A. Verb.
Bûsh (בּוֹשׁ, Strong's #954), “to be ashamed, feel ashamed.” This verb, which occurs 129 times in biblical Hebrew, has cognates in Ugaritic, Akkadian, and Arabic. The word has overtones of being or feeling worthless. Bûsh means “to be ashamed” in Isa. 1:29: “For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.”
B. Noun.
Bôsheth (בּשֶׁת, Strong's #1322), “shame; shameful thing.” The 30 appearances of this noun are mostly in poetic materials—only 5 appearances are in historical literature.
This word means a “shameful thing” as a substitute for the name Baal: “For shame hath devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth …” (Jer. 3:24; cf. Jer. 11:13; Hos. 9:10). This substitution also occurs in proper names: Ish-bosheth (2 Sam. 2:8), the “man of shame,” was originally Esh-baal (cf. 1 Chron. 8:33), the “man of Baal.”
This word represents both “shame and worthlessness”: “Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman, do not I know that thou hast chosen the son of Jesse … unto the confusion of thy mother’s nakedness” (1 Sam. 20:30). The “shame of one’s face” (2 Chron. 32:21) may well mean being red-faced or embarrassed.