Word study
Wickedly
6 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “wickedly”. 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 “wickedly” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- רָשַׁע râshabe wicked, act wickedlytranslated this way 11 times of its 34 uses · Strong’s H7561Verb · Translated: condemn 7, acted wickedly 6, condemned 3, wickedly departed 2Full study and all 34 verses →
2 Samuel 22:22 For I have kept the ways of the LORD and have not wickedly departed from my God.
1 Kings 8:47 and when they come to their senses in the land to which they were taken, and they repent and plead with You in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and done wrong; we have acted wickedly,’
- רָעַע râabe evil, badtranslated this way 4 times of its 97 uses · Strong’s H7489Verb · Translated: wicked 9, harm 8, evil 8, evildoers 8Full study and all 97 verses →
1 Kings 16:25 But Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD and acted more wickedly than all who were before him.
2 Kings 21:11 “Since Manasseh king of Judah has committed all these abominations, acting more wickedly than the Amorites who preceded him, and with his idols has caused Judah to sin,
- עָוָה âvâhbend, twisttranslated this way 1 time of its 17 uses · Strong’s H5753Verb · Translated: done wrong 4, perverted 2Full study and all 17 verses →
2 Samuel 24:17 When David saw the angel striking down the people, he said to the LORD, “Surely I, the shepherd, have sinned and acted wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please, let Your hand fall upon me and my father’s house.”
- עֶוֶל evelinjustice, unrighteousnesstranslated this way 1 time of its 53 uses · Strong’s H5766Noun · Translated: iniquity 15, injustice 14, wrong 5, wickedness 4Full study and all 51 verses →
Job 13:7 Will you speak wickedly on God’s behalf or speak deceitfully for Him?
- רִשְׁעָה rishâhwickednesstranslated this way 1 time of its 13 uses · Strong’s H7564Noun · Translated: wickedness 10, driving 1, crime warrants 1, more wickedly 1Full study and all 13 verses →
Ezekiel 5:6 But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations, and against My statutes worse than the countries around her. For her people have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.’
- זִמָּה zimmâhplan, device, wickednesstranslated this way 1 time of its 29 uses · Strong’s H2154Noun · Translated: indecency 7, lewd 3, depraved 2, depravity 2Full study and all 27 verses →
Ezekiel 22:11 One man commits an abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another wickedly defiles his daughter-in-law; and yet another violates his sister, his own father’s daughter.
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.