What Does Psalm 122:8 Mean in the King James?

For my brethren and companions’ sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee.

Psalm 122:8 · 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 peace spoken here is shalom, wholeness offered to another because their well-being matters within your own relationships.

THE MEANING

Your care for those bound to you becomes speech: you say wholeness into their life. This peace is meant to be within the other person, and it rises from the bond you share.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse undoes the belief that concern for others is separate from your own life: the speaker’s words of wholeness arise because these relationships matter.

THE ROOT

שָׁלוֹם

shalom

GROWS FROM

שׁלם

sh-l-m

To be whole, complete, or sound; also to make good or repay.

English “peace” can sound like the absence of conflict, while shalom carries the sense of wholeness and completeness. Here that wholeness is spoken “within thee,” extending into another person’s life through the bond between you.

ALSO GROWS

shalem: Whole, complete

שָׁלֵם

This branch makes shalom more than quiet: it names the wholeness wished for the person addressed.

shillem: To repay or make good

שִׁלֵּם

This branch shows the root can also carry the sense of making something whole by setting what is owed right.

THE PATTERN

Wholeness is sought and spoken as a shared good that reaches into relationships.

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

Psalm 34:14 · KJVPeace is something sought and pursued, making wholeness an active concern in how life is shared.

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

Romans 12:18 · KJVThe pursuit of peace reaches outward into the reader’s relationships with others.

For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

Ephesians 2:14 · KJVPeace appears as wholeness that brings divided people together.

THE THREAD

Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.

Psalm 122:7 · KJV

Verse 7 uses the same Hebrew word, shalom, and places it within Jerusalem’s walls and palaces. Verse 8 carries that same wish into the person addressed, joining the city’s wholeness with personal well-being.

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