StrongerBible

kalam

כָּלַם

HebrewH3637ashamed, humiliated, ...

Appears 38 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Num 12:14Jdg 18:7Rut 2:151Sa 20:341Sa 25:71Sa 25:152Sa 10:52Sa 19:3(4)1Ch 19:52Ch 30:15Ezr 9:6Job 11:3Job 19:3Psa 35:4Psa 40:14(15)Psa 44:9(10)Psa 69:6(7)Psa 70:2(3)Psa 74:21Pro 25:8Pro 28:7Isa 41:11Isa 45:16Isa 45:17Isa 50:7Isa 54:4Jer 3:3Jer 6:15Jer 8:12Jer 14:3Jer 22:22Jer 31:19Ezk 16:27Ezk 16:54Ezk 16:61Ezk 36:32Ezk 43:10Ezk 43:11
Root family
Word studykah-LAMverb

What kalam means

to be shamed or to shame someone: to suffer or inflict public disgrace and loss of honor

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

This word lives in a world where honor is everything and its opposite, disgrace, is a real wound. It covers both sides of one experience: being brought low in the eyes of others, and doing that to someone else. When a person is on the receiving end, they are humiliated, dishonored, exposed, or defeated, whether by an enemy, by public failure, or by their own sin catching up with them. When a person is the cause, they are insulting, mistreating, or shaming another.

The three senses below are not different words but different angles on the same loss of standing. The first is the raw experience of being disgraced, often through defeat or public exposure. The second turns inward: shame felt as remorse, especially the healthy shame a guilty person feels before God, the kind that leads to repentance. The prophets prize this sense so highly that they treat the inability to feel it as its own indictment. The third is the active side: to humiliate, insult, or mistreat someone, robbing them of their dignity.

Because honor and shame carried social weight that modern readers can miss, a single English word rarely does the job. Translators reach for ashamed, humiliated, disgraced, put to shame, insulted, or mistreated depending on the verse, and each catches only part of what the original holds.

Nuances

1ato be humiliated or disgraced: brought low in public by defeat, exposure, or dishonor
2Sa 10:52Sa 19:3(4)1Ch 19:5Psa 35:4Psa 40:14(15)Psa 44:9(10)Psa 69:6(7)Psa 70:2(3)Isa 41:11Isa 45:16Isa 45:17Isa 54:4
1bto be ashamed: to feel shame or remorse, especially the contrition a guilty person feels before God
2Ch 30:15Ezr 9:6Isa 50:7Jer 3:3Jer 6:15Jer 8:12Jer 31:19Ezk 16:54Ezk 16:61Ezk 36:32Ezk 43:10Ezk 43:11
1cto humiliate, insult, or mistreat: to strip another person of honor and dignity
Jdg 18:7Rut 2:151Sa 20:341Sa 25:71Sa 25:15Job 11:3Job 19:3Pro 25:8Pro 28:7

What scholars say about kalam

The standard lexica (BDB, HALOT, DCH) treat H3637 as a single root meaning to be humiliated, disgraced, or put to shame, with the niphal for the experience of shame (passive and reflexive), the hiphil for causing it (to humiliate, insult, treat with contempt), and the hophal as its passive. It belongs to the shame-honor semantic field alongside בּוֹשׁ H0954 and חָפֵר H2659, with which it is repeatedly paired (Isa 45:16, 54:4; Jer 14:3; Ps 35:4). The lexica note its concentration in laments and prophetic oracles, where being put to shame denotes defeat and public dishonor, and its distinctive prophetic development (Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Ezra) in which the niphal names the salutary shame of contrition that accompanies repentance; the inversion in Jer 6:15 and 8:12, where the wicked no longer know how to feel shame, is widely cited. See TWOT and NIDOTTE (s.v. כלם) for the honor-shame background and the theological trajectory.

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. כלםlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. כלםlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. כלםlexicon
  • TWOT 987, s.v. כלםtheological-dictionary
  • NIDOTTE, s.v. כלםtheological-dictionary

All attested forms of כָּלַם

niphal conjunctive-imperfect 3mp

וְיִכָּלְמוּ

Psa 35:4, Psa 40:14, Psa 70:2, Isa 41:11, Ezk 43:10

niphal consecutive-perfect 2fs

וְנִכְלַמְתְּ

Jer 22:22, Ezk 16:54, Ezk 16:61

niphal participle m p absolute

נִכְלָמִים, נִּכְלָמִים

2Sa 10:5, 1Ch 19:5, 2Sa 19:3

niphal perfect 1cs

נִכְלַמְתִּי, נִכְלָמְתִּי

Ezr 9:6, Jer 31:19, Isa 50:7

niphal perfect 3cp

נִכְלְמוּ

2Ch 30:15, Isa 45:16, Ezk 43:11

hiphil imperfect 2mp

תַּכְלִימוּ

Rut 2:15, Job 19:3

hiphil infinitive-construct construct

הַכְלִים

Pro 25:8, Jer 6:15

hiphil participle m s absolute

מַכְלִים, מַכְלִם

Jdg 18:7, Job 11:3

niphal infinitive-construct construct

הִכָּלֵם

Jer 3:3, Jer 8:12

hiphil consecutive-imperfect 2ms

וַתַּכְלִימֵ

Psa 44:9

hiphil imperfect 3ms

יַכְלִים

Pro 28:7

hiphil perfect 1cp

הֶכְלַמְנוּ

1Sa 25:7

hiphil perfect 3ms

הִכְלִמ

1Sa 20:34

hophal perfect 1cp

הָכְלַמְנוּ

1Sa 25:15

hophal perfect 3cp

הָכְלְמוּ

Jer 14:3

niphal imperative 2mp

הִכָּלְמוּ

Ezk 36:32

niphal imperfect 2mp

תִכָּלְמוּ

Isa 45:17

niphal imperfect 3fs

תִכָּלֵם

Num 12:14

niphal jussive 2fs

תִּכָּלְמִי

Isa 54:4

niphal jussive 3mp

יִכָּלְמוּ

Psa 69:6

niphal participle f p absolute

נִּכְלָמוֹת

Ezk 16:27

niphal participle m s absolute

נִכְלָם

Psa 74:21