Aramaic Word Study – One’s Comeuppance – Shilluma   שלמתרשעין  Shin Lamed Mem Taw    Resh Shin Ayin Yod Nun

Peace in the Midst of Evil

Psalms 91:8: “Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.”

Leave it to the KJV to come up with a word that in the twenty-first century sounds like an absurdity.  The wicked are going to get a reward.  Today the word reward is a reference to something good and valuable.  Obviously, that is not what the Psalmist meant. A common question I get is which translation is the most accurate.  Well, that all depends upon how you view certain words in the English.  The Hebrew word gives us an idea, a picture and it is up to us to determine which English word best fits that picture for our own understanding.   Some people are so used to throwing that word reward around for someone getting their comeuppance that reward is probably the best word for them.  Others, with a more literal mindset, would probably wonder why the wicked should be given good things.  To them, the word punishment might be a better fit.  To someone less formal the word comeuppance, or just desserts has a special meaning. 

In the Hebrew, the word rendered as a reward in English is shillumah which actually comes from the same root as shalom. I am sure you recognize that word, it means peace.  So how is a word which means peace supposed to be spun around to mean something bad? Actually, in its Semitic root, it simply means a completion.  Peace is the feeling of completion, that everything has now come together, all is as it should be.  Interesting that the Psalmist does not speak of the punishment of the wicked, or the destruction of the wicked but expresses the idea that in the end, all will be as it should be.  What happens to the wicked is shillumah what it should be.  I am sure we can imagine all sorts of things we would like to see happen to the wicked, but ultimately the wicked are not being punished, whipped, or spanked.  They are simply living out the natural course and end results of their wickedness. 

I drove a young woman on my disability bus the other day.  She is disabled with a back and leg injury from an auto accident.  Her disability is considered permanent and she lives with chronic pain.  The accident was not her fault.  Her husband was driving her to the store to get some milk for their baby while her mother watched the child. You know just an excuse to have a little mommy and daddy time alone together. They were waiting for a light when a car comes speeding in the opposite direction and slammed into their vehicle.  The driver quickly drove off but fortunately, a police officer was nearby and caught the driver.  The driver was DUI and left the scene of the accident.  He only had $25,000 in liability insurance which did not begin to cover the medical cost or the cost of the car that he totaled out.   

This woman and her husband had to pay the $500 deductible on their car, she has continuing medical expenses with a high deductible and co-pays on her health insurance, plus she will live the rest of her life in pain.  The drunk driver was given probation, he is still driving and they cannot get one cent from him because he has no job or money, he is living on disability payments for being an alcoholic.  He lived two houses from them and would come around almost daily and mock them from their back yard.  As soon as they replaced their car this, shall we call him a rasha’ wicked man, scratched the entire car with a key.  They saw him do it, reported it but could not prove he did it and he just came back again and laughed at them because he was getting away with it.  They finally had to move out of town just to get away from the guy. 

Does that sound like a wicked rasha’ man, sounds like a rasha’ wicked man to me?  The word in Hebrew in this verse for wicked is rasha’ which is someone who is morally wrong, ungodly, does wrong, and even the lexicon says “a bad person.”  It comes from an old Aramaic word meaning to be disjointed loose of limbs.  The idea is that it is someone who is not normal.  

I asked this young woman if she was bitter.  She replied that she could not help but be bitter, especially when he is not only getting away with it all but laughing at them about it. I quoted Psalms 91:8.  The word see is used two times in this verse.  The first time it is the word ayin which means to see with physical eyes.  The second time is the word ra’ah which is to see both with physical and spiritual eyes.  Ra’ah, however, is commonly a reference to spiritual sight. 

I told her that one day she will see the completion of this wicked person. If not in this physical world, then definitely in the world to come or the spiritual world.  His drunkenness, his drug addiction and his hatred for the world  will have a natural result, conclusion and completion.  God does not have to punish him. Unless he repents and turns from his wicked way, his wickedness will eventually come to a completion and it won’t be pretty and all those who were victims of his wickedness will see the completion of his wickedness. 

You know in the Western world we think of shalom – peace as something wonderful and positive. Yet in the Semitic eyes, peace can have both a positive and negative side.  There are only two possible outcomes from this situation with this young woman who is struggling with bitterness. Either this man will repent and seek forgiveness from her out of which she will have to forgive him and thus she will find peace.  If this man never repents, she will still have peace as her physical or spiritual eyes will behold the completion of rasha’s wickedness.

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