B-Hebrew: The Biblical Hebrew Forum

Jeremiah 50:12 ירמיה
50:12 בּ֤וֹשָׁה אִמְּכֶם֙ מְאֹ֔ד חָפְרָ֖ה יֽוֹלַדְתְּכֶ֑ם הִנֵּה֙ אַחֲרִ֣ית גּוֹיִ֔ם מִדְבָּ֖ר צִיָּ֥ה וַעֲרָבָֽה׃

Jewish Public Society 1917
50:12
Your mother shall be sore ashamed,
She that bore you shall be confounded;
Behold, the hindermost of the nations
Shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

Does this translation make sense for the word בּ֤וֹשָׁה ? Shouldn't the verb be בשה ?

Hi Kenneth,

This root acts in Qal in a different way.
Just like the roots אור and טוב, it has an "o" sound after the first letter of the root.

So for example, the perfect Qal would be:
I bOshti
You (m) bOshta
You (f) bOsht
He bOsh
She bOsha
We bOshnu
You (pm) boshtEm
You (pf) boshtEn
They bOshu

David,
My dictionary says that the word בוש can be a noun "shame", but I can't find that word anywhere in the Hebrew Bible. Do you think that the word means "shame" ?

Kenneth, I'm having difficulty seeing what the issue is. As described by David, בּ֤וֹשָׁה is from the verb בּוֹשׁ .

Schubert wrote:David, I'm having difficulty seeing what the issue is. As described by David, בּ֤וֹשָׁה is from the verb בּוֹשׁ .

I've been unsuccessfully trying to correct my post. It should have started with "Kenneth", not "David".

Hi John and Kenneth

John,
As far as I understand, Kenneth asks why it is "bOsha" and not "bAsha".

Because other roots with the same form (W in the middle) acts differently:
from root קום for example, the perfect feminine singular is קמה=qAma.
But here, from root בוש, the verb is "bOsha" and not "bAsha".

And I said that roots בוש and אור and טוב has an "o" sound and not an "a" sound.

Qal has three forms: qatal, qatel and qatol.
These roots act in the form of qatol (even though it is not their real origin).

Kenneth,
I guess your dictionary refers to the word בוש/בש when it comes in the combination of עד בוש / עד בש.
It basically has the meaning of a long delay - (which has a link by idea to the meaning of shame).
(You can see also the verb בשש in the Song of Deborah).
But I don't think we should see it as a noun. Maybe as an absolute or infinitive.

Anyway, in the verse you quoted, the word בושה is a perfect verb.
You can check you dictionary or a concordance to see how this root acts (together with roots אור and טוב) - and then this word in that verse would be more understandable in your reading.