Perversity , i.e. (moral) evil
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through the Connect page. Screenshots are helpful.
עָוֺן is the OT's word for sin as a condition, not just an act. The bent-root behind it — עָוָה, to twist, to make crooked — describes what sustained sin does to a person: it warps the moral shape, bends the character, creates a distortion that becomes structural.
Reader summary
Full entry for עָוֺן (H5771) · Open the biblical lexicon
עָוֺן is the OT's word for sin as a condition, not just an act. The bent-root behind it — עָוָה, to twist, to make crooked — describes what sustained sin does to a person: it warps the moral shape, bends the character, creates a distortion that becomes structural.
The BSB source-word alignment has 232 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the iniquity (27), iniquity (17), their iniquity (10), my iniquity (8), for their iniquity (6).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 4:13. Its strongest book concentrations include Ezekiel (44), Psalms (31), Isaiah (25), Jeremiah (24).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
עָוֺן is the OT's word for sin as a condition, not just an act. The bent-root behind it — עָוָה, to twist, to make crooked — describes what sustained sin does to a person: it warps the moral shape, bends the character, creates a distortion that becomes structural. This is different from committing an error (חַטָּאת) or staging a rebellion (פֶּשַׁע). עָוֺן is the accumulated state of someone whose life has been bent away from YHWH's design.
The word's range includes the guilt that attaches to that bent condition and even the punishment the condition deserves — making it the most comprehensive of the three primary sin-words. Exod 34:7 places עָוֺן at the head of YHWH's forgiveness declaration: 'forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.' That ordering matters: the hardest category — the deeply bent condition — leads the list of what YHWH forgives.
Isa 53:6 is the pastoral summit: 'YHWH has laid on him the iniquity of us all.' The Servant does not merely absorb our acts; he bears our עָוֺן — the accumulated, twisted, bent moral state of a whole people. This is why the atonement is genuinely good news: it is not superficial pardon for surface failures but the bearing of the deep-root condition that makes every other sin possible.
עָוֺן is locally indexed at about 232 occurrences — among the most frequent sin-words in the OT. It is concentrated in the Psalms (personal confession and assurance), the prophets (diagnosis of corporate Israel), and the Pentateuch (legal and covenant contexts). The three-sin-word formula (עָוֺן + פֶּשַׁע + חַטָּאָה) appears in Exod 34:7, Ps 32:5, Ps 51:2-3, and Isa 53:5-6, making עָוֺן part of the OT's deliberate comprehensive taxonomy of human sin.
Maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
The divine name-declaration at Sinai places עָוֺן first in the three-sin-word list that YHWH announces He forgives. The same verse holds the tension: YHWH forgives iniquity and yet will not clear the guilty and visits iniquity across generations. The word carries both the forgiveness it can receive and the consequence it generates — the generational weight of a bent moral condition.
Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not hide my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah
David's confession psalm uses all three sin-words: חַטָּאת (sin), עָוֺן (iniquity), and פֶּשַׁע (transgression). The iniquity is confessed and covered. Paul quotes Ps 32:1-2 in Rom 4:7-8 as proof that David understood justification by faith — the forgiveness of עָוֺן is central to his argument that righteousness was counted to Abraham and David apart from works.
Wash me clean of my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
The penitential psalm par excellence. עָוֺן here is what needs washing — the deep stain of the bent condition, not just the surface act. The metaphor of washing (כָּבַס, to launder, to scrub) suits the word: iniquity is not a mistake to be corrected but a contamination to be thoroughly cleansed. Ps 51:1-2 uses three sin-words across two verses, with עָוֺן naming the condition requiring the most thorough work.
We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.
The climax of the Servant Song: YHWH lays the corporate עָוֺן of the whole people on the Servant. 'The iniquity of us all' — plural and collective — is the full weight of Israel's bent moral condition transferred to the one who bears it. This is the OT's most explicit statement of substitutionary atonement, and the word chosen is עָוֺן: not individual acts but the deep structural distortion of a people who have all turned to their own ways.
And with it he touched my mouth and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your iniquity is removed and your sin is atoned for.”
Isaiah's commission vision: the seraph touches his lips with a coal and declares that his עָוֺן is taken away (סָר). The prophet's first word after being cleansed is 'Here am I, send me.' The removal of iniquity — not merely the forgiveness of an act but the lifting of the bent guilty condition — is what makes prophetic speech possible. The pattern: cleansing of עָוֺן precedes the call to speak.
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. Moral perversity or crookedness; iniquity as both the act of wrongdoing and its consequent punishment or liability
Moral perversity or crookedness; iniquity as both the act of wrongdoing and its consequent punishment or liability
perversity, i.e. (moral) evil BDB: iniquity Usage: fault, iniquity, mischeif, punishment (of iniquity), sin.
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 6 selected witnesses from 232 lexical occurrence verses.
עָוֺן is built from this root:
Judgment addresses real and accumulated moral guilt. Hosea 10:9-15
Discipline aims at removal of covenant-breaking guilt. Hosea 14:1-3
Dragging iniquity with cords portrays intentional attachment to guilt rather than accidental failure. Isaiah 26:19-21
Identifies the root cause of exile and separation. Isaiah 27:7-13
Defines covenant violation requiring reckoning. Isaiah 5:18-23
Acknowledges moral culpability. Isaiah 50:1-3
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
עָוֺן names sin as a condition rather than merely an act, and this distinction has pastoral weight. When Isa 53:6 says 'YHWH has laid on him the iniquity of us all,' the word chosen is not our transgressions (individual rebellious acts) or our sins (individual failures) but our עָוֺן — the accumulated moral distortion, the bent shape that produces acts. The gospel's scope is larger than the forgiveness of individual failures: it addresses the condition that generates them.
This is why the atonement can be genuinely transformative, not merely forensic: what the Servant bore was not a list of offences but the deep-root twisted state. Preaching from עָוֺן helps congregations understand why the gospel is not simply good advice for better behavior but a structural intervention in the human condition — bearing and removing the iniquity from which sinful acts flow.
Isa.53.6
The root עָוָה (to bend, to twist, to make crooked) is present in several Hebrew words beyond עָוֺן. The related adjective עִוֵּר (blind) shares the sense of distortion — blindness as a bent or blocked faculty. The OT's three-sin taxonomy (עָוֺן, פֶּשַׁע, חַטָּאָה) appears as a formulaic triad in at least five major texts (Exod 34:7, Lev 16:21, Ps 32:5, Ps 51:2-3, Isa 53:5-6), suggesting this was a fixed liturgical and confessional pattern in Israel's worship — a comprehensive way of naming the full scope of human sin before YHWH.
The word's dual sense (iniquity AND its punishment) appears most clearly in Gen 4:13 where Cain says 'my עָוֺן is greater than I can bear' — he means the punishment, not just the act. This double-loading makes עָוֺן the most theologically dense of the three sin-words.
The OT arc: Exod 34:7 (YHWH announces He forgives עָוֺן — it is forgive-able) → Lev 16:21 (Aaron lays both hands on the scapegoat, confessing 'all the iniquities of the people of Israel') → Ps 32 and 51 (David's personal confession and assurance of עָוֺן forgiven) → Isa 53:6 (the Servant bears the corporate עָוֺן of the people) → NT: Rom 4:7-8 (Paul cites Ps 32 as the OT proof of justification by faith — the man whose עָוֺן is not counted against him) → 2 Cor 5:21 ('God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us') → 1 Pet 2:24 ('he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree'). The arc: עָוֺן diagnosed → covered by the sacrificial system → borne by the Servant → not counted against the believer in justification.
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain