BISHLAM

ISBE

bish'-lam (bishlam, "peaceful" (?)): One of three foreign colonists who wrote a letter of complaint against the Jews to Artaxerxes ( Ezr 4:7 = 1 Esdras 2:16). In 1 Esdras the reading is "Belemus." "And in the days of Artaxerxes wrote Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of his companions, unto Artaxerxes, king of Persia," etc. ( Ezr 4:7 ). The Septuagint renders Bishlam as en eirene, "in peace," as though it were a phrase rather than a proper name; this is clearly an error.