רִשְׁעָה
rish.ah
wickedness
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# H7564 (רִשְׁעָה): Wickedness in Hebrew Scripture The Hebrew word *rish'ah* appears fifteen times throughout the biblical text and carries the meaning of "wickedness"—a term denoting moral and ethical wrongdoing. As a noun, it represents a state or condition of evil behavior rather than a single transgressive act. This positioning makes it a significant theological term for describing human moral failure in absolute terms, not merely specific violations of law or custom. The relatively limited occurrence of this particular word (15 instances) suggests it carries weight when it does appear, likely reserved for moments when biblical authors wished to emphasize serious, pervasive moral corruption rather than individual sins. The term functions as a descriptor of a human condition or character orientation toward evil, making it foundational to how Hebrew scripture conceptualizes and discusses fundamental moral categories. Understanding *rish'ah* as "wickedness" rather than narrower terms like "transgression" or "crime" indicates the word addresses a broader spiritual and moral reality—a wholesale turning away from righteousness rather than isolated wrongdoing.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
15 total occurrences across the text
The righteousness of the blameless will direct his way, but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.
Proverbs 13:6Righteousness guards the way of integrity, but wickedness overthrows the sinner.
Isaiah 9:18For wickedness burns like a fire. It devours the briers and thorns; yes, it kindles in the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke.
Ezekiel 5:6She has rebelled against my ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries that are around her; for they have rejected my ordinances, and as for my statutes, they have not walked in them.’
Ezekiel 18:20The soul who sins, he shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be on him.
Ezekiel 18:27Again, when the wicked man turns away from his wickedness that he has committed, and does that which is lawful and right, he will save his soul alive.
Ezekiel 33:12“You, son of man, tell the children of your people, ‘The righteousness of the righteous will not deliver him in the day of his disobedience. And as for the wickedness of the wicked, he will not fall by it in the day that he turns from his wickedness; neither will he who is righteous be able to live by it in the day that he sins.
Ezekiel 33:19When the wicked turns from his wickedness, and does that which is lawful and right, he will live by it.
Zechariah 5:8He said, “This is Wickedness;” and he threw her down into the middle of the ephah basket; and he threw the weight of lead on its mouth.
Malachi 1:4Whereas Edom says, “We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places;” Yahweh of Armies says, “They shall build, but I will throw down; and men will call them ‘The Wicked Land,’ even the people against whom Yahweh shows wrath forever.”
Malachi 3:15Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt God, and escape.’
Malachi 4:1“For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
Deuteronomy 9:4Don’t say in your heart, after Yahweh your God has thrust them out from before you, “For my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land;” because Yahweh drives them out before you because of the wickedness of these nations.
Deuteronomy 9:5Not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Deuteronomy 25:2It shall be, if the wicked man is worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down and to be beaten before his face, according to his wickedness, by number.