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 were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked: and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made for themselves aprons.
And the LORD said to Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her be received again.
And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up to the heavens.
These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.
Also, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed who transgress without cause.
I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly.
I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me.
He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.
Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction: but he that regardeth reproof shall be honored.
The heaven for hight, and the earth for depth, and the heart of kings is unsearchable.
Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that contend with thee shall perish.
They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.
They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols.
And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow to thee with their face towards the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.
I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.
Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame; for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.
Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame; for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.
As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed: they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets,
Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? no, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.
Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? no, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.
O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.
Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thy elder and thy younger: and I will give them to thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant.
And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker-worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, my great army which I sent among you.
The just LORD is in the midst of her; he will not do iniquity: every morning doth he bring his judgment to light, he faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame.
In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings, in which thou hast transgressed against me: for then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain.
Whoever therefore shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also will the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
For whoever shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, of him will the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in that of his Father, and of the holy angels.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God to salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.
What fruit had ye then in those things of which ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone, and rock of offense: and whoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
For the scripture saith, whoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that will be able to judge between his brethren?
For if the woman is not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it is a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered.
Doth not even nature itself teach you, that if a man hath long hair, it is a shame to him?
And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home; for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.
But may it never be that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.
For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.
Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;
For which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day.
The Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus; for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain:
Study to show thyself approved to God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
For both he that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city.
Looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Yet if any man suffereth as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
And now, little children, abide in him; that when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
Whoever abideth in him sinneth not: whoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.
Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.