Midvash

רַעraʻ

רַע: bad, evil

Pronunciation: rah · Hebrew/Aramaic (Old Testament) · H7451

Meanings

1. bad, disagreeable, malignant (Exodus 21:8; Genesis 28:8; 2 Kings 4:41)

2. bad, unpleasant, giving pain, unhappiness, misery (Genesis 47:9; Proverbs 15:15; Ecclesiastes 1:13)

3. evil, displeasing (1 Samuel 29:7)

4. bad of its kind (Numbers 13:19; Numbers 20:5; 2 Kings 2:19)

5. bad, i.e. of low value (Leviticus 27:10; Leviticus 27:12; Leviticus 27:14)

6. + מִן comparative, worse than (2 Samuel 19:8; Ezekiel 7:24)

7. sad, unhappy (Proverbs 25:20; Genesis 40:7; Nehemiah 2:2)

8. devise evil (hurtful) device (Ezekiel 38:10; Esther 9:25)

9. bad, unkind, vicious in disposition or temper (Proverbs 26:23; Proverbs 23:6; Proverbs 28:22)

10. bad, evil, wicked, ethically

a. in general (Ecclesiastes 12:14)

b. of persons (1 Samuel 30:22; Psalms 140:2; Esther 7:6)

c. of thoughts (Genesis 6:5; Genesis 8:21; Jeremiah 3:17)

d. deeds, actions (Deuteronomy 13:12; Deuteronomy 17:5; Deuteronomy 19:20)

רַע: evil, distress, misery, injury, calamity

1. evil, distress, adversity (Psalms 23:4; Zephaniah 3:15; Isaiah 45:7)

2. evil, injury, wrong (Habakkuk 2:9; Job 2:10; Proverbs 21:10)

3. evil, ethical (Deuteronomy 30:15; 2 Samuel 14:17; Isaiah 5:20)

רָעָה: evil, misery, distress, injury

1. evil, misery, distress (Proverbs 1:33; Ezekiel 7:5; Isaiah 47:11)

2. evil, injury, wrong (2 Samuel 12:18; Jeremiah 26:19; Jeremiah 41:11)

3. evil, ethical (1 Samuel 12:17; 1 Samuel 12:19; 1 Samuel 24:12)

Same root

Where it appears

Appears 661 times in the Bible.

  • Genesis 2:9 The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
  • Genesis 2:17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”
  • Genesis 3:5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
  • Genesis 3:22 Then the Lord God said, “Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!”
  • Genesis 6:5 The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.
  • Genesis 8:21 And the Lord was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice and said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things.
See every passage

Source: Brown, Driver and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain; markup by unfoldingWord, CC BY (github.com/unfoldingWord/Brown-Driver-Briggs-Enhanced).