Bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral)
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רַע (raʿ) describes what is bad, evil, wicked, harmful, unpleasant, inferior, distressing, or disastrous. It can evaluate moral agency and conduct, but it can also name poor conditions, harmful outcomes, bad news, affliction, or calamity.
Reader summary
Full entry for רַע (H7451) · Open the biblical lexicon
רַע (raʿ) describes what is bad, evil, wicked, harmful, unpleasant, inferior, distressing, or disastrous. It can evaluate moral agency and conduct, but it can also name poor conditions, harmful outcomes, bad news, affliction, or calamity.
The BSB source-word alignment has 664 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include evil (142), disaster (42), the evil (26), harm (19), from evil (15).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 2:9. Its strongest book concentrations include Jeremiah (122), Proverbs (68), Psalms (64), Genesis (36).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
רַע (raʿ) describes what is bad, evil, wicked, harmful, unpleasant, inferior, distressing, or disastrous. It can evaluate moral agency and conduct, but it can also name poor conditions, harmful outcomes, bad news, affliction, or calamity. The English word evil often sounds exclusively moral, so translation and teaching must ask what noun, action, person, event, or experience is being evaluated in each passage.
Genesis uses raʿ for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and later for pervasive human wickedness. The exact force of knowing good and evil has been interpreted in several ways; the phrase should not be reduced to one theory about autonomous moral judgment without argument. Historical and prophetic books repeatedly call idolatry, injustice, violence, and covenant rebellion evil in the Lord's sight. Wisdom urges people to turn from evil and pursue good while refusing the claim that every calamitous experience proves personal wrongdoing.
Isaiah 45:7 says the Lord creates darkness and raʿ in a parallel with peace or well-being. In that oracle the term concerns calamity or disaster under God's sovereign judgment, not a claim that God commits moral wickedness. Job 2:10 likewise contrasts receiving good with receiving adversity and then refuses the friends' simplistic blame of the sufferer. These distinctions do not minimize moral evil; they prevent the word's broader semantic range from being used either to accuse God of sin or to accuse every suffering person of causing their distress.
Raʿ evaluates moral conduct, character, quality, harm, distress, and disaster. It is frequently contrasted with good, but the contrast can be ethical, experiential, practical, or providential.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil introduces a phrase whose role unfolds through the garden narrative.
The Lord sees the pervasive evil of human conduct and the continual inclination of human thought before the flood.
Joseph identifies adultery and betrayal of trust as great evil and sin against God.
Solomon is evaluated as doing evil in the Lord's sight and failing to follow the Lord fully.
The prophetic woe condemns those who call evil good and good evil within a larger indictment of injustice and arrogance.
The Lord claims sovereignty over light, darkness, well-being, and calamity in an address concerning Cyrus and the nations.
The prophet commands hatred of evil, love of good, and establishment of justice in the gate.
The oracle condemns people who plan harmful deeds and carry them out because power is in their hands.
Job asks whether people receive good from God but not adversity, without accepting the friends' later blame theory.
The wisdom instruction calls hearers to turn from evil, do good, seek peace, and pursue it.
The psalm prays for the Lord's protection from all harm and preservation of life.
The conclusion says God will bring every deed into judgment, whether good or evil.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Hebrew word. Encompasses both moral wickedness and physical affliction; God's judgment often conflates ethical and natural evil.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 5 selected witnesses from 666 lexical occurrence verses.
Reckless pledges can produce serious hardship.Hosea 7:1-7
Evil represents a moral trajectory away from God's wisdom.Isaiah 45:1-7
Affirms God’s sovereignty over historical judgment events.Isaiah 47:8-11
Identifies the moral root of judgment.Proverbs 11:15
Leaders delight in moral evil.Proverbs 11:19
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Raʿ equips teachers to name real wickedness while distinguishing it from calamity, poor quality, and distress. Genesis 39 makes abuse of trust and adultery morally evil. Isaiah 5 locates moral inversion amid social injustice. Amos joins hatred of evil to public justice rather than private outrage alone. Isaiah 45 uses the same word family for calamity under divine sovereignty, and Job refuses to make adversity proof of secret sin.
Churches should name coercion, deception, violence, exploitation, and cover-up clearly, yet avoid using evil as a label for people who report harm, ask questions, hold minority views, experience illness, or need boundaries. Moral discernment requires evidence, context, humility, and consistent standards.
Isa.5.20
H7451 functions adjectivally and substantivally. The evaluated referent determines whether bad, evil, wicked, harmful, distress, adversity, or disaster is appropriate. English capitalization and moral connotations can conceal non-moral uses.
New Testament teaching continues the call to reject evil and cling to good, and it treats suffering with more nuance than automatic blame. Those themes should be studied through their own Greek terms and contexts rather than assuming a single lexical equivalent.