Eventually the city of Yeru-Shalayim (ירושליים), a conurbation of seven hilltop villages, one of which was originally Shalem. Yiru-Shalem (ירושלם) was probably the full name in King David's time, Yiru being the Aramaic equivalent of the Yehudit Ir (עיר) and Chaldean Ur (as in Ur of the Chaldees) = "city"; later, as the city grew, and the Temple acquired status, the multiple plural or compound plural form became applied, as in mayim (מָּיִם) for water, shamayim (שָּׁמַיִם) for the skies, Elohim (אֱלֹהִים) for the gods, et cetera; and quite probably this happened to give the city a quasi-divine status such as those three words already had, "For YHVH has chosen Tsi'on; he has desired it for his habitation. This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it.… (Psalm 123:13/14).
Genesis 14:18: Malki-Tsedek, king of Shalem "brought forth wine and bread, he was a priest of El Elyon". See the notes to Malki-Tsedek, and especially the importance of the Tsedek part of his name: David named his first high priest in Yeru-Shalayim Tsadok because of him, and it became the signifier for the priesthood forever afterwards, especially in the conflict between the Sadducees (supporters of the Tsadokites) and the Pharisees (supporters of Rabbinic Judaism).
He was a classic priest-king, god-surrogate on Earth. The god in question later became absorbed into the Hebrew cult, and El Elyon remains to this day a synonym for YHVH - see for example the opening paragraph of the Amidah, the standing prayer which is the central prayer in all synagogue worship. But originally El Elyon was the chief deity of the pantheon worshiped specifically at Shalem, and may have been a synonym or epithet for Moloch himself, as the name Malki-Tsedek ("Moloch is just") reflects. The eucharistic rite of wine and bread denotes a sun-god, as does the practice of throwing children into the fire for sacrificial purposes, which we know was the raison d’être of the Valley of Hinnom in Shalem. As King David, himself later the priest-king of Yerushalem, observed in his famous psalm: "Happy is he who dashes the little ones against the rocks."
The hill in Yeru-Shalayim where the Temple once stood is named Mount Mor-Yah (Moriah), and believed thus to be the site of Av-Raham's attempted sacrifice of Yitschak (Isaac). Given the above information, that sacrifice takes on new significance - the "bitter tears" would have belonged to Sarah, had the sacrifice taken place, which allows us a further identifiation of Sarah as Asherah, through the Chevronite Yah connection. Yet in David’s time the practice of child sacrifice was still in force.
The treaty signed between Av-Raham and Malki-Tsedek in this episode reflects a treaty between priest-kings, and their willingness to worship each other's gods adds further weight to the argument that both were sun-gods.
Psalm 76:3: "His tabernacle is in Shalem, and his dwelling-place in Tsi'on" - a statement that reflects Av-Raham's treaty with Malki-Tsedek, but more importantly David's take-over of the city from its Beney Yevus (Jebusite) inhabitants.
The central root is SHALEM, which means "full", "whole", "complete" and "perfect", a definition which suggests that Shalem was regarded as having quasi-divine status long before King David's time or the building of the Temple; probably the hill was regarded as the Valhalla or Olympus or Sinai of Moloch, and this is why it was so important to Av-Raham to make treaty with Malki-Tsedek. The word has come to mean "peace", and to be used for "hello" and "goodbye", in exactly the same manner as the equivalent "sala'am " in Arabic, but these are later development rather than source meaning.
Zevach Shelomim (זבח שלומים) means "a free-will sacrifice" (Leviticus 3:1 and 7:1/13/20; 9:4; also Amos 5:22). This is normally translated as "peace offering", because of the late development of the word "shalem". In fact it meant a "complete offering", a "kurban", the most sacred of all the offerings because it was offered freely, and not to expiate any specific sin. While the breast and right thigh were retained by the Kohanim as their portion - YHVH gets the fat burned on the altar and the smell from the cooking - this was the only offering in which the offerer then received the remainder of the meat as take-away, one part of which was then blessed as a thanksgiving, and eaten the same day, the remainder available for entertaining guests (generally the reason for bringing the beast to the divine abattoir as a zevach shalem in the first place).
See also Shilem (שלם) a son of Naphtali in Genesis 46:24, aka Shalum (שלום) in 1 Chronicles 7:13 and his tribe as the Shileymi (שלמי) in Numbers 26:49.
Besides King Shelomoh (Solomon), several other Shalums are recorded. The first was a king of Israel 773/2 BCE (2 Kings 15:10); the second was a king of Yehudah, son of Josiah and younger brother of Kings Jehoiakim and Zedekiah (1 Chronicles 3:15); the third was the husband of Chuldah the prophetess in 2 Kings 22:14; various other men bearing the name appear in Ezra 2:42; 7:2; 10:24 and 42; Nehemiah 3:12 and 7:45; 1 Chronicles 2:40 et al.
Shalmai (שלמי) in Ezra 2:46.
Shelomi (שלמי) in Numbers 34:27.
Shelumi-El (שלמיאל) in Numbers 1:6 and 2:12.
Shelem-Yahu (שלמיהו) in 1 Chronicles 26:14. This, and Shelumi-El above, are clearly an attempt to equate one god with another, which we see so often in the Rabbinical redaction. When they could find no other way of expurgating a heterodox divinity or deity, they appended to it the name of the orthodox one, as if to say "Shalem is Yah". But Yah was a moon-goddess and Shalem a sun-god, just as in Shelumi-El El was a sun-god.
Shelomit (שלמית) in Leviticus 24:11 and 1 Chronicles 23:9.
Shalman (שלמן), also known as Shalman-Ezer (שלמנעזר), the Assyrian king who took away the ten tribes (2 Kings 17:3).
We should also mention the son of King David who by rights should have been king: one Av-Shalom (אבשלום) who likewise bears the god-name, with Av = father appended (2 Samuel 14 ff).
And finally, but extremely importantly, we must note that the Salm/Shalem name was a priestly and/or dynastic title, given to the priest-king upon his succession, exactly as Ya'akov (Jacob) became Yisra-El. How do we know this? From 2 Samuel 12:25, when Shelomoh (Solomon) is born, and the prophet Natan is called by King David to bless the new-born son: "And he called his name Yedid-Yah (ידידיה), because of YHVH." Wonderfully symmetrical name. But the significance is that this was his name, and not Shelomoh/Solomon (though the redactor's careful mistranslation cannot be ignored: "because of the Lady" would have been better). We can presume, in fact, that David was not David's name either, any more than Pope John Paul is the Pope's real name. Daoud is common among Arabs. Both are diminutives of the same name Solomon was born with: Yedid-Yah – the beloved of the goddess. The Friday night welcoming of the Sabbath bride still sung today reflects another version of the same diminutive: Dodi, also meaning "beloved".
The name of the city also became the name of the king - Shelomoh (שלומה) = Solomon; the tenth son of David, by Bat-Sheva; king 1005-975BCE.
Copyright © 2015 David Prashker
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