaking peace controls what others choose; their direction remains distinct from the speaker’s.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
This branch links the act of speaking with the word or matter carried in speech.
dibber: Spoke, declared, or uttered.
דִּבֵּר
This verbal form makes the moment of speech explicit: the speaker speaks, and the others turn toward war.
THE PATTERN
Wholeness can remain one’s own posture while conflict continues around it.
A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.THE THREAD
Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.Psalm 34:14 uses the same Hebrew word שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness), pairing it with seeking and pursuing. Psalm 120:7 names the speaker as that wholeness; this verse shows it as a direction that continues even when others choose war.
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