ra · evil, bad, harm

What it means

ra (רַע) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “evil, bad, harm”.

Bad; evil. It includes what is morally wrong and also what does harm: misfortune, disaster, distress.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. What is evil, the opposite of good.
2. Something that hurts, a disaster.
3. Poor in quality, unpleasant to look at, or downcast.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Bad, evil. BDB notes that it can be natural or moral: it covers wickedness and also misfortune or harm. It comes from the verb רָעַע, “do evil, afflict” (H7489).

• Evil over against good Genesis 2:9Deuteronomy 30:15
• Moral evil Genesis 6:5Judges 2:11
• Misfortune, calamity Jonah 3:10Isaiah 45:7
• Bad in looks or quality: “ugly”, “fierce” Genesis 41:3Genesis 37:20

How we translate it

“Evil” 533 times, “bad” 38, “harm” 22, “evils” 21. The translation keeps “evil” also when the sense is calamity (Jonah 3:10; Isaiah 45:7), and so it can be seen that the Hebrew uses the same word; the context shows whether it is wickedness or disaster. When it describes animals or things, English needs another word: cows “ugly in appearance” (Genesis 41:3), “A fierce animal” (חַיָּה רָעָה, Genesis 37:20).

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• evil ×533
• bad ×38
• harm ×22
• evils ×21
• trouble ×7
• ugly ×6
• wickedness ×6
• fierce ×3
• harmful ×3
• sad ×3
• others ×22

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Genesis×36
• Exodus×9
• Leviticus×6
• Numbers×10
• Deuteronomy×35
• Joshua×2
• Judges×19
• 1 Samuel×31
• 2 Samuel×15
• 1 Kings×27
• 2 Kings×32
• 1 Chronicles×4
• 2 Chronicles×21
• Ezra×1
• Nehemiah×13
• Esther×6
• Job×15
• Psalms×64
• Proverbs×68
• Ecclesiastes×31
• Isaiah×20
• Jeremiah×122
• Lamentations×3
• Ezekiel×24
• Daniel×3
• Hosea×7
• Joel×2
• Amos×7
• Obadiah×1
• Jonah×9
• Micah×7
• Nahum×2
• Habakkuk×3
• Zephaniah×1
• Zechariah×5
• Malachi×3

• Genesis 2:9

  And YHWH Elohim made every tree sprout from the ground that is pleasing to the sight and good for food, and the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

• Genesis 2:17

  but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat from it, for in the day that you eat from it you will certainly die.”

• Genesis 3:5

  for Elohim knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like Elohim, knowing good and evil.”

• Genesis 3:22

  And YHWH Elohim said, “Look, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, so that he does not reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever—”

• Genesis 6:5

  And YHWH saw that the wickedness of the human being was great on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the day.

• Genesis 8:21

  And YHWH smelled the pleasing aroma, and YHWH said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of the human being, for the inclination of the heart of the human being is evil from his youth; and I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done.

• Genesis 13:13

  Now the men of Sodom were evil and great sinners against YHWH.

• Genesis 19:19

  Look, your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have made great your loyal love that you have shown me by keeping me alive; but I cannot escape to the mountain, lest the evil overtake me and I die.

• Genesis 24:50

  Laban and Bethuel answered and said, “The matter has come from YHWH; we cannot speak to you bad or good.

• Genesis 26:29

  that you will not do us harm, just as we have not touched you and just as we have done to you only good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of YHWH.’”

• Genesis 28:8

  Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan were displeasing in the eyes of Isaac his father.

• Genesis 31:24

  But Elohim came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, “Be careful not to speak with Jacob either good or bad.”

• Genesis 31:29

  It is in the power of my hand to do you harm; but the Elohim of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to speak with Jacob either good or bad.’

• Genesis 31:52

  This heap is a witness, and the standing stone is a witness, that I will not pass beyond this heap to you, and you will not pass beyond this heap and this standing stone to me, for harm.

• Genesis 37:2

  These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a young man with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought bad reports about them to their father.

• Genesis 37:20

  Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the cisterns, and we will say, ‘A fierce animal devoured him.’ Then we will see what will become of his dreams.”

• Genesis 37:33

  He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! A fierce animal has devoured him; Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!”

• Genesis 38:7

  But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in the eyes of YHWH, and YHWH put him to death.

• Genesis 39:9

  He is not greater in this house than I, and he has not withheld from me anything except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against Elohim?”

• Genesis 40:7

  He asked Pharaoh’s officials who were with him in custody in his lord’s house, saying, “Why are your faces sad today?”

• Genesis 41:3

  And look, seven other cows came up after them from the Nile, ugly in appearance and thin in flesh, and they stood beside the other cows on the bank of the Nile.

• Genesis 41:4

  The cows ugly in appearance and thin in flesh ate up the seven cows beautiful in appearance and fat. Then Pharaoh woke up.

• Genesis 41:19

  And look, seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly in form and lean in flesh; I have never seen any like them in all the land of Egypt for ugliness.

• Genesis 41:20

  The lean and ugly cows ate up the first seven fat cows.

• Genesis 41:21

  They went into their bellies, but it could not be known that they had gone into their bellies, and their appearance was ugly just as at the beginning. Then I woke up.

• Genesis 41:27

  And the seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty ears, scorched by the east wind, will be seven years of famine.

• Genesis 44:4

  They had gone out of the city and had not gone far when Joseph said to the one over his house, “Get up, pursue the men, and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?

• Genesis 44:29

  If you take this one also from me and harm befalls him, you will bring down my gray hair in misery to Sheol.’

• Genesis 44:34

  For how can I go up to my father if the young man is not with me? Let me not see the evil that would come upon my father.”

• Genesis 47:9

  Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my life as an alien are a hundred and thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not reached the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their life as aliens.”

• Genesis 48:16

  the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the young men; and in them let my name be called, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them teem in multitude in the midst of the earth.”

• Genesis 50:15

  When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the evil that we did to him?”

• Genesis 50:17

  ‘Thus you shall say to Joseph: “I beg you, please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they did evil to you.”’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the Elohim of your father.” And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

• Genesis 50:20

  As for you, you planned evil against me; Elohim planned it for good, in order to bring about what is happening today: keeping alive many people.

• Exodus 5:19

  The supervisors of the sons of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they were told, “You shall not reduce any of your bricks, each day’s task on its day.”

• Exodus 10:10

  He said to them, “So may YHWH be with you, as I let you and your little ones go! Look, you have evil in view.

• Exodus 21:8

  If she is displeasing in the eyes of her master, who had designated her for himself, he shall let her be ransomed; he shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt treacherously with her.

• Exodus 23:2

  You shall not follow a majority to do evil, nor testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after a majority to pervert justice.

• Exodus 32:12

  Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the ground’? Turn from the heat of your anger and relent concerning the evil planned against your people.

• Exodus 32:14

  And YHWH relented concerning the evil that he had said he would do to his people.

And 624 more times.