Reference: Shame
Hastings
1. In the first Biblical reference to this emotion (Ge 2:25; cf. Ge 3:7) 'shame' appears as 'the correlative of sin and guilt'; it is 'the overpowering feeling that inward harmony and satisfaction with oneself are disturbed' (Delitzsch, Com., in loc.). From the OT point of view the crowning shame is idolatry: 'As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they say to a stock, Thou art my father' (Jer 2:26; cf. Isa 41:11; 42:17). The all-inclusive promise to those who trust in God is 'none that wait on thee shall be ashamed' (Ps 25:3 RV; cf. Ps 119:8,30; Isa 45:16 f., Isa 49:23; 54:4 f., Jer 17:13; Joe 2:25 f., Ro 5:5; 9:33; 10:11). The absence of shame is always regarded as an aggravation of sinful conduct: Job (Job 19:3) reproaches his friends because they are 'not ashamed' of dealing hardly with him; the climax of Jeremiah's complaint (Jer 6:15) against those who had 'committed abomination' is that 'they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush' (cf. Jer 8:12; Zep 3:5,11). The culmination of shamelessness is seen in those 'whose glory is in their shame' (Php 3:19); but in this passage, as elsewhere (Isa 50:3; cf. Pr 10:5; 25:3), 'shame' is, by a natural transference of ideas, applied not to the inward feeling, but to its outward cause. The degradation of those 'whose god is their belly' is seen in their boasting of conduct which ought to have made them ashamed of their perversion of gospel liberty into sinful licence. The return of shame is a sign of true repentance: 'then shalt thou remember thy ways and be ashamed' (Eze 16:61, cf. Ezr 9:6).
2. The consciousness of shame varies with the conventional standards adopted in any society. For example, poverty (Pr 13:18), leprosy (Nu 12:14), widowhood (Isa 54:4) may be viewed as involving 'shame,' though there is no blame. In the sense of violation of propriety St. Paul applies the word to men who wear their hair long and to women who wear it short (1Co 11:6,14, cf. 1Co 6:5; 14:35); by an analogous adaptation of its meaning he describes God's ideal 'workman' as one 'that needeth not to be ashamed' (2Ti 2:15).
3. In the NT sin is pre-eminently the shameful thing (Ro 6:21; Php 3:19; Eph 5:12; Jude 1:13; 1Jo 2:28; cf. 1Jo 3:6). But the distinguishing characteristic of the early 'Christian use of the word is' the trans valuation of values.' 'Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith,
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And they are both of them naked, the man and his wife, and they are not ashamed of themselves.
and the eyes of them both are opened, and they know that they are naked, and they sew fig-leaves, and make to themselves girdles.
And Jehovah saith unto Moses, 'And her father had but spat in her face -- is she not ashamed seven days? she is shut out seven days at the outside of the camp, and afterwards she is gathered.'
and say, 'O my God, I have been ashamed, and have blushed to lift up, O my God, my face unto Thee, for our iniquities have increased over the head, and our guilt hath become great unto the heavens.
These ten times ye put me to shame, ye blush not. Ye make yourselves strange to me --
Also let none waiting on Thee be ashamed, Let the treacherous dealers without cause be ashamed.
Whoso is gathering in summer is a wise son, Whoso is sleeping in harvest is a son causing shame.
Whoso is refusing instruction -- poverty and shame, And whoso is observing reproof is honoured.
The heavens for height, and the earth for depth, And the heart of kings -- are unsearchable.
Lo, all those displeased with thee, They are ashamed and blush, They are as nothing, yea, perish Do the men who strive with thee.
Removed backward -- utterly ashamed, Are those trusting in a graven image, Those saying to a molten image, 'Ye are our gods.'
They have been ashamed, And they have even blushed -- all of them, Together gone in confusion have those carving images.
And kings have been thy nursing fathers, And their princesses thy nursing mothers; Face to the earth -- they bow down to thee, And the dust of thy feet they lick up, And thou hast known that I am Jehovah, That those expecting Me are not ashamed.
I clothe the heavens with blackness, And sackcloth I make their covering.
And desolate cities they cause to be inhabited. Fear not, for thou art not ashamed, Nor blush, for thou art not confounded, For the shame of thy youth thou forgettest, And the reproach of thy widowhood Thou dost not remember any more.
And desolate cities they cause to be inhabited. Fear not, for thou art not ashamed, Nor blush, for thou art not confounded, For the shame of thy youth thou forgettest, And the reproach of thy widowhood Thou dost not remember any more.
As the shame of a thief when he is found, So put to shame have been the house of Israel, They, their kings, their heads, And their priests, and their prophets,
They were ashamed when they did abomination! Yea, they are not at all ashamed, Yea, blushing they have not known, Therefore they do fall among those falling, In the time I have inspected them, They stumble, said Jehovah.
They were ashamed when they did abomination! Yea, they are not at all ashamed, And blushing they have not known, Therefore, they do fall among falling ones, In the time of their inspection they stumble, said Jehovah.
The hope of Israel is Jehovah, All forsaking Thee are ashamed, And 'My apostates' in the earth are written, For they have forsaken Jehovah, A fountain of living waters.
And thou hast remembered thy ways, And thou hast been ashamed, In thy receiving thy sisters -- Thine elder with thy younger, And I have given them to thee for daughters, And not by thy covenant.
And I have recompensed to you the years That consume did the locust, the cankerworm, And the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, My great force that I did send against you.
Jehovah is righteous in her midst, He doth not do perverseness, Morning by morning His judgment he giveth to the light, It hath not been lacking, And the perverse doth not know shame.
In that day thou art not ashamed because of any of thine actions, Wherewith thou hast transgressed against Me, For then do I turn aside from thy midst The exulting ones of thine excellency, And thou dost add no more to be haughty, In My holy mountain.
for whoever may be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also shall be ashamed of him, when he may come in the glory of his Father, with the holy messengers.'
'For whoever may be ashamed of me, and of my words, of this one shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he may come in his glory, and the Father's, and the holy messengers';
for I am not ashamed of the good news of the Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation to every one who is believing, both to Jew first, and to Greek.
and the hope doth not make ashamed, because the love of God hath been poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit that hath been given to us.
what fruit, therefore, were ye having then, in the things of which ye are now ashamed? for the end of those is death.
according as it hath been written, 'Lo, I place in Sion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence; and every one who is believing thereon shall not be ashamed.'
for the Writing saith, 'Every one who is believing on him shall not be ashamed,'
unto your shame I speak: so there is not among you one wise man, not even one, who shall be able to discern in the midst of his brethren!
for if a woman is not covered -- then let her be shorn, and if it is a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven -- let her be covered;
doth not even nature itself teach you, that if a man indeed have long hair, a dishonour it is to him?
and if they wish to learn anything, at home their own husbands let them question, for it is a shame to women to speak in an assembly.
And for me, let it not be -- to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which to me the world hath been crucified, and I to the world;
for the things in secret done by them it is a shame even to speak of,
whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who the things on earth are minding.
whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who the things on earth are minding.
therefore thou mayest not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but do thou suffer evil along with the good news according to the power of God,
for which cause also these things I suffer, but I am not ashamed, for I have known in whom I have believed, and have been persuaded that he is able that which I have committed to him to guard -- to that day.
may the Lord give kindness to the house of Onesiphorus, because many times he did refresh me, and of my chain was not ashamed,
be diligent to present thyself approved to God -- a workman irreproachable, rightly dividing the word of the truth;
for both he who is sanctifying and those sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
but now they long for a better, that is, an heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God, for He did prepare for them a city.
looking to the author and perfecter of faith -- Jesus, who, over-against the joy set before him -- did endure a cross, shame having despised, on the right hand also of the throne of God did sit down;
and if as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; and let him glorify God in this respect;
And now, little children, remain in him, that when he may be manifested, we may have boldness, and may not be ashamed before him, in his presence;
every one who is remaining in him doth not sin; every one who is sinning, hath not seen him, nor known him.
wild waves of a sea, foaming out their own shames; stars going astray, to whom the gloom of the darkness to the age hath been kept.