Hiding in plain sight: Identifying implicit markers of בוש in Hebrew narrative

Although shame is frequently evoked by the biblical writers for ethical ends, many recent studies impose either a shame-honour binary or limit shame to an extrinsic, social construct shorn of moral connotations. The result is a deficient understanding of the nuances of shame and its literary and rhetorical functions within the Hebrew Bible. This lacuna is even more pronounced in narrative texts whose laconic style means that shame dynamics may be present even without the use of technical terms. Accordingly, this article investigates the semantic domain of בושׁ‎ in the Hebrew Bible. Exploring associated lexemes, collocations, and motifs not only aids definitional clarity but identifies a matrix of attendant shame markers. That these markers can indicate the operation of shame apart from specific lexeme use is confirmed through an analysis of Genesis 38. The Judah-Tamar episode implicitly evokes shame to aid characterisation, which, in turn, supports the goal of ethical formation.