'Evil' in the Bible

This is because you have disheartened the righteous person with lies (although I have not grieved him), and because you have encouraged the wicked person not to turn from his evil conduct and preserve his life.

"'After all of your evil -- "Woe! Woe to you!" declares the sovereign Lord --

before your evil was exposed? Now you have become an object of scorn to the daughters of Aram and all those around her and to the daughters of the Philistines -- those all around you who despise you.

And there you will remember your conduct and all your deeds by which you defiled yourselves. You will despise yourselves because of all the evil deeds you have done.

I will dry up the waterways and hand the land over to evil men. I will make the land and everything in it desolate by the hand of foreigners. I, the Lord, have spoken!

Say to them, 'As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but prefer that the wicked change his behavior and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil deeds! Why should you die, O house of Israel?'

Then you will remember your evil behavior and your deeds which were not good; you will loathe yourselves on account of your sins and your abominable deeds.

"'This is what the sovereign Lord says: On that day thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil plan.

These two kings, their minds filled with evil intentions, will trade lies with one another at the same table. But it will not succeed, for there is still an end at the appointed time.

I know Ephraim all too well; the evil of Israel is not hidden from me. For you have engaged in prostitution, O Ephraim; Israel has defiled itself.

whenever I want to heal Israel, the sin of Ephraim is revealed, and the evil deeds of Samaria are exposed. For they do what is wrong; thieves break into houses, and gangs rob people out in the streets.

They do not realize that I remember all of their wicked deeds. Their evil deeds have now surrounded them; their sinful deeds are always before me.

The royal advisers delight the king with their evil schemes, the princes make him glad with their lies.

Although I trained and strengthened them, they plot evil against me!

Because of all their evil in Gilgal, I hate them there. On account of their evil deeds, I will drive them out of my land. I will no longer love them; all their rulers are rebels.

Rush forth with the sickle, for the harvest is ripe! Come, stomp the grapes, for the winepress is full! The vats overflow. Indeed, their evil is great!

For this reason whoever is smart keeps quiet in such a time, for it is an evil time.

Seek good and not evil so you can live! Then the Lord, the God who commands armies, just might be with you, as you claim he is.

Every person and animal must put on sackcloth and must cry earnestly to God, and everyone must turn from their evil way of living and from the violence that they do.

When God saw their actions -- they turned from their evil way of living! -- God relented concerning the judgment he had threatened them with and he did not destroy them.

Those who devise sinful plans are as good as dead, those who dream about doing evil as they lie in bed. As soon as morning dawns they carry out their plans, because they have the power to do so.

yet you hate what is good, and love what is evil. You flay my people's skin and rip the flesh from their bones.

They are determined to be experts at doing evil; government officials and judges take bribes, prominent men make demands, and they all do what is necessary to satisfy them.

You will once again have mercy on us; you will conquer our evil deeds; you will hurl our sins into the depths of the sea.

From you, O Nineveh, one has marched forth who plots evil against the Lord, a wicked military strategist.

You are too just to tolerate evil; you are unable to condone wrongdoing. So why do you put up with such treacherous people? Why do you say nothing when the wicked devour those more righteous than they are?

"I will destroy people and animals; I will destroy the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea. (The idolatrous images of these creatures will be destroyed along with evil people.) I will remove humanity from the face of the earth," says the Lord.

"Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the former prophets called out, saying, 'The Lord who rules over all says, "Turn now from your evil wickedness,"' but they would by no means obey me," says the Lord.

You must not oppress the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, or the poor, nor should anyone secretly plot evil against his fellow human being.'

Do not plan evil in your hearts against one another. Do not favor a false oath -- these are all things that I hate,' says the Lord."

Edom says, "Though we are devastated, we will once again build the ruined places." So the Lord who rules over all responds, "They indeed may build, but I will overthrow. They will be known as the land of evil, the people with whom the Lord is permanently displeased.

You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, "How have we wearied him?" Because you say, "Everyone who does evil is good in the Lord's opinion, and he delights in them," or "Where is the God of justice?"

So now we consider the arrogant to be happy; indeed, those who practice evil are successful. In fact, those who challenge God escape!'"

"Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil things about you falsely on account of me.

Let your word be 'Yes, yes' or 'No, no.' More than this is from the evil one.

so that you may be like your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

When Jesus saw their reaction he said, "Why do you respond with evil in your hearts?

Offspring of vipers! How are you able to say anything good, since you are evil? For the mouth speaks from what fills the heart.

The good person brings good things out of his good treasury, and the evil person brings evil things out of his evil treasury.

But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there, so the last state of that person is worse than the first. It will be that way for this evil generation as well!"

When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches what was sown in his heart; this is the seed sown along the path.

The field is the world and the good seed are the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one,

It will be this way at the end of the age. Angels will come and separate the evil from the righteous

For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

Then his lord called the first slave and said to him, 'Evil slave! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me!

They said to him, "He will utterly destroy those evil men! Then he will lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his portion at the harvest."

But Jesus realized their evil intentions and said, "Hypocrites! Why are you testing me?

But if that evil slave should say to himself, 'My master is staying away a long time,'

But his master answered, 'Evil and lazy slave! So you knew that I harvest where I didn't sow and gather where I didn't scatter?

Then he said to them, "Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath, or evil, to save a life or destroy it?" But they were silent.

For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder,

adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, and folly.

But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of Herodias, his brother's wife, and because of all the evil deeds that he had done,

Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save a life or to destroy it?"

"Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject you as evil on account of the Son of Man!

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to ungrateful and evil people.

The good person out of the good treasury of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasury produces evil, for his mouth speaks from what fills his heart.

At that very time Jesus cured many people of diseases, sicknesses, and evil spirits, and granted sight to many who were blind.

and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and disabilities: Mary (called Magdalene), from whom seven demons had gone out,

For Jesus had started commanding the evil spirit to come out of the man. (For it had seized him many times, so he would be bound with chains and shackles and kept under guard. But he would break the restraints and be driven by the demon into deserted places.)

If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there, so the last state of that person is worse than the first."

Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.

For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed.

and will come out -- the ones who have done what is good to the resurrection resulting in life, and the ones who have done what is evil to the resurrection resulting in condemnation.

The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I am testifying about it that its deeds are evil.

I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one.

so that when even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his body were brought to the sick, their diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.

But some itinerant Jewish exorcists tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were possessed by evil spirits, saying, "I sternly warn you by Jesus whom Paul preaches."

But the evil spirit replied to them, "I know about Jesus and I am acquainted with Paul, but who are you?"

Then the man who was possessed by the evil spirit jumped on them and beat them all into submission. He prevailed against them so that they fled from that house naked and wounded.

Paul replied, "I did not realize, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, 'You must not speak evil about a ruler of your people.'"

When his accusers stood up, they did not charge him with any of the evil deeds I had suspected.

slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents,

There will be affliction and distress on everyone who does evil, on the Jew first and also the Greek,

And why not say, "Let us do evil so that good may come of it"? -- as some who slander us allege that we say. (Their condemnation is deserved!)

For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want!

So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me.

Love must be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil; consider what is good before all people.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Therefore do not let what you consider good be spoken of as evil.

Your obedience is known to all and thus I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil.

So then, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of vice and evil, but with the bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.

But God will judge those outside. Remove the evil person from among you.

These things happened as examples for us, so that we will not crave evil things as they did.

Brothers and sisters, do not be children in your thinking. Instead, be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be paid back according to what he has done while in the body, whether good or evil.

who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father,

You must put away every kind of bitterness, anger, wrath, quarreling, and evil, slanderous talk.

taking advantage of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.

For this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand your ground on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand.

and in all of this, by taking up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh!

And you were at one time strangers and enemies in your minds as expressed through your evil deeds,

So put to death whatever in your nature belongs to the earth: sexual immorality, impurity, shameful passion, evil desire, and greed which is idolatry.