Hebrew word · H8005
שִׁלֵּם
veshilem
recompense
Payment, requital, recompense. It comes from š-l-m, the root of shalom, whose basic sense is "to be whole or complete". The related verb (Piel) means "to make good, pay back, pay in full" (e.g., Exod 21–22 restitution laws; Ps 62:12 "you repay each according to his work").
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
recompense, requital
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
From the study of Deuteronomy 32:35
- Range of meaning
Payment, requital, recompense. It comes from š-l-m, the root of shalom, whose basic sense is "to be whole or complete". The related verb (Piel) means "to make good, pay back, pay in full" (e.g., Exod 21–22 restitution laws; Ps 62:12 "you repay each according to his work").
- Against the English
"Recompense" (KJV, WEB, ESV) and "retribution" (NASB) render it as a noun, as the standard Hebrew text has it. "I will repay" (BSB, NIV) follows the Greek wording used in Romans 12:19, not the Hebrew noun.
- Used elsewhere in the period
As a noun it occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. Close relatives are šillūm, "retribution", in Hos 9:7 ("the days of recompense have come") and Isa 34:8 ("a day of vengeance… a year of recompense"), where it is paired with nāqām as here.
Similar words
Where it appears
Deuteronomy · 1
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Deuteronomy 32:35 וְשִׁלֵּ֔ם and retribution
Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.”
Here: As a noun it occurs only here in the Bible. It comes from the root that means "to be whole, to pay in full", so the picture is an account paid off down to the last item.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.