I am working on a book about shame language in the Hebrew Bible. My basic argument is that the three main shame words - bosh, herpah, and kelim - haven’t been very well delineated and that thinking about their meaning with respect to a modern psychological shame framework might help us understand the nuance better, As part of this work, I re-read the David and Goliath story found in 1 Samuel 17.1
(Photo by Astrid Schaffner on Unsplash)
First off, I found it really interesting that through most of the section Goliath is not named but rather referred to as ‘the Philistine.’2 I have no idea if there has been work done around this but it piqued my interest becuase of the way women often go unnamed in the text.
To recap the story, the Philistine army is on one hill and the Israelite army3 is on another. And Goliath yells out to the Israelites “Wanna fight? But lets make it mano a mano.4 Loser becomes the winners servant.” Goliath is a huge dude, so Saul (current Israelite king) and ‘all Israel’ are super afraid.
1 Samuel 17:10 says:
And the Philistine said, “Today I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man, that we may fight together.” (NRSVUE)
This word trasnslated as defy comes from the root herpah (חרף), which I argue is the action of shaming, and is more often translated as reproach, taunt or mock. Most of the English translations choose the word defy in this verse, the Good News, and Contempary English version being notable exceptions which choose the word ‘challenge.’
It occurs five times in this chapter, in verses 10, 25, 26, 36 and 45. Four of those times it is translated as defy, but in verse 26 it is translated as reproach. Now, the four times it is translated as defy share a similar verbal form, they are all in the piel, while verse 26 is an abstract. However, this doesn’t really explain why the translators would choose defy here when many other instances of herpah in the piel form are translated as scorned (Judges 5:18) or taunted (Judges 8:15).5
You might be asking yourself: what is your point? or why is this important? or who really cares?
Firstly, I care. And it might be becuase I am a Bible nerd or shame fiend and I am OK with all of that.
Secondly, I think it’s important becuase just in this last week, I again read a sermon that argued that shame is good and shaming is what God does to make us be good. All the research on shame says this is not true, and in fact this is a super harmful message. I hope that perhaps diving deeply into understandings of shame might challenge/undo/counteract some of this messaging.
I am still wrestling with the first question.
I think that using the word defy here does fit within the narrative. I am not arguing that Goliath is not defying Israel. However, I think we understand the story differently when we replace defy with shame. ‘Today I shame the ranks of Israel!’ lands very differently than ‘Today I defy the ranks of Israel.’ Shaming the ranks of Israel is achieved by demonstrating their inferiority. Shame is all about feeling less than, and if the Israelite army is shamed and shown to be not good enough, then by extension the whole nation of Israel is also shamed.
The army here can be read as a synedoche for the nation. The army - which is made up of exclusively men - represents the whole. (When men are shamed, it leaks out and sticks to others including women and children). The army is able to prove their worth through going into battle and killing other men (and raping the women and stealing some booty).
The research into shame still points to the fact that shame for men is primarily about not being ‘man’ enough, - strong, violent, emotionless - all the things we associate with toxic masculinity. And in this text, which we teach to our children in Sunday School, the moral is that even though David was much physically weaker than Goliath, with God’s help he managed to KILL the enemy. But it’s OK becuase the enemy is bad, and God’s people are good. Goliath is bad, David is good. Killing is justifiable when God is on your side……..
I wonder what would happen if we read this as: when Israel felt ashamed, their reaction was to kill someone. And the ten commandments include an warning against killing. And perhaps this should be a warning to us about what shame can lead us to do, and to justify, and to hold up as an example.
And perhaps we should be more ambivalent about this kind of violence in the text, instead of holding it up as a wonderful example of victory over the other.
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Please feel free to:
I will generally be using the NRSVUE for transaltions becuase it is fairly accurate to the original languages - noting that all translation is an act of creative writing. Marg Mowczko does a pretty good job of outlining some of the issues in translation HERE.
He is introduced in verse 4 as Goliath and also named in verse 23, in verses 10, 11, 16, 23, 40,41,42, 43 (twice), 44, 45, 48 (twice), 49, 50 (twice), 51, 54, 55 and 57(twice).
The text says they are in the territory of Judah, but it pretty consistently refers to it as the Israelite army.
Literally hand-to-hand, but in general usage is used to convey the idea of one on one.
These are just two instances I had to hand becuase I am working on shame language in the Former Prophets. Hopefully, at some point you will be able to buy the book and see a more comprehensive overview.