Public Enemy Number 1
May those who are enemies of my soul be put to shame and consumed; may they be covered with disgrace and dishonor, who seek to injure me. Psalm 71:13 NASB
Shame/ disgrace/ dishonor – Before the Greeks invented reward and punishment in the afterlife, Semitic societies focused ethical attention on contemporary experience. Cut off from the Egyptian preoccupation with the next world, the Hebrews’ view of punishment was public humiliation. The poet captures this idea in three important words: bôš, ḥerpâ, and kĕlimmâ. Knowing the differences between them fills in the picture.
bôš means “be ashamed, put to shame, be disconcerted, be disappointed.” “The primary meaning of this root is ‘to fall into disgrace, normally through failure, either of self or of an object of trust.’ . . . The word is often paralleled with kālam‘to be humiliated,’ and less frequently with ḥātat ‘to be shattered, dismayed.’”[1] Oswalt adds an important qualifier:
the force of bôš is somewhat in contrast to the primary meaning of the English “to be ashamed,” in that the English stresses the inner attitude, the state of mind, while the Hebrew means “to come to shame” and stresses the sense of public disgrace, a physical state.[2]
ḥārap “means ‘to reproach,’ with the specific connotation of casting blame or scorn on someone. . . . the word occurs in parallelism with nāʾaṣ (scorn, condemn) and in Prov 14:31 it is the antithesis of kābēd (honor) and may be understood as disgrace or dishonor.” [3]
Our last word, kālam, “denotes the sense of disgrace which attends public humiliation. In thirty cases the root is used in parallel with bôš “to be ashamed” (q.v.). Any distinction between the meanings of the two roots is therefore small. However, when kālam appears by itself it does not often have the idea of disgrace which comes through a failed trust (a prominent element in bôš). Rather it is a more general disgrace resulting from any kind of humiliation.”[4]
Notice that the psalmist doesn’t rely on just one of these derogative terms. He piles them up, one on top of another, creating a linguistic weight bearing down on his enemies. It’s like delivering three fatal blows, just to make sure the enemy is dead. And in a society where social reputation was the identifying substance of a man, firing all three rounds surely meant the end of that man’s existence. There’s no need for an afterlife accounting by the time the psalmist finishes.
Unfortunately, that’s not so true today. With the change from a social society to psychological introspection, with the revolution from public reputation to private individuality, these three words have been sufficiently denuded that we can actually elect officials whose public behavior is disgraceful. We can forgive men all kinds of dishonorable acts because “their hearts were in the right place,” or even more offensive, their private lives are their own business. Our faith becomes an inner belief rather than an outward practice. We have “Jesus in our hearts” while we extort the poor, abuse the public trust, and generally do what we wish. God isn’t part of our society. He belongs in some mysterious, veiled, conceptual spiritual realm. Church and state aren’t merely separated. They’re divorced.
But not in the Semitic world of the Hebrews. WYSIWYG is the biblical model. bôš, ḥārap, and kālam were the reason there aren’t any prisons in the Bible. There aren’t any therapists either.
Topical Index: bôš, ḥārap, kālam, disgrace, reproach, dishonor, shame, Psalm 71:13bôš, ḥārap, kālam, disgrace, reproach, dishonor, shame, Psalm 71:13
[1] Oswalt, J. N. (1999). 222 בּוֹשׁ. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 97). Chicago: Moody Press.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Mccomiskey, T. E. (1999). 749 חָרַף. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 325). Chicago: Moody Press.
[4] Oswalt, J. N. (1999). 987 כָלַם. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 443). Chicago: Moody Press.
