Properly, to pale , i.e. by implication to be ashamed ; also (by implication) to be disappointed or delayed
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H954, bosh, is a Hebrew verb for being ashamed, disgraced, humiliated, or disappointed, with an intensive use for delay. It describes the absence of shame in Eden, Moses' delay on Sinai, hopes that end in disappointment, people ashamed before God, enemies put to shame, speakers determined not to disgrace others, and communities promised that they will no longer bear public humiliation.
Reader summary
Full entry for בּוּשׁ (H954) · Open the biblical lexicon
H954, bosh, is a Hebrew verb for being ashamed, disgraced, humiliated, or disappointed, with an intensive use for delay. It describes the absence of shame in Eden, Moses' delay on Sinai, hopes that end in disappointment, people ashamed before God, enemies put to shame, speakers determined not to disgrace others, and communities promised that they will no.
The BSB source-word alignment has 125 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include be put to shame (19), be ashamed (13), will be ashamed (7), will be put to shame (7), and ashamed (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 2:25. Its strongest book concentrations include Jeremiah (35), Psalms (34), Isaiah (21), Proverbs (6).
H954, bosh, is a Hebrew verb for being ashamed, disgraced, humiliated, or disappointed, with an intensive use for delay. It describes the absence of shame in Eden, Moses' delay on Sinai, hopes that end in disappointment, people ashamed before God, enemies put to shame, speakers determined not to disgrace others, and communities promised that they will no longer bear public humiliation. Causative forms can describe bringing disgrace. The word therefore touches conscience, reputation, failed expectation, social exposure, covenant judgment, and vindication, but those experiences are not morally identical.
Scripture distinguishes fitting shame from shame imposed on the innocent. Ezra is ashamed by communal guilt, Jeremiah describes repentance that recognizes a destructive past, and Jeremiah also condemns leaders who commit abomination without knowing how to blush. By contrast, Psalms ask that those who trust in the Lord not be put to shame, Isaiah promises restoration to Zion, and the servant sets his face like flint because the Lord God helps him. Shame can alert a conscience to real wrong, but humiliation can also be a weapon used by enemies, families, rulers, or religious communities. The passage must establish whether shame corresponds to truth and who has authority to judge.
Pastoral use should resist both shameless harm and toxic shame. Repentance names sin, receives mercy, makes restitution, and changes direction; it does not require a person to accept a permanent identity of disgust. Survivors of abuse, people living with disability or poverty, and those carrying bodily or sexual shame should not be assigned another person's guilt. Genesis 2's lack of shame belongs to unbroken mutual life and must not be used to override privacy or consent. Promises of no shame announce God's vindication and restoration, not immunity from embarrassment, criticism, delay, or every failed plan.
H954 ranges from unashamed mutuality and literal delay to disappointed expectation, accountable remorse, shameless wrongdoing, public disgrace, courageous testimony, and God's promised vindication of those who trust Him.
And the man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed.
Before rupture enters the narrative, the couple's nakedness carries no fear, contempt, exploitation, or concealment. The verse describes mutual innocence and does not cancel privacy or consent.
Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!”
An intensive form means that Moses was delayed. The people's response to uncertainty becomes idolatrous substitution, showing that waiting can expose what a community trusts.
And said: “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, because our iniquities are higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached the heavens.
Ezra voices corporate confession before God. His shame names covenant guilt rather than despising ethnicity, bodies, or ordinary human limitation.
They are confounded because they had hoped; their arrival brings disappointment.
Job compares unreliable friends to seasonal streams that disappear when travelers need water. Shame here is the collapse of an expected source of help.
They cried out to You and were set free; they trusted in You and were not disappointed.
The lament remembers earlier generations whose trust was not finally put to shame. Memory intensifies the speaker's present cry rather than denying his current distress.
Surely none who wait for You will be put to shame; but those who engage in treachery without cause will be disgraced.
The psalm distinguishes hopeful waiting from causeless treachery. Vindication belongs to covenant trust, while disgrace answers betrayal rather than social weakness.
May those who hope in You not be ashamed through me, O Lord God of Hosts; may those who seek You not be dishonored through me, O God of Israel.
The psalmist worries that his public suffering or conduct could discourage other worshipers. Concern for communal effect coexists with his protest against unjust hostility.
I will speak of Your testimonies before kings, and I will not be ashamed.
Freedom from shame enables truthful public witness before power. Courage is attached to God's testimony, not to reckless certainty about every personal opinion.
But Israel will be saved by the Lord with an everlasting salvation; you will not be put to shame or humiliated, to ages everlasting.
Israel's promised salvation reverses the public humiliation of exile and false worship. The promise must not be detached from Israel or turned into contempt for Jewish people.
Because the Lord God helps Me, I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set My face like flint, and I know that I will not be put to shame.
The servant's resolve rests on divine help while opposition remains real. Vindication does not mean the servant avoids mistreatment; it means hostility will not establish the final verdict.
Do not be afraid, for you will not be put to shame; do not be intimidated, for you will not be humiliated. For you will forget the shame of your youth and will remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.
Zion receives a promise that social humiliation and desolation will not define her future. Widowhood language addresses a personified city and must not stigmatize widowed people.
Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse,” says the Lord.
Leaders and people have lost moral responsiveness to grave wrongdoing. The problem is not insufficient social embarrassment but refusal to recognize and turn from abomination.
After I returned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh in grief. I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’
Ephraim's remorse follows return and instruction within a chapter of divine compassion. Shame belongs to repentance's truth, not to permanent rejection.
You will have plenty to eat, until you are satisfied. You will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you. My people will never again be put to shame.
Restored food, worship, and public standing answer communal devastation. The promise joins material provision to covenant praise rather than reducing shame to a private feeling.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Shame rooted in visible paleness; moving from physical exposure to social humiliation and disappointed hope.
Shame rooted in visible paleness; moving from physical exposure to social humiliation and disappointed hope.
properly, to pale, i.e. by implication to be ashamed; also (by implication) to be disappointed or delayed BDB: be ashamed Usage: (be, make, bring to, cause, put to, with, a-) shamed(-d), be (put to) confounded(-fusion), become dry, delay, be long.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 114 lexical occurrence verses.
בּוּשׁ is a primitive root - no further derivation.
The proverb warns that neglected responsibility leads to disgrace.Hosea 10:1-8
Outcome of idolatrous trust.Proverbs 10:5
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H954 exposes shame as a contested moral and social experience. Eden begins with mutual nakedness without shame, while Exodus uses the same root's intensive form for Moses' delay. Job describes disappointed travelers, Ezra confesses actual guilt, Jeremiah condemns people who cannot blush at abomination, and the psalms ask that trusting worshipers not be disgraced.
Isaiah and Joel promise that God's restored people will no longer carry public humiliation, and the servant refuses to let opposition define the final verdict. Faithful ministry therefore distinguishes conviction from contempt. Conviction names a real wrong and leads toward confession, repair, and mercy; toxic shame says a person is irredeemably disgusting or assigns another person's guilt to them.
Churches should protect privacy and consent, reject public humiliation as control, help offenders make truthful restitution, and announce that God's vindication can restore a name without falsifying the past.
Ps.25.3
H954 occurs across Qal, causative, and intensive verbal patterns. Most uses concern being ashamed, disappointed, or put to shame; causative forms can bring disgrace, while Exodus 32 uses an intensive form for delay. The selected artifact count is lower than the direct word-table denominator, so the 125 governed BSB tokens control quotations and passage range.
The New Testament places shame and reproach around Jesus' cross, then declares His resurrection and exaltation as divine vindication. Believers are told not to be ashamed of faithful witness while still confessing real wrongdoing. Christian freedom from condemnation must never become freedom from accountability, and union with Christ gives a new identity without denying harms that require repair.