Shame is often searched for privately, late, by someone who would rather nobody knew. It also comes in more than one kind, and it helps to find yours first. Some people are ashamed of something they did, and ask, as one person did on Reddit, for "Good Bible verses on shame and guilt?" Some carry shame about who they are: "I experience a deep sense of shame all the time," one person wrote. And some carry shame that other people put on them, at home, in an abusive relationship, or in church. Someone raised on strict teaching about sex asked simply, "How to stop feeling shame from purity culture ?"
The Bible speaks to all three. Shame appears on its second page and runs all the way through it, and the passages below are grouped by the kind of shame they speak to.
If you only have a minute
For something you did
Psalm 103:8-12, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us."
For who you feel you are
Luke 15, the son who says "I am no longer worthy" and is embraced anyway.
For what was done to you
Isaiah 50, Hebrews 12 and John 8, where shame is put on someone by others.
A name for the difference
Guilt is about an act; shame is about the self, in the psychologists' terms.
If you need a person
Abuse support and crisis lines at the end name their countries.
Guilt and shame are not the same thing
Psychologists draw a line that many people find useful. The American Psychological Association's dictionary says guilt is tied to a specific act, while shame is "associated with a sense of defect or deficiency in oneself". June Price Tangney and Ronda Dearing put it in two short sentences: "I did that horrible thing" is guilt, and "I am a horrible person" is shame.
The Bible's words for shame cover more ground than that, including public disgrace, insult and defeat. The Encyclopedia of the Bible on Bible Gateway notes that the Bible itself makes "little or no clear distinction" between sin, guilt and punishment. So, the clinical line is a tool for naming what you feel, not a key the Bible was written with.
Shame about something you did
For shame that comes from something you did, the passage this site offers is Psalm 103:8-12:
Yahweh is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness. He will not always accuse; neither will he stay angry forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor repaid us for our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his loving kindness toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
It describes what God has done with the wrong, rather than setting another task. The next two verses go further: "Like a father has compassion on his children, so Yahweh has compassion on those who fear him. For he knows how we are made. He remembers that we are dust" (Psalm 103:13-14). Bible verses for guilt and shame reads this psalm for someone who has already confessed and still carries it.
One way to use it tonight: read verse 12 slowly, then verse 14, and let "he remembers that we are dust" sit beside whatever you are ashamed of.
Shame at the very beginning
Genesis 2 ends with a single line: "The man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed." One chapter later, after they eat from the tree, "they both knew that they were naked," and they hide among the trees. God's first words to them are a question: "Where are you?" The man answers, "I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself" (Genesis 3:7-10).
It is the oldest account of shame in the Bible, and its first move is hiding. The first thing said to the one who hid is not an accusation. It is a call to come out.
The psalms that ask not to be shamed
Many psalms pray about shame directly. "They looked to him, and were radiant. Their faces shall never be covered with shame" (Psalm 34:5). "My God, I have trusted in you. Don't let me be shamed" (Psalm 25:2). Psalm 69 does not tidy it up: "Shame has covered my face," and "I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none" (Psalm 69:7, 20). Isaiah 54:4 speaks to a people who will "forget the shame of your youth."
Shame's first instinct, in Genesis and often now, is to hide.
Shame about who you are
When the shame is not about one act but about yourself, Luke 15 may say more than any list. Jesus tells a parable to religious leaders who have complained that he eats with sinners. A younger son wastes everything, comes home, and rehearses his speech: "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son." His father, who saw him coming "while he was still far off," ran to him and kissed him, and does not let him finish the speech before calling for "the best robe" (Luke 15:20-22).
The son's view of himself is exactly the sentence Tangney calls shame. The father in the story does not argue with it. He answers it with a robe, a ring and a meal.
In the parable, the father sees his son while he is still far off.
Shame that someone else put on you
Some shame belongs to the person who caused it. If you were abused, humiliated or shamed by someone, the survivor organizations are clear. Rape Crisis England and Wales says, "It is common to blame yourself for what happened, but it was never your fault." RAINN lists guilt and shame among the common effects of sexual violence, and NAPAC says many adult survivors of childhood abuse feel shame and guilt about what happened to them.
The Bible has passages where shame is done to someone by others. In Isaiah 50, a speaker who says "I was not rebellious" describes being beaten: "I gave my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair. I didn't hide my face from shame and spitting. For the Lord Yahweh will help me" (Isaiah 50:6-7). Hebrews 12:2 says Jesus "endured the cross, despising its shame." And in John 8, religious leaders set a woman "in the middle" of a crowd to accuse her; they leave one by one, and Jesus asks, "Woman, where are your accusers?" The US Catholic bishops' note on John 8 records that this story is missing from the earliest Greek manuscripts and that the Catholic Church accepts it as Scripture.
John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 3, called shame "a sure token of guilt". He was writing about the first two people after they disobeyed. His comment is not a statement about someone who was harmed by another person, and it should not be read as one.
Shame learned in church
Some readers learned their shame at church. A study by Gray and Klement of 1,273 people looked at Christian purity teaching and sexual shame, and the author Jen Hatmaker told Time that the teaching she grew up with "was just shame- and fear-based." These describe particular settings, not every church. If you are reading Scripture again after years away because of something like this, the passages above are yours as much as anyone's.
When shame weighs more than it should
Researchers have found that shame, more than guilt, is linked with depression, anxiety and self-harm. A 2019 review by Sheehy and colleagues found that "Most forms of shame were associated with non-suicidal self-injury", while noting the evidence on suicide was sparse. These are associations in groups of people, not predictions about you. If shame has been making you want to hurt yourself, please tell someone.
Questions people ask
Is God ashamed of me? No passage here says so. Psalm 103:14 says instead that God "remembers that we are dust," and in Luke 15 the father runs to the son who thinks himself unworthy.
What is the difference between guilt and shame in the Bible? The Bible's own words overlap. The modern distinction, guilt about an act and shame about the self, comes from psychologists such as Tangney and is useful for naming which one you carry.
What does the Bible say about shame after abuse? It records shame done to people by others, as in Isaiah 50 and John 8. Survivor organizations add that responsibility lies with the person who did it.
Where to go next
For something you did, start with Psalm 103:8-12 and the verses around it. For who you have become, read Luke 15 slowly. For what was done to you, a person may be the right next step, and the lines below are a place to start. Bible Nudge can also take a line about what you are carrying and come back with one passage and what surrounds it. Find a passage.
If you have been sexually abused or assaulted, in the United States RAINN is on 800-656-4673. In England and Wales, Rape Crisis is on 0808 500 2222. In the UK, NAPAC supports adult survivors of childhood abuse on 0808 801 0331. Elsewhere, HotPeach Pages lists services by country and language.
If shame has turned into thoughts of ending your life, please reach a person tonight. In the United States, call or text 988 for the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. In Canada, call or text 9-8-8. In the UK and Republic of Ireland, Samaritans is on 116 123. In Australia, Lifeline is 13 11 14. Anywhere else, Befrienders Worldwide can point you to a center near you.
Words that come up here
Tap a term to see what it means.
Shame. In psychology, a painful sense that the self is defective. It differs from guilt, which is about a specific act.