Word study
Bad
3 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “bad”. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “bad” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- רַע rabad, eviltranslated this way 28 times of its 651 uses · Strong’s H7451Adjective · Translated: evil 263, disaster 72, harm 38, wicked 31Full study and all 615 verses →
Genesis 31:24 But that night God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream and warned him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
Exodus 33:4 When the people heard this bad news, they went into mourning, and no one put on any of his jewelry.
- רֹעַ rôabadness, eviltranslated this way 4 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s H7455Noun · Translated: evil 7, bad 4, wickedness 3, and 2Full study and all 19 verses →
Jeremiah 24:2 One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early, but the other basket contained very poor figs, so bad they could not be eaten.
Jeremiah 24:3 “Jeremiah,” the LORD asked, “what do you see?” “Figs!” I replied. “The good figs are very good, but the bad figs are very bad, so bad they cannot be eaten.”
- דִּבָּה dibbâhwhispering, defamation, evil reporttranslated this way 2 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s H1681Noun · Translated: slander 3, report 2, bad report 2, infamy 1Full study and all 9 verses →
Numbers 13:32 So they gave the Israelites a bad report about the land that they had spied out: “The land we explored devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw there are great in stature.
Numbers 14:36 So the men Moses had sent to spy out the land, who had returned and made the whole congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report about the land—
Greek words (New Testament)
- σαπρός saprósrotten, useless, corrupttranslated this way 7 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s G4550Adjective · Translated: bad 7, unwholesome 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Matthew 7:17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
Luke 6:43 No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.
- πονηρός ponērósevil, bad, wickedtranslated this way 5 times of its 77 uses · Strong’s G4190Adjective · Translated: evil 49, wicked 11, bad 5, more wicked 2Full study and all 71 verses →
Matthew 6:23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
Luke 11:34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body is full of darkness.
- κακός kakósbad, eviltranslated this way 3 times of its 50 uses · Strong’s G2556Adjective · Translated: evil 29, wrong 6, harm 3, bad 3Full study and all 45 verses →
Luke 16:25 But Abraham answered, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here, while you are in agony.
Romans 13:3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the one in authority? Then do what is right, and you will have his approval.
- φαῦλος phaûlosworthless, wicked, basetranslated this way 3 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s G5337Adjective · Translated: evil 3, bad 3Full study and all 6 verses →
Romans 9:11 Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God’s plan of election might stand,
2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive his due for the things done in the body, whether good or bad.
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.