Why should I know these terms?

Program Transcript
Episode 6: Hesed vay Shalom חסד ושׁלום
Heather M R Olsen

Welcome back listeners.
We are taking a brief pause from our Covenants to do a quick auxiliary podcast on 2 repeated and important words in the Bible. Throughout our covenants and the whole Bible, we come across them repeatedly. English translations are terms such as, unfailing love and covenantal peace. Both of these Hebrew definitions are inadequate yet a valiant attempt to encompass two everlasting, unbreakable, and indefinable attributes of God: the Hebrew words hesed חסד and shalom םולשׁ.

I felt it was important to delve into them in a separate podcast so as not to overwhelm you with the myriads of information we’ve already covered.

Let’s begin with hesed. חסד

Hesed is a Hebrew word and a covenantal term describing God’s covenantal character. Remember a covenant is a promise God made with individuals and groups of people, carrying stipulations, often accompanied by a “sign.”i The Hebrew word is b’rit בְִּרִית. These biblical covenants, unlike a legal contract, are relational and personal.ii

Hesed is the word that encompasses all the positive attributes of God.iii Hesed is one of the most important aspects of God’s character, repeated hundreds of times in the Bible.iv You can find this word 126 times in the Psalms alone.

Hesed is central to God’s promise-keeping and perfect identity, our God who never gives up on His people. A single English word cannot truly define it, but when reading the Bible, we can find all sorts of attempts at translations, such as:

• Abounding in steadfast love
• Mercy
• Benevolence
• Charity
• Kindness
• Compassion
• Covenantal faithfulness
• Grace
• Lovingkindness
• Steadfast love
• Rich in faithful love
• Abundant goodness
• Loyalty
• Enduring commitment
• Unyielding
• Promise-keeper
• Abounding in loyal love
• Unfailing love
• So much love, such deeply true, loyal love

All of those words bundle into this one incredible Hebrew word: Hesed.

From Strong’s Hebrew Concordance, word 2617, hesed, is shortly defined as, “favor, goodness, or kindness.”v

“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,” Ex 34:6
These attributes of God describing Himself in the most quoted scripture by scripture,vi includes the translation, “abounding in love” which is “hesed.”

Additional but not even close to exhaustive scripture verses including hesed follow. If you log onto my transcript, illuminationhebrewinsights.com, I have italicized in each verse the chosen the translation.

Numbers 14:18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.

Nehemiah 9:17 But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.

Psalm 86:15 But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.

Psalm 145:8 The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.

Jonah 4:2 [Jonah] prayed to the Lord, “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.”

Psalm 103:8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

Joel 2:13 Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.

Psalm 89 is full of God’s Hesed.

Psalm 89:1 I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.

Psalm 89:2 I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself.

Psalm 89:14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.

Psalm 89:24 My faithful love will be with him, and through my name his horn will be exalted.

Psalm 89:28 I will maintain my love to him forever, and my covenant with him will never fail.

Psalm 89:33 but I will not take my love from him, nor will I ever betray my faithfulness.

Psalm 89:49 Lord, where is your former great love, which in your faithfulness you swore to David?

We’ve barely scratched the surface, but hopefully you are getting the picture. Any English translation of biblical attempts to convey hesed, point out that God’s loyalty and love is not conditional nor retractable. It is unbreakable and never ending. He promises it to His people, to the bitter end, no matter the cost. Deep, Wide, Infinite.

Bible Study Fellowship expands on the definition this way. “Hesed means God includes our most painful losses in His unshakeable promise to bring us lasting joy.”vii
We can find God’s covenantal hesed with King David. Despite David’s sin, God’s hesed was unshakeable. With Naomi, in the book of Ruth, she asked God to cover her daughters-in-law with His covenantal love. “This term reflects the commitment and unyielding love of God in maintaining His promises.”viii
Biblically, we can find people imparting God’s Hesed as well.ix
God’s covenantal relationship with His people always shows His Promises and Mercy, His Loyalty, Love, and Faithfulness. Even when we are unfaithful to Him. This Hesed is lavishly, generously, and endlessly given.x

Having a day? Think about:
• God’s promises
• God’s attributes
• God’s faithfulness and mercy
• God’s love
• God’s provision
All given lavishly to whomever receives the gift.

I have a girlfriend who has a sheet covered with words of God’s attributes. She has written more attributes on it, corner to corner. She takes this sheet with her when she travels and it is well worn, well loved. She has covered it over with laughter, tears, praises, and thanksgivings.

You see, when we focus on all the good that God is and does, we can see with clear lenses His covenantal Hesed, daily.xi

Finally, quoting BSF again, “Hesed sent God’s Son to the cross as our Redeemer and motivates us to choose His costly way of love and obedience.”xii

Hopefully you have gotten a glimpse of the importance of this magnanimous word and attribute
of God’s. God is indescribable, and incomprehensible, yet writers of the Bible and translators have tried to create a true sense of who He is.  

Let’s move onto another deep and multi-faceted word, promise, and attribute, “Shalom שׁלום.

In modern Israel today, this is a Hebrew greeting. One can use it for hello or goodbye (like
“aloha” in Hawaii). One can use it to wish “peace.”

But biblically and speaking to God’s character, this word is significantly more.

שׁלום is found repeatedly in the Bible. In my Orthodox Jewish Bible, there are 357 mentions. Depending on the translation and the word the translator uses (“peace” in English), you may come up with a different number. Regardless, it’s frequent.

The complete definition of Shalom, based on Strong’s concordance includes, “contentment, wellbeing, completeness, welfare, wholeness.” xiii
Additionally, biblically, Shalom is defined as: being well, favor, friend, great, good health, perfect, safe, happy, friendly, welfare, health, prosperity, peace, rest, safe(-ty).xiv
Shalom is also a covenantal term, like Hesed. God’s Covenantal Shalom in the Hebrew Bible foreshadows the New Covenant, as prophesied in Jeremiah 31:31-36.

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” This New Covenant comes through the blood of Jesus, prophesied as Sar Shalom, the Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:5 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace [Sar Shalom].
This verse is so wonderful and powerful, that Baroque composer, John Frederick Handel wrote an oratorio entitled The Messiah featuring many Old Testament prophecies, focusing on the book of Isaiah. It’s difficult for me to read these Isaiah prophecies without singing Handel’s Messiah!
But here is another cool thing about ancient Hebrew. In antiquity, there were numbers attached to ancient Hebrew letters, and meanings attached to these numbers. This is called gematria. We aren’t talking about gematria today but stay tuned for another podcast. However, in ancient Semitic pictographs, Hebrew letters also can mean a symbolic and entire word.xv

There are 4 letters in the word Shalom (see my transcript on my website). שׁלום

שׁ Shin = destroy ל Lamed = control/authority ו Vav = adds/secures/establishes
ם Mem = chaos

True Shalom = Destroys the authority that establishes chaos.

All of us who believe can access this Authority who destroys chaos.

God promises a Covenant of Peace in the Hebrew Bible. See the following 4 verses that help spell this out.

Numbers 25:12 Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace with him.

Isaiah 54:10 Though the mountains be shaken, and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

Ezekiel 34:25 “‘I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of savage beasts so that they may live in the wilderness and sleep in the forests in safety.

Ezekiel 37:26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever.

God’s covenant, or relational promise is eternal. God does not and will not break his promise.

The Hebraic phrase, “Shalom aleikhem” would have been spoken by Jesus to His disciples after
His resurrection as he first appeared to them. These phrases are recorded in the Gospels of John 20 & Luke 24. “Shalom aleikhem” means “Peace to you,” or “Peace be with you,” (that’s “you” as in “y’all,” second person plural which is a pronoun we don’t have in English unless you live in TX or the deep south!)

Shalom is Hebrew, used in the Hebrew Bible. The Greek equivalent for shalom written in the New Testament is, eirēnē, [irayna] which, again, means more than tranquility or safety.

It’s definition: “one, peace, quietness, rest.”
It’s usage: “peace, peace of mind; invocation of peace a common Jewish farewell which is shalom), in the Hebraic sense of the health (welfare) of an individual.”xvi

Again, all these definitions point to the good that God pours into His people, this wholeness, contentment, welfare, security, and friendship with others, and relationship with God.

Jesus would have used shalom as his comprehensive blessing spoken over His disciples:

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

This peace that Jesus imparted to them and imparts to us is not a just a lack of strife or trouble. It
is supernatural, not dependent on our circumstances but on God’s promises and Jesus’ conquering death on the cross. Because of his death and resurrection, believers are forgiven and our relationship with God is restored. No matter what happens in this world, we can claim that promise for all of eternity.

Jesus even confirms that, 33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Jesus gave His disciples a part of His own inner being. He gives it to us who believe as well. In fact, this shalom is nothing that we can buy, eat, or work for. It is a free gift, just for the asking.
Receive this gift He offers.
Further, with this gift, we have eternal hope and the promise of eternity with Jesus.xvii

This quote from Bible Study Fellowship notes on the Gospel of John is powerful. “Jesus’s peace is like an oxygen mask that supplies His own atmosphere amid poisonous pollution.”xviii

This is as true for us today as it was for the disciples almost 2000 years ago. Consequently, the Apostle Sha’ul or Paul at the beginnings of his letters in the New Testament began with, “Grace and shalom to you from God our Father and from the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.”

Other favorites of this shalom:

Philippians 4:6-9
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

1 Thessalonians 5:23
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Another biblical scholar wrote that, “God’s goal in redemption through Christ is the restoration of what was lost in the Fall—shalom.”xix

Remember Isaiah 54:10 God’s covenant of peace וּבְרִ֤ית שְׁלוֹמִי֙ will not be removed.

This promised Covenant of Peace can be accessed now to all who seek Jesus. And the final peace will be evidenced and completed in the end times, the age when the New Heavens and New Earth are established complete with the New Jerusalem.xx

The secret to true shalom? Fill our minds appropriately. Let’s reread Philippians 4:8.

Philippians 4:8 Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Finally, let’s embody God’s perfect Shalom as “complete, and perfect harmonization with God.” He can and does impart it to us all.

Shalom v’hesed b’adonai alekhem. שלום וחסד באדוניי עליכם May the Peace and covenantal love of the Lord be with you.

L’hitraote – להתראות- until we see each other again –

**Heather!

©2024 Heather M R Olsen, Illumination: Hebrew Insights. All rights reserved.  

i Michael Gabizon. “The Adamic Covenant.” The King’s University. 15 Sept. 2021. ii “Covenants.” BibleProject.Com, bibleproject.com/. Accessed 12 Aug. 2024.
iii John Mark Comer. God Has a Name. Zondervan, 2017.
iv John Mark Comer. God Has a Name. Zondervan, 2017, pg 194.
v “Hebrew, Strong’s Concordance 1309.” Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages, 2024, biblehub.com/.
vi John Mark Comer. God Has a Name. Zondervan, 2017.
vii Bible Study Fellowship. “People of the Promised Land, Kingdom Divided.” AdNotes, Lesson 6, Pg 6, Www.Bsfinternational.Org , 2018.
viii King David Sermon Series notes, Redeemer Lutheran Church.2023 ix Bible Study Fellowship. “People of the Promised Land, Kingdom Divided.” AdNotes, Lesson 12, Pg 4, Www.Bsfinternational.Org , 2018.
x Got Questions? Meaning of hesed https://www.gotquestions.org/meaning-of-hesed.html
xi Lecture, Heather M R Olsen, Bible Study Fellowship, People of the Promise Land, Kingdom divided. 2018 xii Bible Study Fellowship. “People of the Promised Land, Kingdom Divided.” AdNotes, Lesson 12, Pg 4, Www.Bsfinternational.Org, 2018.
xiii “Hebrew, Strong’s Concordance 7965.” Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages, 2024, biblehub.com/.
xiv Ibid.
xvJoseph Yagel, Hebrew Alphabet Letters and their Spiritual Meanings (Monee, IL: 2022).
xvi “Hebrew, Strong’s Concordance 1309.” Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages, 2024, biblehub.com/.
xvii Bible Study Fellowship. “Gospel of John.” Pg 394, Www.Bsfinternational.Org , 2023.
xviii Ibid.
xix Hugh Welchel Institute for Faith, Work & Economics, https://tifwe.org/are-shalom-and-eirene-the-same/.
xx Life Application Study Bible: NIV. Zondervan; Isaiah 54:10, biblical commentary. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 2021, pg 1199.