חָטָא
cha.ta
to sin
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
ExploredThe Hebrew word "cha.ta" (H2398) is a verb that means "to sin." It is used 238 times in the Bible, indicating its significance in the Hebrew scriptures. The word is part of the semantic domain of Sin & Righteousness, suggesting that it is closely tied to concepts of moral wrongdoing and ethical behavior. The meaning of "cha.ta" is straightforward: it describes an action or behavior that deviates from what is considered right or just. This can include intentional wrongdoing, as well as unintentional mistakes or oversights. The word's range of usage is broad, encompassing various contexts such as individual actions, communal behaviors, and even corporate or national sins. The significance of "cha.ta" lies in its emphasis on the consequences of sin, as well as the importance of seeking forgiveness and restoration. The repeated use of this word throughout the Bible highlights the gravity of sin and the need for individuals and communities to acknowledge and address their wrongdoing.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
238 total occurrences across the text — showing 50
Then the priests killed them, and they made a sin offering with their blood on the altar, to make atonement for all Israel; for the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel.
Nehemiah 1:6Let your ear now be attentive, and your eyes open, that you may listen to the prayer of your servant, which I pray before you at this time, day and night, for the children of Israel your servants, while I confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Yes, I and my father’s house have sinned.
Nehemiah 1:6Let your ear now be attentive, and your eyes open, that you may listen to the prayer of your servant, which I pray before you at this time, day and night, for the children of Israel your servants, while I confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Yes, I and my father’s house have sinned.
Nehemiah 6:13He hired so that I would be afraid, do so, and sin, and that they might have material for an evil report, that they might reproach me.
Nehemiah 9:29and testified against them, that you might bring them again to your law. Yet they were arrogant, and didn’t listen to your commandments, but sinned against your ordinances (which if a man does, he shall live in them), turned their backs, stiffened their neck, and would not hear.
Nehemiah 13:26Didn’t Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations there was no king like him, and he was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless foreign women caused even him to sin.
Nehemiah 13:26Didn’t Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations there was no king like him, and he was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless foreign women caused even him to sin.
Job 1:5It was so, when the days of their feasting had run their course, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned, and renounced God in their hearts.” Job did so continually.
Job 1:22In all this, Job didn’t sin, nor charge God with wrongdoing.
Job 2:10But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips.
Job 5:24You will know that your tent is in peace. You will visit your fold, and will miss nothing.
Job 7:20If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?
Job 8:4If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their disobedience.
Job 10:14if I sin, then you mark me. You will not acquit me from my iniquity.
Job 24:19Drought and heat consume the snow waters, so does Sheol those who have sinned.
Job 31:30(yes, I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse);
Job 33:27He sings before men, and says, ‘I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it didn’t profit me.
Job 35:6If you have sinned, what effect do you have against him? If your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?
Job 41:25When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid. They retreat before his thrashing.
Psalms 4:4Stand in awe, and don’t sin. Search your own heart on your bed, and be still.
Psalms 39:1I said, “I will watch my ways, so that I don’t sin with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.”
Psalms 41:4I said, “Yahweh, have mercy on me! Heal me, for I have sinned against you.”
Psalms 51:4Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight, so you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge.
Psalms 51:7Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Psalms 78:17Yet they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.
Psalms 78:32For all this they still sinned, and didn’t believe in his wondrous works.
Psalms 106:6We have sinned with our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly.
Psalms 119:11I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
Proverbs 8:36But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul. All those who hate me love death.”
Proverbs 11:31Behold, the righteous shall be repaid in the earth, how much more the wicked and the sinner!
Proverbs 13:22A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored for the righteous.
Proverbs 19:2It isn’t good to have zeal without knowledge, nor being hasty with one’s feet and missing the way.
Proverbs 20:2The terror of a king is like the roaring of a lion. He who provokes him to anger forfeits his own life.
Ecclesiastes 2:26For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
Ecclesiastes 5:6Don’t allow your mouth to lead you into sin. Don’t protest before the messenger that this was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?
Ecclesiastes 7:20Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and doesn’t sin.
Ecclesiastes 7:26I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and traps, whose hands are chains. Whoever pleases God shall escape from her; but the sinner will be ensnared by her.
Ecclesiastes 8:12Though a sinner commits crimes a hundred times, and lives long, yet surely I know that it will be better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him.
Ecclesiastes 9:2All things come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good, to the clean, to the unclean, to him who sacrifices, and to him who doesn’t sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner; he who takes an oath, as he who fears an oath.
Ecclesiastes 9:18Wisdom is better than weapons of war; but one sinner destroys much good.
Isaiah 1:4Ah sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken Yahweh. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are estranged and backward.
Isaiah 29:21who cause a person to be indicted by a word, and lay a snare for the arbiter in the gate, and who deprive the innocent of justice with false testimony.
Jeremiah 2:35“Yet you said, ‘I am innocent. Surely his anger has turned away from me.’ “Behold, I will judge you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’
Jeremiah 32:35They built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through fire to Molech, which I didn’t command them. It didn’t even come into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.”
Isaiah 42:24Who gave Jacob as plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Didn’t Yahweh, he against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, and they disobeyed his law.
Isaiah 43:27Your first father sinned, and your teachers have transgressed against me.
Isaiah 64:5You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned. We have been in sin for a long time. Shall we be saved?
Isaiah 65:20“No more will there be an infant who only lives a few days, nor an old man who has not filled his days; for the child will die one hundred years old, and the sinner being one hundred years old will be accursed.
Jeremiah 3:25Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. We have not obeyed Yahweh our God’s voice.”
Jeremiah 8:14“Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves! Let’s enter into the fortified cities, and let’s be silent there; for Yahweh our God has put us to silence, and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against Yahweh.