(Moral) evil
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H5766, ʿāwel, is a Hebrew noun for injustice, wrongdoing, unrighteousness, or morally distorted conduct. It can describe crooked judgment, dishonest measures, oppressive power, corrupt speech, blood-built cities, personal iniquity, and the people who practice such wrong.
Reader summary
Full entry for עֶוֶל (H5766) · Open the biblical lexicon
H5766, ʿāwel, is a Hebrew noun for injustice, wrongdoing, unrighteousness, or morally distorted conduct. It can describe crooked judgment, dishonest measures, oppressive power, corrupt speech, blood-built cities, personal iniquity, and the people who practice such wrong.
The BSB source-word alignment has 54 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include injustice (10), iniquity (9), wrong (5), because of the iniquity (2), of wickedness (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Leviticus 19:15. Its strongest book concentrations include Job (12), Psalms (12), Ezekiel (11), 2 Samuel (2).
H5766, ʿāwel, is a Hebrew noun for injustice, wrongdoing, unrighteousness, or morally distorted conduct. It can describe crooked judgment, dishonest measures, oppressive power, corrupt speech, blood-built cities, personal iniquity, and the people who practice such wrong. The word is not limited to private vice or public systems. Its passages move between hands, tongues, courts, commerce, homes, rulers, and communities because moral evil takes both personal and organized forms.
Scripture also uses H5766 by negation to confess God's character. The Rock is faithful and without injustice. The Lord cannot be bribed or moved by partiality, and He does no wrong even while an unjust city refuses shame. These claims do not mean every human judgment about events is easy; Job's debates repeatedly ask whether suffering is being interpreted unjustly. Job even warns his friends not to speak wickedly on God's behalf. Defending God with false accusation is itself a contradiction of His justice.
Repentance from H5766 becomes concrete. Ezekiel names restored pledges, restitution for theft, true justice, and a changed walk. Prophets expose societies built with bloodshed and institutions that favor the wicked. Faithful application therefore asks who benefits, who bears harm, what standard was distorted, and what repair is due. The word must not be used as a vague label for opponents or as authority for retaliation. Accusations of injustice require truthful evidence, fair process, protection for vulnerable people, and remedies proportionate to the actual wrong.
H5766 exposes moral distortion in judgment, speech, commerce, violence, and social power, contrasts it with God's unbribable righteousness, and gives repentance the concrete shape of restitution and changed conduct.
He is the Rock, His work is perfect; all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness without injustice, righteous and upright is He.
Moses' song denies H5766 of God and joins His justice to faithfulness, righteousness, and uprightness. Divine character is the standard by which Israel's corruption is exposed.
And now, may the fear of the Lord be upon you. Be careful what you do, for with the Lord our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery.”
Jehoshaphat instructs judges to act under the fear of the Lord because God has no injustice, partiality, or susceptibility to bribes. Court practice should reflect the Judge's character.
Will you speak wickedly on God’s behalf or speak deceitfully for Him?
Job challenges friends who defend God by misrepresenting Job's case. Pious intention cannot make unjust or deceitful speech a faithful defense of God.
“How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
The psalm confronts rulers whose judgments favor the wicked while the weak lack rescue. Injustice appears in decisions and partiality, not only in private motive.
For your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters injustice.
Isaiah joins violent hands to lying lips and a tongue that voices injustice. Bodily and verbal images show corruption spreading through action and testimony.
If he restores a pledge, makes restitution for what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes of life without practicing iniquity—then he will surely live; he will not die.
Turning from H5766 includes restoring collateral, repaying theft, and walking differently. Repentance is evidenced by repair rather than words that leave another person's loss untouched.
Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by iniquity!
Habakkuk condemns a city whose construction rests on bloodshed and injustice. Impressive civic achievement cannot cleanse the violence embedded in its foundation.
The remnant of Israel will no longer do wrong or speak lies, nor will a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths. But they will feed and lie down, with no one to make them tremble.”
Zephaniah pictures a restored people whose actions and speech no longer practice wrong. Truthful community and secure rest belong together in the promised remnant.
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.
Hebrew word. Moral corruption and legal injustice intertwined; structural perverseness rather than isolated wrongdoing
Moral corruption and legal injustice intertwined; structural perverseness rather than isolated wrongdoing
(moral) evil BDB: injustice Usage: iniquity, perverseness, unjust(-ly), unrighteousness(-ly); wicked(-ness).
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 54 lexical occurrence verses.
עֶוֶל is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H5766 refuses to keep moral evil abstract. Deuteronomy and Chronicles begin with God's character: He is faithful, upright, without injustice, partiality, or bribery. Human judgment is answerable to that standard. Job reveals another danger when friends speak wickedly on God's behalf, forcing a tidy explanation onto a sufferer and calling it defense of divine justice.
Psalm 82 moves into public authority, where decisions favor the wicked and leave weak people exposed. Isaiah joins bloodstained hands to lies and muttered injustice, showing that violence requires supporting speech. Habakkuk looks at a whole city built through bloodshed, while Ezekiel describes repentance in transactions: restore the pledge, repay what was stolen, stop practicing iniquity, and walk in the statutes of life.
Zephaniah's restored remnant no longer does wrong or speaks lies and can finally rest without fear. These texts call churches to name both individual acts and arrangements that repeatedly reward harm. Yet the language of injustice must itself remain just. Teachers should investigate claims, listen to affected people, distinguish evidence from rumor, protect against retaliation, and pursue remedies shaped by truth.
H5766 does not authorize public shaming, factional slogans, or revenge. It demands honest judgment and repair under the God in whom there is no injustice.
2Chr.19.7
H5766 is a common noun translated through injustice, iniquity, wrong, wickedness, dishonesty, or unrighteousness. Construct phrases, negations, and descriptions of people extend the noun across acts, character, judgment, and social arrangements.
The New Testament continues Scripture's condemnation of partial judgment, false witness, exploitative wealth, and evil presented as good. Christ's kingdom joins truthful judgment to repentance, restitution, care for harmed neighbors, and hope for final justice.