Hebrew word · H8011
שִׁלֻּמָה
veshilumat
recompense
Repayment, requital, recompense. It appears only here. The closely related shillum means 'recompense, retribution' (Isa 34:8 'year of recompense'; Hos 9:7 'days of recompense'; Mic 7:3 'a reward/bribe').
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
reward, requital, retribution
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
Repayment, requital, recompense. It appears only here. The closely related shillum means 'recompense, retribution' (Isa 34:8 'year of recompense'; Hos 9:7 'days of recompense'; Mic 7:3 'a reward/bribe'). The root shalem / shillem means to complete, to make whole, to pay back what is owed (Exod 21–22 restitution laws; Deut 32:35 'vengeance and recompense').
- Against the English
KJV 'reward' and WEB/ESV 'recompense' keep the idea of paying back. NIV and BSB 'punishment' and NASB 'retribution' make the negative outcome clear, but lose the picture of a debt being settled in full.
- How it drifted
In 1611 'reward' meant any return for what someone had done, good or bad. Today it almost always means something good, so the KJV wording can mislead.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The LXX translates it antapodosis, 'a giving back in return', the same word family used for divine repayment elsewhere (e.g. Ps 27:4 LXX, Isa 34:8). The Vulgate has retributio. The shalom/shillem word family runs through Israel's law of restitution and the prophets' language of God settling accounts.
Similar words
Where it appears
Psalms · 1
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Psalm 91:8 וְשִׁלֻּמַ֖ת and [the] retribution of
You will only see it with your eyes and witness the punishment of the wicked.
Here: 'And the repayment of…' This word appears only here in the Bible. It comes from the root sh-l-m, 'to make whole, to pay back in full'. It means a payment that matches what was owed: the wicked receive what fits what they did.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.