What Does Psalm 122:6 Mean in the King James?
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.
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 prayer for Jerusalem’s shalom, its wholeness, and the ease of those who love her are one shared fate.
THE MEANING
Jerusalem’s wholeness and the ease of those who love her are held together in this verse. It speaks to you as someone whose well-being is bound to the wholeness of the place you love.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that your well-being can be separated from the wholeness of the place and people you love.
THE ROOT
שָׁלוֹם
shalom
GROWS FROM
שלם
שלם (sh-l-m): to be whole, complete, or sound.
שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness) belongs to the root שלם (sh-l-m), which also forms שָׁלֵם (shalem, whole) and שְׁלָמִים (shelamim, well-being offerings). Peace here carries wholeness and restored relation beneath the English word, joining the lovers’ ease to the city’s whole life.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: whole, complete, sound
שָׁלֵם
This adjective makes the wholeness within shalom visible: the prayer reaches beyond quiet to the city’s integrity.
shelamim: well-being offerings, peace offerings
שְׁלָמִים
This noun carries the same root into shared well-being and restored relation.
shillem: to repay, recompense
שִׁלֵּם
This verb shows another branch of the root: making good what is owed or due.
שַׁאֲלוּ
sha'alu
GROWS FROM
שאל
שאל (sha’al): to ask, inquire, or request.
“Pray” in this verse is sha'alu. שַׁאֲלוּ (sha’alu, ask) is a plural command: the verse gives a shared request, not a private abstraction. Its object is Jerusalem’s wholeness, so the prayer is linguistically aimed at the common good.
ALSO GROWS
she'elah: a request, question
שְׁאֵלָה
This noun shows the root naming what is asked or sought.
mish'al: a request, petition
מִשְׁאָל
This branch gives the word for a stated desire or petition, echoing the verse’s concrete request for Jerusalem.
אֹהֲבָיִךְ
ohavayikh
GROWS FROM
אהב
אהב (ahav): to love or hold in affection.
The verse names the beneficiaries as those who love Jerusalem. The root אהב (ahav, love) also forms אָהוּב (ahuv, beloved), holding affection and belovedness in one word-family.
ALSO GROWS
ahavah: love, affection
אַהֲבָה
This noun names the affection the verse identifies as the bond between people and Jerusalem.
ahuv: beloved
אָהוּב
This related form shows the other side of love: the one who is held in affection.
THE PATTERN
A community’s well-being is sought as a shared good and becomes the setting for people’s own ease.
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.For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall ye suck, ye shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees.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
Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about: for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days.The name שְׁלֹמֹה (Shelomoh, Solomon) and שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness or peace) belong to the root שלם (sh-l-m, be whole). This verse lets the name and the condition of a people sound together, opening Jerusalem’s peace as communal wholeness.
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