StrongerBible

shalah

שָׁלָה

HebrewH7951“at ease, prosper, ...”

Appears 5 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Job 3:26Job 12:6Psa 122:6Jer 12:1Lam 1:5
Word studyResearch-gradeshah-LAHverb

What shalah means

to be undisturbed: to have trouble stay away from you, and so to live quietly and do well

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

At its core this verb describes a condition rather than an activity: nothing is coming at you. Job says it plainly when he denies it of himself, stacking it beside two other words in one breath, being still (שָׁקַט) and having rest (נוּחַ), and then adding that trouble came anyway. To be in this state is simply to be left alone by what could hurt you.

From that center the word slides naturally toward flourishing, because a life nothing interferes with is a life that goes well. That is why English versions swing between "at ease" and "prosper" for the very same word. Jeremiah's complaint keeps the two ideas side by side: the way of the wicked succeeds, using a different verb for an undertaking that goes through (צָלֵחַ), and the treacherous are untroubled, using ours.

The word itself passes no verdict, and that is easy to miss, because four of its five appearances sting:

  • robbers' tents stand untouched while the honest suffer;
  • everyone who deals treacherously goes unbothered;
  • the enemies who sacked Zion are the ones now doing well;
  • and only in Psalm 122 is it a blessing prayed over the friends of Jerusalem, where its sound chimes against peace (שָׁלוֹם) and the city's own name.

The verb is rare, five times in poetry, but its family is not. The adjective for a person who is untroubled (שָׁלֵו) and the noun for that untroubled condition (שַׁלְוָה) carry the same idea across Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ezekiel, and Daniel, and there the double edge is just as clear: the same settled comfort is God's gift in one verse and the self-satisfaction that ruins people in the next.

Nuances

1ato be at ease: to have quiet and rest, with nothing troubling you
TranslatabilityApproximate
Job 3:26
1bto live untroubled and so to thrive: to have things go well because nothing interferes
Job 12:6Psa 122:6Jer 12:1Lam 1:5

What scholars say about shalah

BDB files these five Qal forms under I שׁלה "be quiet, be at ease" and keeps the negative developments in the same entry, glossing the Niphal jussive of 2 Chronicles 29:11 "be not negligent" (easy-going, the German bequem) and labelling the Hiphil of 2 Kings 4:28 "do not mislead me" a strong Aramaism, while removing the apocopated יֵשֶׁל of Job 27:8 to a distinct "draw out" root associated with שׁלח and שׁלל. Gesenius instead posits a second שׁלה "err, be negligent", from which he derives Biblical Aramaic שָׁלוּ / שָׁלוּת "error, fault" (Daniel 6:4; Ezra 4:22), and accepts "draw out" at Job 27:8 with Targum and Peshitta support; the usage-based lexicons (HALOT, DCH) divide the homographs more finely than BDB does. The comparative evidence for a single root running from "be unbothered" to "be unconcerned, negligent" is Aramaic and Syriac šlā "be quiet, cease", then "be careless, go astray", with Aphel "neglect", together with Arabic salā "forget, be unmindful, be free from anxiety", which BDB cites directly; Barr's Comparative Philology warns against multiplying Hebrew homonyms on such cognate grounds, a caution that cuts against both the Gesenius split and the "draw out" proposal at Job 27:8. Biblical Aramaic supplies both branches in one root: the adjective שְׁלֵה "at ease" (Daniel 4:4) and the noun שָׁלוּ "negligence, fault" (Daniel 3:29; 6:4; Ezra 4:22; 6:9). The Septuagint has no fixed equivalent, rendering Job 3:26 with three verbs (εἰρηνεύω, ἡσυχάζω, ἀναπαύομαι), Jeremiah 12:1 with εὐθηνέω "thrive", and the Hiphil of 2 Kings 4:28 with πλανάω "mislead", which shows the polysemy was already being read by context in antiquity. Ben Sira 47:13 (שלוה of Solomon's peaceful reign) and 41:1 attest the family in Second Temple Hebrew.

Where scholars disagree about shalah

Whether the Hebrew verb written שׁלה is one root covering both "be at ease, be secure" and the negative "be negligent, mislead", or whether the negative sense belongs to a separate word spelled the same way.

  • majorityOne root. An original sense of being unbothered developed a positive branch (be quiet, secure, prosperous) and a negative one (be unconcerned, hence negligent or misleading). BDB keeps the Niphal of 2 Chronicles 29:11 "be not negligent" and the Hiphil of 2 Kings 4:28 "do not mislead me", which it calls a strong Aramaism, in the same entry as these five Qal occurrences, and compares Arabic salā "be unmindful, be free from anxiety".; Brown, Driver, and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford, 1906), s.v. שׁלה I
  • minorityA separate root. Gesenius posits a second שׁלה meaning "err, be negligent", from which he derives the Biblical Aramaic noun שָׁלוּ / שָׁלוּת "error, fault" at Daniel 6:4 and Ezra 4:22, leaving "be at ease" as a distinct verb.; Gesenius, Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures, trans. Tregelles, s.v. שָׁלָה
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • Brown, Driver, and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford, 1906), s.v. שׁלה Ilexicon
  • Gesenius, Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures, trans. Tregelles, s.v. שָׁלָהlexicon
  • Koehler, Baumgartner, and Stamm, HALOT (Brill, 1994-2000), s.v. שׁלהlexicon
  • Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (Sheffield Academic Press), s.v. שׁלהlexicon
  • Barr, Comparative Philology and the Text of the Old Testament (Oxford, 1968)monograph
  • Clines, Job 1-20, WBC 17 (Word, 1989)commentary
  • Holladay, Jeremiah 1, Hermeneia (Fortress, 1986)commentary
  • Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalms 3, Hermeneia (Fortress, 2011)commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of שָׁלָה

qal imperfect 3mp

יִשְׁלָיוּ

Job 12:6, Psa 122:6

qal perfect 3cp

שָׁלוּ

Jer 12:1, Lam 1:5

qal perfect 1cs

שָׁלַוְתִּי

Job 3:26