Ashamed

Ashamed - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

ASHA'MED, a.

1. Affected by shame; abashed or confused by guilt or a conviction of some criminal action or indecorous conduct, or by the exposure of some gross errors or misconduct, which the person is conscious must be wrong, and which tends to impair his honor or reputation. It is followed by of.

Thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed. Exo 16.

Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel. Hosea 10.

2. Confused by a consciousness of guilt or of inferiority; by the mortification of pride; by failure or disappointment.

They shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in images.

Isa 42.

[This adjective always follows its noun.]

Disgrace - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

DISGRACE, n. [dis and grace.]

1. A state of being out of favor; disfavor; disesteem; as, the minister retired from court in disgrace.

2. State of ignominy; dishonor; shame.

3. Cause of shame; as, to turn the back to the enemy is a foul disgrace; every vice is a disgrace to a rational being.

4. Act of unkindness. [Not used.]

DISGRACE, v.t.

1. To put out of favor; as, the minister was disgraced.

2. To bring a reproach on; to dishonor; as an agent. Men are apt to take pleasure in disgracing an enemy and his performance.

3. To bring to shame; to dishonor; to sink in estimation; as a cause; as, men often boast of actions which disgrace them.

Reproach - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

REPROACH, v.t. [L. prox, in proximus.]

1. To censure in terms of opprobrium or contempt.

Mezentius with his ardor warm'd his fainting friends, reproach'd their shameful flight, repell'd the victors.

2. To charge with a fault in severe language.

That shame there sit not, and reproach us as unclean.

3. To upbraid; to suggest blame for any thing. A man's conscience will reproach him for a criminal, mean or unworthy action.

4. To treat with scorn or contempt. Luke 6.

REPROACH, n.

1. Censure mingled with contempt or derision; contumelious or opprobrious language towards any person; abusive reflections; as foul-mouthed reproach.

2. Shame; infamy; disgrace.

Give not thine heritage to reproach. Joel 2. Isa 4.

3. Object of contempt, scorn or derision.

Come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we may be no more a reproach. Neh 2.

4. That which is the cause of shame or disgrace. Gen 30.

Shame - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

SHAME, n.

1. A painful sensation excited by a consciousness of guilt, or of having done something which injures reputation; or by of that which nature nature or modesty prompts us to conceal. Shame is particularly excited by the disclosure of actions which, in the view of men, are mean and degrading. Hence it it is often or always manifested by a downcast look or by blushes, called confusion of face.

Hide, for shame,

Romans, your grandsires' images,

That blush at their degenerate progeny. Dryden.

Shame prevails when reason is defeated. Rambler.

2. The cause or reason of shame; that which brings reproach, and degrades a person in the estimation of others. Thus an idol is called a shame.

Guides, who are the shame of religion. South.

3. Reproach; ignominy; derision; contempt.

Ye have born the shame of the heathen. Ezek 36.

4. The parts which modesty requires to be covered.

5. Dishonor; disgrace.

SHAME, v.t.

1. To make ashamed; to excite a consciousness of guilt or of doing something derogatory to reputation; to cause to blush.

Who shames a scribbler, breaks a cobweb through. Pope.

I write not these things to shame you. 1 Cor 4.

2. To disgrace.

And with foul cowardice his carcass shame. Spenser.

3. To mock at.

Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor. Psa 14.

SHAME, v.i. To be ashamed.

To its trunk authors give such a magnitude, as I shame to repeat. Raleigh.

a-shamd': Almost exclusively moral in significance; confusion or abashment through consciousness of guilt or of its exposure. Often including also a sense of terror or fear because of the disgrace connected with the performance of some action. Capacity for shame indicates that moral sense (conscience) is not extinct. "Ashamed" occurs 96 out of 118 times in the Old Testament. Hebrew bosh, "to feel shame" (Latin, pudere), with derivatives occurs 80 times; kalam, "to shame," including the thought of "disgrace," "reproach"; chapher, "to blush": hence shame because of frustrated plans (uniformly in the Revised Version (British and American) "confounded"); Greek aischunomai, "suffused with shame," passive only and its compounds. Uses:

(1) A few times, of actual embarrassment, as of Hazael before the steadfast look of Elisha (2Ki 8:11; see also 2Sa 10:5; 2Ki 2:17; Ezr 8:22).

(2) Innocence not capable of shame: "both naked .... and .... not ashamed" (Ge 2:25; see SHAME); the redeemed no occasion for (Ps 34:5 the King James Version; 1Joh 2:28); Christ not of "brethren" (Heb 2:11); nor Christian of gospel (Ro 1:16); nor God of men of faith (Heb 11:16); nor they who trust in God (Isa 50:7; 54:4; Joe 2:26).

(3) Sense of guilt: "I am ashamed .... for our iniquities" (Ezr 9:6); "of thy lewd way" (Eze 16:27,61); ascribed to idolaters chagrined at worthlessness of idols (Isa 1:29; 44:9,11; 45:16; Jer 2:26); to enemies (Ps 6:10); to wicked (Ps 31:17); to all who forsake God (Jer 17:13); to those who trust in human help, as Israel of Egypt and Assyria, and Moab of Chemosh (Jer 2:36; 48:13); to a mother of wicked children (Jer 50:12).

(4) Repentance causes shame for sin (Jer 31:19; Ro 6:21).

(5) Calamities also, and judgments (Jer 14:3,4; 15:9; 20:11).

(6) Capacity for shame may be lost through long-continued sin (Jer 6:15; 8:12; compare Jer 3:3), exceptionally striking passages on the deadening power of immorality, suggestive of 1Ti 4:2; Titus 1:15.

(7) The grace of Christ delivers from the shame of moral timidity (Ro 1:1; 2Ti 1:18,12,16;1Pe 4:16).

(8) At Christ's second coming His followers will "not be ashamed before him" (1Joh 2:28); at the final judgment He will be ashamed of all who have been ashamed of Him (Mr 8:38; Lu 9:26; compare Mt 10:33; Heb 11:16).

(9) The word lends itself to rich poetic use, e.g. Lebanon, with faded and falling foliage, "is ashamed" (the Revised Version (British and American) "confounded") at the desolations of the land under Sennacherib (Isa 33:9); so great is God's glory in the new Jerusalem that "the sun (is) ashamed" in His presence (Isa 24:23), explaining the glorious figure in Re 21:23; 22:5. (The references in this article are from the King James Version; the Revised Version (British and American) frequently replaces `ashamed' by `put to shame.') See SHAME.

Dwight M. Pratt

sham (bosh, "to be ashamed," bosheth, "shame," qalon; aischune, "ignominy," atimia, "dishonor," and other words): An oft-recurring word in Scripture almost uniformly bound up with a sense of sin and guilt. It is figuratively set forth as a wild beast (Jer 3:24), a Nessus-garment (Jer 3:25), a blight (Jer 20:18), a sin against one's own soul (Hab 2:10), and twice as the condensed symbol of Hebrew abomination--Baal (Jer 11:13 margin; Ho 9:10 margin; see ISH-BOSHETH). It is bracketed with defeat (Isa 30:3), reproach (Ps 69:7; Isa 54:4; Mic 2:6), confusion (Isa 6:7), nakedness (Isa 47:3; Mic 1:11), everlasting contempt (Da 12:2), folly (Pr 18:13), cruelty (Isa 50:6; Heb 12:2), poverty (Pr 13:18), nothingness (Pr 9:7 the King James Version), unseemliness (1Co 11:6; 14:35 the King James Version; Eph 5:12), and "them that go down to the pit" (Eze 32:25). In the first Biblical reference to this emotion, "shame" appears as "the correlative of sin and guilt" (Delitzsch, New Commentary on Genesis and Biblical Psychology). Shamelessness is characteristic of abandoned wickedness (Php 3:19; Jude 1:13, margin "Greek: `shames'"). Manifestly, then, shame is a concomitant of the divine judgment upon sin; the very worst that a Hebrew could wish for an enemy was that he might be clothed with shame (Ps 109:29), that the judgment of God might rest upon him visibly.

Naturally, to the Hebrew, shame was the portion of those who were idolaters, who were faithless to Yahweh or who were unfriendly to themselves--the elect people of Yahweh. Shame is to come upon Moab because Moab held Israel in derision (Jer 48:39,27), and upon Edom "for violence against his brother Jacob" (Ob 1:10). But also, and impartially, shame is the portion of faithless Israelites who deny Yahweh and follow after strange gods (Eze 7:18; Mic 7:10; Ho 10:6, and often). But shame, too, comes upon those who exalt themselves against God, who trust in earthly power and the show of material strength (2Ch 32:21; Isa 30:3); and upon those who make a mock of righteousness (Job 8:22; Ps 35:26; 132:18). With a fine sense of ethical distinctions the Biblical writers recognize that in confessing to a sense of shame there is hope for better things. Only in the most desperate cases is there no sense of shame (Ho 4:18; Ze 3:5; Php 3:19; Jude 1:13); in pardon God is said to remove shame (Isa 54:4 twice; Isa 61:7).

On conditions beyond the grave the Biblical revelation is exceedingly reticent, but here and there are hints that shame waits upon the wicked here and hereafter. Such an expression as that in Daniel (12:2) cannot be ignored, and though the writing itself may belong to a late period and a somewhat sophisticated theological development, the idea is but a reflection of the earlier and more elementary period, when the voice of crime and cruelty went up from earth to be heard in the audience chamber of God (Ge 4:11; 6:13). In the New Testament there is similar reticence but also similar implications. It cannot be much amiss to say that in the mind of the Biblical writers sin was a shameful thing; that part of the punishment for sin was a consciousness of guilt in the sense of shame; and that from this consciousness of guilt there was no deliverance while the sin was unconfessed and unforgiven. "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt." From one's own past there is no deliverance, save through contrition of spirit and the grace and forgiveness of God. While the sense of shame persists, or, in other words, while the moral constitution of man's nature remains as it is, there will never be wanting an avenger of sin.

Charles M. Stuart

Definition

The term “shame” refers to the painful feeling of being disgraced or humiliated that a person feels when they do something that others consider dishonorable or improper.

• Something that is “shameful” is “improper” or “dishonorable.”
• The term “ashamed” describes how a person feels when he has done something improper or dishonorable.
• The term “humiliate” means to cause someone to feel shamed or disgraced, usually publicly. The act of shaming someone is called “humiliation.”
• To “reproach” someone means to criticize or disapprove of that person’s character or behavior.
• The phrase “put to shame” means to defeat people or expose their actions so that they feel ashamed of themselves. The prophet Isaiah said that those who make and worship idols will be put to shame.
• The term “disgraceful” can be used to describe a sinful act or the person who did it. When a person does something sinful, it can cause him to be in a state of disgrace or dishonor.
• Sometimes a person who is doing good things is treated in a way that causes him disgrace or shame. For example, when Jesus was killed on a cross, this was a disgraceful way to die. Jesus had done nothing wrong to deserve this disgrace.
• When God humbles someone, it means that he is causing a prideful person to experience failure to help him overcome his pride. This is different from humiliating someone, which is often done in order to hurt that person.
• Saying that a person is “above reproach” or “beyond reproach” or “without reproach” means that this person behaves in a God-honoring way and there is little or nothing that could be said in criticism of him.

Translation Suggestions

• Ways to translate “disgrace” could include “shame” or “dishonor.”
• Ways to translate “disgraceful” could include “shameful” or “dishonoring.”
• To “humiliate” could also be translated as to “shame” or to “cause to feel shame” or to “embarrass.”
• Depending on the context, ways to translate “humiliation” could include “shame” or “degrading” or “disgrace.”
• The word “reproach” could also be translated as “accusation” or “shame” or “disgrace.”
• To “reproach” could also be translated as to “rebuke” or to “accuse” or to “criticize,” depending on the context.

(See also: dishonor, accuse, rebuke, false god, humble, Isaiah, worship)

Bible References

• 1 Peter 3:15-17
• 2 Kings 2:17
• 2 Samuel 13:13
• Luke 20:11
• Mark 8:38
• Mark 12:4-5
• 1 Timothy 3:7
• Genesis 34:7
• Hebrews 11:26
• Lamentations 2:1-2
• Psalms 22:6
• Deuteronomy 21:14
• Ezra 9:5
• Proverbs 25:7-8
• Psalms 6:8-10
• Psalms 123:3
• 1 Timothy 5:7-8
• 1 Timothy 6:13-14
• Jeremiah 15:15-16
• Job 16:9-10
• Proverbs 18:3

Word Data

• Strong’s: H0937, H0954, H0955, H1317, H1322, H1421, H1442, H1984, H2490, H2616, H2617, H2659, H2778, H2781, H2865, H3001, H3637, H3639, H3640, H3971, H5007, H5034, H5039, H6030, H6031, H6172, H6256, H7022, H7034, H7036, H7043, H7511, H7817, H8103, H8213, H8216, H8217, H8589, G01520, G01530, G04100, G04220, G04230, G08080, G08180, G08190, G08210, G17880, G17910, G18700, G26170, G30590, G36790, G36800, G36810, G38560, G50140, G51950, G51960, G54840