Bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral)
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.
רַע (raʿ) is the primary Hebrew word for evil, but it covers a semantic range that English 'evil' does not fully capture. In Hebrew, raʿ can describe: (1) moral wickedness — the intentional doing of what God has declared wrong; (2) harm or injury — something that causes physical, social, or spiritual damage; (3) misfortune or calamity — 'evil' in the sense of disaster befalling a person; and (4) aesthetic or.
Reader summary
Full entry for רַע (H7451) · Open the biblical lexicon
רַע (raʿ) is the primary Hebrew word for evil, but it covers a semantic range that English 'evil' does not fully capture. In Hebrew, raʿ can describe: (1) moral wickedness — the intentional doing of what God has declared wrong; (2) harm or injury — something that causes physical, social, or spiritual damage; (3) misfortune or calamity — 'evil' in the sense.
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) is the primary Hebrew word for evil, but it covers a semantic range that English 'evil' does not fully capture. In Hebrew, raʿ can describe: (1) moral wickedness — the intentional doing of what God has declared wrong; (2) harm or injury — something that causes physical, social, or spiritual damage; (3) misfortune or calamity — 'evil' in the sense of disaster befalling a person; and (4) aesthetic or practical badness — something of poor quality.
The root is also the basis of the noun rāʿāh (H7451 variant, calamity/evil/affliction). The most theologically charged uses of raʿ are: (1) 'evil in the sight (eyes) of the Lord' (rāʿ bĕʿênê YHWH) — the covenant diagnostic formula that appears repeatedly in the OT, especially in Kings and Chronicles, evaluating every king's reign by whether it was covenant-faithful or covenant-breaking; (2) 'the knowledge of good and evil' (tôb wārāʿ) — the tree in Eden that represents autonomous moral judgment; and (3) the prophetic category of raʿ as the covenant breach that calls forth divine response.
The OT's understanding of evil is consistently theological and relational: raʿ is not merely unfortunate or suboptimal — it is a rupture in the covenant relationship with the God who is tôb (good). The prophets diagnose the raʿ of Israel not as a deficiency of information or civilization but as the refusal of the covenant relationship that defines what tôb means.
רַע is currently counted by the local OT index at about 666 uses as adjective/noun in the OT. Key concentrations include the covenant-evaluation formula ('did evil in the sight of the Lord'), the wisdom tradition's contrast of good and evil, the prophetic diagnosis of social and religious evil, and the Psalms' cries for deliverance from raʿ in both its moral and calamitous senses.
Out of the ground the Lord God gave growth to every tree that is pleasing to the eye and good for food. And in the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The first appearance of raʿ in Scripture: the tree of the knowledge of tôb (good) and raʿ (evil). The prohibition is not against knowing that evil exists or that moral distinctions matter; it is against the autonomous moral determination that belongs to God alone — 'you will be like God, knowing good and evil' (3:5). This establishes that evil in the OT is fundamentally a theological category: raʿ is not merely harmful but specifically the violation of the creaturely boundary before the Creator.
They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire and practiced divination and soothsaying. They devoted themselves to doing evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger.
The covenant-evaluation formula at its most severe: the northern kingdom 'sold themselves to do raʿ in the sight of YHWH.' The formula 'rāʿ in the eyes of the Lord' appears throughout Kings and Chronicles as the diagnostic standard for every king and every generation — the repeated question is whether a reign was covenant-faithful or covenant-breaking. This use shows that raʿ in the OT is always evaluated relationally: in whose sight, before whom, measured by what standard.
Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
The wisdom summary of the moral life: sûr mērāʿ (turn from evil) and ʿăśēh tôb (do good). The parallelism shows that the OT moral framework is not merely avoidance-of-evil but positive pursuit of good — and the good pursued here is šālôm (peace, wholeness, covenant flourishing). The verse is Psalm 34's wisdom conclusion and 1 Peter 3:10-11 quotes it directly in the NT context of suffering and righteous living.
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who turn darkness to light and light to darkness, who replace bitter with sweet and sweet with bitter.
The prophetic woe against the inversion of tôb and raʿ: calling raʿ tôb and tôb raʿ. This is the most comprehensive form of the raʿ failure: not merely doing evil but losing the category of evil itself, claiming that what God calls bad is actually good. The parallels (darkness/light, bitter/sweet) show that this is a total perversion of the created moral order. Isaiah's woe targets the sophistry that enables injustice and oppression by redefining them as acceptable or inevitable.
“For My people are fools; they have not known Me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but they know not how to do good.”
The prophetic reversal of skill: Israel is 'skilled in doing evil' (ḥakkāmîm hēmmāh lĕhārēaʿ) but does not know how to do good. The wisdom vocabulary (ḥakkāmîm, skilled/wise) applied to evil is deeply ironic — the covenant people who should embody wisdom have instead cultivated skill in covenant-breaking. The connection to Jeremiah's knowledge (yādaʿ) theme is explicit: 'they do not know me' and 'they do not know how to do good' are the same failure.
Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the gate. Perhaps the Lord, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”
The prophetic twin imperative: hate raʿ, love tôb. The command to hate evil is not temperamental; it is covenantal — the person whose affections are rightly ordered under the covenant will have the rightly ordered emotion toward evil (hatred) and toward good (love). The connection to 'establish justice in the gate' shows that the loving-of-good is specifically social: tôb is enacted in the public spaces where the vulnerable are protected or exploited.
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.
The Hebrew raʿ disciplines the preacher to talk about evil in relational and covenantal terms rather than merely in legal or consequentialist terms. Evil is not just what hurts people (though it does); it is not just what violates a rule (though it does); it is what ruptures the covenant relationship with the God who is tôb and who defines what tôb means. The covenant diagnostic formula — 'evil in the sight of the Lord' — makes the referent explicit: every action is evaluated in the sight of someone, and the question is whether that evaluative gaze belongs to YHWH or to someone else.
Isaiah 5:20's woe against calling evil good and good evil names the most advanced form of the raʿ problem: not the failure to follow the rule, but the rewriting of the rule so that covenant-breaking is redefined as acceptable. This is the pastoral and prophetic crisis of every generation, and it requires the same prophetic response: clarity about who defines tôb and raʿ, and whose sight is the standard.
The NT's handling of evil builds on this foundation: Romans 12:9's 'hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good' is Amos 5:15 applied to the community of Christ. The cross is God's definitive treatment of raʿ: not a redefinition of it as acceptable, but its bearing and absorbing by the one who is wholly tôb.
Isa.5.20
The root raʿ (רַע) generates: the adjective raʿ (evil/bad/wicked), the noun rāʿāh (H7451 variant, calamity/evil/affliction), the verb rāʿaʿ (H7489, to do evil/to be bad/to harm), and the noun rōaʿ (H7455, badness/evil/harm). The range across these forms confirms the breadth of the semantic field: it covers the morally evil, the aesthetically bad, the practically harmful, and the experientially distressing.
The LXX translates raʿ with ponēros (wicked/evil) and kakos (bad/harmful) — the two main NT words for evil — reflecting the same breadth. The 'evil in the sight of the Lord' formula (rāʿ bĕʿênê YHWH) is a unique covenant-evaluation idiom: the 'sight' (ʿênayim, eyes) of the Lord is the standard, and whether an action or person is raʿ is always measured in that divine sight.
The NT carries raʿ theology forward through multiple channels. Matthew 6:13's 'deliver us from the evil one' (apo tou ponērou) concentrates the OT raʿ into a personal agent — the one who embodies and promotes raʿ — whose power Christ has broken. Romans 12:9 translates Amos 5:15 directly into the community ethic of the new covenant: hating what is evil and holding fast to what is good is the lived expression of covenant loyalty to the God who defines both.
Romans 1:18-32's anatomy of raʿ (ungodliness/unrighteousness suppressing the truth) reflects the OT pattern: raʿ begins with the refusal to acknowledge God, which leads to the inversion of the moral order (calling raʿ tôb). Ephesians 5:11's 'take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness' is the Ps 34:14 / Amos 5:15 turn-from-evil applied to the new covenant community.
Revelation's extended treatment of evil as the beast, the false prophet, and Babylon is the prophetic raʿ tradition brought to its eschatological conclusion: the final defeat and judgment of all raʿ when the yôm YHWH arrives in completeness.
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