Word study
Malice
7 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “malice”. 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 “malice” 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 3 times of its 651 uses · Strong’s H7451Adjective · Translated: evil 263, disaster 72, harm 38, wicked 31Full study and all 615 verses →
Psalm 28:3 Do not drag me away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, who speak peace to their neighbors while malice is in their hearts.
Psalm 41:5 My enemies say with malice: “When will he die and be forgotten?”
- שָׂנֵא sânêhatetranslated this way 2 times of its 143 uses · Strong’s H8130Verb · Translated: hate 65, hated 23, hates 17, enemies 6Full study and all 139 verses →
Deuteronomy 4:42 to which a manslayer could flee after killing his neighbor unintentionally without prior malice. To save one’s own life, he could flee to one of these cities:
Joshua 20:5 Now if the avenger of blood pursues him, they must not surrender the manslayer into his hand, because that man killed his neighbor accidentally without prior malice.
- אָוֶן âventrouble, sorrow, wickednesstranslated this way 2 times of its 68 uses · Strong’s H205Noun · Translated: iniquity 27, evil 6, wicked 6, disaster 3Full study and all 68 verses →
Psalm 10:7 His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and violence; trouble and malice are under his tongue.
Psalm 55:10 Day and night they encircle the walls, while malice and trouble lie within.
- הַוָּה havvâhdesiretranslated this way 1 time of its 15 uses · Strong’s H1942Noun · Translated: destruction 6Full study and all 15 verses →
Job 6:30 Is there iniquity on my tongue? Can my mouth not discern malice?’’
- קָרַץ qâratsnip, pinchtranslated this way 1 time of its 5 uses · Strong’s H7169Verb · Translated: formed 1, wink in malice 1, winking 1, winks 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Psalm 35:19 Let not my enemies gloat over me without cause, nor those who hate me without reason wink in malice.
- נְקָמָה neqâmâhvengeancetranslated this way 1 time of its 24 uses · Strong’s H5360Noun · Translated: vengeance 21, avenged 1, behalf 1, malice 1Full study and all 19 verses →
Lamentations 3:60 You have seen all their malice, all their plots against me.
- שְׁאָט sheâṭdespite, contempttranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s H7589Noun · Translated: contempt 1, malice 1, utter contempt 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Ezekiel 25:15 This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because the Philistines acted in vengeance, taking vengeance with malice of soul to destroy Judah with ancient hostility,
Greek words (New Testament)
- κακία kakíaevil, wickedness, malicetranslated this way 5 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s G2549Noun · Translated: malice 5, evil 3, trouble 1, wickedness 1Full study and all 11 verses →
1 Corinthians 5:8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old bread, leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and of truth.
Ephesians 4:31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, outcry and slander, along with every form of malice.
- κακοήθεια kakoḗtheiaevil-mindednesstranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G2550Noun · Translated: malice 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Romans 1:29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,
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.
What the Bible says about malice: passages by topic →
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.