Hebrew word · H1312
בִּשְׁלָם
bishlam
Bishlam
Either (a) an otherwise unknown personal name, or (b) the prepositional phrase bi-šəlām / bi-šlām, 'in peace, in agreement with, with the approval of'. In the second reading šəlām is the Aramaic form of šālôm, also used in letter greetings.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
A man living at the time of Exile and Return, only mentioned at Ezr.4.7
§ Bishlam = "in peace"
a Persian officer in Palestine in the time of Ezra
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
Either (a) an otherwise unknown personal name, or (b) the prepositional phrase bi-šəlām / bi-šlām, 'in peace, in agreement with, with the approval of'. In the second reading šəlām is the Aramaic form of šālôm, also used in letter greetings.
- Against the English
Every major English version (KJV, NIV, ESV, NASB, BSB, WEB, YLT) treats it as a name. The RSV and some modern commentaries have discussed the alternative 'with the approval of Mithredath' or, by emendation, 'concerning Jerusalem'.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The Septuagint (2 Esdras 4:7) renders it ἐν εἰρήνῃ, 'in peace'. 1 Esdras 2:16 lists it as a name, 'Belemus' or Beslemos, among others. The Vulgate has 'Beselam'. In Imperial Aramaic letters šəlām is the word used in greeting formulas.
Where it appears
Ezra · 1
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Ezra 4:7 בִּשְׁלָ֜ם Bishlam
And in the days of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of his associates wrote a letter to Artaxerxes. It was written in Aramaic and then translated.
Here: Either a personal name (so the supplied data, 1 Esdras and most English versions) or the phrase bi-šəlām, 'in peace / with the agreement of' (so the Septuagint). Which one is meant is disputed; see debates.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.