Humility and Defilement

Could humility be equivalent to defilement?

Readership: Christians;

I came across this interesting association between humility and defilement.  I found three passages in the Bible in which the translations are interchangeable.

Here is the passage in Genesis about Shechem and Dinah.

“¹ And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.  ² And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled/humbled her.  ³ And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the damsel.” ~ Genesis 34:1-3

The KJV, and NKJV translate as “defiled”.

The ASV, Darby, and RSV translate as “humbled”.

The ESV translates as “humiliated”.

Holman, The Living Bible, NIV, and The Message translate as “raped”.

Here’s a passage about marital fraud.

“And it shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall set her free, but you certainly shall not sell her for money; you shall not treat her brutally, because you have humbled her.” ~ Deuteronomy 21:14 (NKJV)

And here’s one about rape.

“If a man finds a young woman who is a virgin, who is not betrothed, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are found out, then the man who lay with her shall give to the young woman’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife because he has humbled her; he shall not be permitted to divorce her all his days.” ~ Deuteronomy 22:28-29 (NKJV)

The KJV and NKJV translate as “humbled”, but most other translations use the word “violated”.

The word translated as “humbled” in all these verses is the same Hebrew word, anah (עָנָה), and it is a verb.

The definition of the original Hebrew word is to be occupied with/by; to be busied with/by; to be bowed down, afflicted; to be lowly, submissive…

Conclusions

Humility is a huge concept in the Christian life.  But we don’t commonly understand humility (or submissiveness) in terms of defilement.  Yet, here it is in the scriptures – and in three passages, no less.  I’m thinking that most Christians don’t have any idea what this means.

“…and she shall be his wife because he has humbled her…”

Here’s a clue.  The reason is because sanctification and defilement share much of the same process.  If a woman is sanctified through having consummate sexual relations with one man, then to all other men, she is defiled.  So she is both sanctified and defiled through the same act.  It all depends on your point of reference.

Related

• The Rational Male: Blueprint for an Alpha Widow (2012 August 16)
• The Rational Male: Deep Conversion (2016 November 11)
• Σ Frame: The Alpha Widow Syndrome – A Manospherian Allegory of Defilement (2020 March 4)