Word study
Sin
9 Hebrew and 7 Greek words behind this English word
In brief
The main words are the Hebrew hata and hattat and the Greek hamartanō and hamartia. All share the picture of missing the mark or failing the standard. Hattat can also mean the sin offering, which is why the word is so frequent in Leviticus. Hebrew has further words with their own shades, such as avon (iniquity, guilt) and pesha (rebellion, transgression).
Written and reviewed by our editorial team.
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: sin, sins, sinned, sinning. 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 “sin” 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)
- חַטָּאָה chaṭṭââhoffence, penalty, occasiontranslated this way 284 times of its 292 uses · Strong’s H2403Noun · Translated: sin offering 108, sin 83, sins 73, sin offerings 8Full study and all 271 verses →
Genesis 4:7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you refuse to do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires you, but you must master it.”
Exodus 10:17 Now please forgive my sin once more and appeal to the LORD your God, that He may remove this death from me.”
- חָטָא châṭâmisstranslated this way 142 times of its 233 uses · Strong’s H2398Verb · Translated: sinned 73, sin 33, committed 26, sins 21Full study and all 217 verses →
Genesis 20:6 Then God said to Abimelech in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against Me. That is why I did not let you touch her.
Exodus 9:27 Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. “This time I have sinned,” he said. “The LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.
- חֵטְא chêṭesintranslated this way 22 times of its 32 uses · Strong’s H2399Noun · Translated: sin 9, sins 7, guilt 4, guilty of sin 4Full study and all 32 verses →
Leviticus 20:20 If a man lies with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered the nakedness of his uncle. They will bear their sin; they shall die childless.
Numbers 9:13 But if a man who is ceremonially clean and is not on a journey still fails to observe the Passover, he must be cut off from his people, because he did not present the LORD’s offering at its appointed time. That man will bear the consequences of his sin.
- עָוֺן âvôniniquity, guilt, or punishment of iniquitytranslated this way 11 times of its 230 uses · Strong’s H5771Noun · Translated: iniquity 128, iniquities 37, guilt 20, punishment 12Full study and all 214 verses →
Leviticus 18:25 Even the land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its sin, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants.
Joshua 22:17 Was not the sin of Peor enough for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves to this day? It even brought a plague upon the congregation of the LORD.
- חֲטָאָה chăṭââhsin, sin-offering (?)translated this way 7 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s H2401Noun · Translated: sin 5, guilt 1, sins 1, sin offerings 1Full study and all 8 verses →
Exodus 32:21 “What did this people do to you,” Moses asked Aaron, “that you have led them into so great a sin?”
2 Kings 17:21 When the LORD had torn Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat king, and Jeroboam led Israel away from following the LORD and caused them to commit a great sin.
- סִין ÇînSintranslated this way 4 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H5512Noun · Translated: Sin 4, Pelusium 2Full study and all 6 verses →
Exodus 16:1 On the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left the land of Egypt, the whole congregation of Israel set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai.
Numbers 33:11 They set out from the Red Sea and camped in the Desert of Sin.
- פֶּשַׁע peshatransgressiontranslated this way 3 times of its 93 uses · Strong’s H6588Noun · Translated: transgressions 41, transgression 25, rebellion 9, rebellious acts 4Full study and all 90 verses →
Proverbs 10:19 When words are many, sin is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.
Proverbs 28:13 He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.
- 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 56:7 In spite of such sin, will they escape? In Your anger, O God, cast down the nations.
Psalm 119:133 Order my steps in Your word; let no sin rule over me.
- חַטָּא chaṭṭâsinfultranslated this way 2 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s H2400Adjective · Translated: sinners 14, sinful 2, sinning 1, sinned 1Full study and all 19 verses →
Genesis 13:13 But the men of Sodom were wicked, sinning greatly against the LORD.
Numbers 16:38 As for the censers of those who sinned at the cost of their own lives, hammer them into sheets to overlay the altar, for these were presented before the LORD, and so have become holy. They will serve as a sign to the Israelites.”
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἁμαρτία hamartíaa sintranslated this way 163 times of its 168 uses · Strong’s G266Noun · Translated: sin 88, sins 72, guilty of sin 2, sinful 2Full study and all 146 verses →
Matthew 1:21 She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”
Mark 1:4 John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
- ἁμαρτάνω hamartánōI sintranslated this way 38 times of its 43 uses · Strong’s G264Verb · Translated: sinned 12, sin 10, sins 5, sinning 4Full study and all 37 verses →
Matthew 18:15 If your brother sins against you, go and confront him privately. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.
Luke 15:18 I will get up and go back to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
- σκανδαλίζω skandalízōI cause to stumbletranslated this way 8 times of its 29 uses · Strong’s G4624Verb · Translated: fall away 8, causes you to sin 7, causes 3, took offense 2Full study and all 27 verses →
Matthew 5:29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
Mark 9:43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two hands and go into hell, into the unquenchable fire.
- ἁμάρτημα hamártēmaa fault, sin, evil deedtranslated this way 4 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G265Noun · Translated: sins 2, sin 2Full study and all 4 verses →
Mark 3:28 Truly I tell you, the sons of men will be forgiven all sins and blasphemies, as many as they utter.
Romans 3:25 God presented Him as an atoning sacrifice in His blood through faith, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand.
- σκάνδαλον skándalona snare, stumbling-blocktranslated this way 2 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s G4625Noun · Translated: stumbling block 4, offense 3, stumbling blocks 2Full study and all 13 verses →
Matthew 13:41 The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will weed out of His kingdom every cause of sin and all who practice lawlessness.
Matthew 18:7 Woe to the world for the causes of sin. These stumbling blocks must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!
- ἔχω échōI have, hold, possesstranslated this way 2 times of its 624 uses · Strong’s G2192Verb · Translated: has 63, have 52, with 35, you have 29Full study and all 560 verses →
John 15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.
John 15:24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father.
- προαμαρτάνω proamartánōI sin previouslytranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G4258Verb · Translated: sinned earlier 2Full study and all 2 verses →
2 Corinthians 12:21 I am afraid that when I come again, my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of their acts of impurity, sexual immorality, and debauchery.
2 Corinthians 13:2 I already warned you the second time I was with you. So now in my absence I warn those who sinned earlier and everyone else: If I return, I will not spare anyone,
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 sin: 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.