Shilem

שלם


Yet another of those names whose root is Shalom (שלם).

Genesis 46:24 names him as a son of Naphtali, who is called Shalum (שלם) in 1 Chronicles 7:13 (with a side-note that he and his brothers were sons of Bilhah, which leaves us wondering if Naphtali did the same as Re'u-Ven in Genesis 35:22). Numbers 26:49 names his tribe as the Shileymi (שלמי).

Not to be confused with the several kings named Shalum (שלם). The name is taken to mean "retribution", though this is patently a narrow definition based on a specific incident involving one of them: 2 Kings 15:10 ff names a king of Yisra-El, 773 BCE who was probably the eponym.

There may also be a king of Yehudah named Shalum, a son of King Yoshi-Yahu (יֹאשִׁיָּהוּ - Josiah), who Yirme-Yahu tells us (Jeremiah 22:11) took the throne when Yoshi-Yahu was killed at the battle of Megiddo by Pharaoh Nechoh II (נְכֹה) of Mitsrayim. However 2 Kings 23:30 states that the son who succeeded Yoshi-Yahu was named Yeho'achaz (יְהוֹאָחָז ), or probably Yahu-Achaz - though 2 Kings 13:1 thinks that this was the name of an earlier king, the son of Yehu (יֵהוּא) - and perhaps there were two.

And perhaps there was another son of Yoshi-Yahu who reigned later on? And indeed there was, but his name was El-Yakim (אֶלְיָקִים), though he changed it to Yeho'akim (יְהוֹיָקִים), or probably Yahu-Yakim; but definitely not Shalum.

2 Kings 22:14 has another Shalum as the husband of Chuldah the prophetess, and several others are mentioned: in Ezra 2:42, 7:2, 10:24 and 10:42; Nehemiah 3:12 and 7:45; 1 Chronicles 2:40 et al.


See notes to Shelomoh for a fuller explanation of the Shalom name and the cult of the sun-god to which it relates.

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