StrongerBible

asham

אָשַׁם

HebrewH0816“be guilty, bear guilt, ...”

Appears 35 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Lev 4:13Lev 4:22Lev 4:27Lev 5:2Lev 5:3Lev 5:4Lev 5:5Lev 5:17Lev 5:19 (2×)Lev 6:4(5:23)Num 5:6Num 5:7Jdg 21:222Ch 19:10 (2×)Psa 5:10(11)Psa 34:21(22)Psa 34:22(23)Pro 30:10Isa 24:6Jer 2:3Jer 50:7Ezk 6:6Ezk 22:4Ezk 25:12 (2×)Hos 4:15Hos 5:15Hos 10:2Hos 13:1Hos 13:16(14:1)Jol 1:18Hab 1:11Zec 11:5
Root family
Word studyah-SHAMverb

What asham means

to be guilty: to become answerable for wrongdoing, and so to bear its penalty

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This verb holds together two ideas English usually keeps apart: doing wrong and paying for it. To be guilty here is not just a feeling or a verdict in someone's mind; it is a real change in a person's standing that carries real consequences. The same word covers the moment a person crosses a line and the ruin that later falls on them for it.

One strand names the offense itself, the point at which someone incurs guilt. This is where the priestly laws use it again and again, in the steady refrain that a person who breaks a command is guilty and must make it right. The focus is on the fact of the wrong, not the punishment yet to come.

The other strand names the outcome: guilty people, and even their land and animals, are held to account and suffer for it. The prophets use the word this way when a nation is laid waste or a wrongdoer is destroyed. A rarer use turns the word outward, asking God to treat someone as guilty, that is, to condemn them.

Because the wrong and its penalty are wrapped into one word, translators have to choose which side to bring out in each verse, and often no single English word can carry both at once.

Nuances

1ato become guilty, to incur guilt by doing wrong
CertaintyContested
Lev 4:13Lev 4:22Lev 4:27Lev 5:2Lev 5:3Lev 5:4Lev 5:5Lev 5:17Lev 5:19 (2×)Lev 6:4(5:23)Num 5:6Num 5:7
1bto bear the consequences of guilt: to be held guilty and punished, to suffer for it, and of a land or people to be laid waste
Isa 24:6Jer 2:3Ezk 6:6Ezk 22:4Ezk 25:12 (2×)Hos 4:15Hos 5:15Hos 10:2Hos 13:1Hos 13:16(14:1)Jol 1:18Zec 11:5
1cto declare or treat someone as guilty, to condemn them
Psa 5:10(11)

Disputed

In the priestly laws of Leviticus, whether the verb means to incur guilt objectively, a change in standing before God, or to feel and realize one's guilt subjectively, the inner recognition that then leads to confession and the reparation offering.

  • minorityThe priestly usage is subjective: the person comes to feel or realize guilt, and this is the trigger for confession and the guilt-offering.; Jacob Milgrom, Cult and Conscience: The Asham and the Priestly Doctrine of Repentance (Leiden: Brill, 1976); Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16 (Anchor Bible; New York: Doubleday, 1991)
  • majorityThe verb keeps its objective force: the person becomes guilty and so is liable, with the consequential nuance of suffering for that guilt seen elsewhere in the prophets.; BDB, s.v. אשׁם; K. Koch, "אָשָׁם / אשׁם," TDOT 1:429-437

What scholars say about asham

Standard lexica (BDB; HALOT) treat the root as a single verb meaning to be or become guilty, with a well-attested extension to bearing guilt's penalty, being held guilty, and (of land or population) being laid waste; the Hiphil in Psalm 5:10 is causative, to declare or hold guilty. The most consequential debate is Jacob Milgrom's argument (Cult and Conscience; Leviticus 1-16, Anchor Bible) that in the priestly texts the verb denotes not the incurring of guilt but the subjective experience of guilt, feeling or realizing guilt, which then prompts confession and the reparation offering; this reading is followed by some and resisted by others who keep the objective become guilty or the consequential suffer for guilt. TWOT and TDOT survey the same range and the overlap of the verb with its related nouns for guilt, guilt-offering, and guiltiness.

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. אשׁםlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. אשׁםlexicon
  • K. Koch, "אָשָׁם / אשׁם," TDOT 1:429-437dictionary
  • R. L. Harris, "אשׁם," TWOT §180dictionary
  • Jacob Milgrom, Cult and Conscience: The Asham and the Priestly Doctrine of Repentance (Leiden: Brill, 1976)monograph
  • Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16 (Anchor Bible; New York: Doubleday, 1991)commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of אָשַׁם

qal consecutive-perfect 3ms

וְאָשֵׁם

Lev 4:22, Lev 4:27, Lev 5:2, Lev 5:3, Lev 5:4, Lev 5:17, Lev 6:4, Hab 1:11

qal imperfect 3mp

יֶאְשָׁמוּ, יֶאְשְׁמוּ

Psa 34:21, Jer 2:3, Hos 10:2, Zec 11:5, 2Ch 19:10, Psa 34:22, Hos 5:15

qal consecutive-imperfect 3mp

וַיֶּאְשְׁמוּ

Isa 24:6, Ezk 25:12

qal imperfect 2mp

תֶּאְשָׁמוּ

Jdg 21:22, 2Ch 19:10

qal infinitive-absolute absolute

אָשׁוֹם, אָשֹׁם

Ezk 25:12, Lev 5:19

qal perfect 3ms

אָשַׁם

Lev 5:19, Num 5:7

hiphil imperative 2ms

הַאֲשִׁימֵ

Psa 5:10

niphal perfect 3cp

נֶאְשָׁמוּ

Jol 1:18

qal conjunctive-imperfect 3mp

וְיֶאְשְׁמוּ

Ezk 6:6

qal consecutive-imperfect 3ms

וַיֶּאְשַׁם

Hos 13:1

qal consecutive-perfect 2ms

וְאָשָׁמְתָּ

Pro 30:10

qal consecutive-perfect 3cp

וְאָשֵׁמוּ

Lev 4:13

qal consecutive-perfect 3fs

וְאָשְׁמָה

Num 5:6

qal imperfect 1cp

נֶאְשָׁם

Jer 50:7

qal imperfect 3fs

תֶּאְשַׁם

Hos 13:16

qal imperfect 3ms

יֶאְשַׁם

Lev 5:5

qal jussive 3ms

יֶאְשַׁם

Hos 4:15

qal perfect 2fs

אָשַׁמְתְּ

Ezk 22:4