'Wickedness' in the Bible
Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
“Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before you, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you.
It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look at the stubbornness of this people or at their wickedness or their sin.
Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he had done to his father in killing his seventy brothers.
Also God returned all the wickedness of the men of Shechem on their heads, and the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal came upon them.
(Now the sons of Benjamin heard that the sons of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) And the sons of Israel said, “Tell us, how did this wickedness take place?”
Then the tribes of Israel sent men through the entire tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What is this wickedness that has taken place among you?
Now then, deliver up the men, the worthless fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and remove this wickedness from Israel.” But the sons of Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the sons of Israel.
Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call to the Lord, that He may send thunder and rain. Then you will know and see that your wickedness is great which you have done in the sight of the Lord by asking for yourselves a king.”
Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab’s anger burned against David and he said, “Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your insolence and the wickedness of your heart; for you have come down in order to see the battle.”
As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness’; but my hand shall not be against you.
Solomon said, “If he is a worthy man, not one of his hairs will fall to the ground; but if wickedness is found in him, he will die.”
If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away,And do not let wickedness dwell in your tents;
“A mother will forget him;The worm feeds sweetly till he is no longer remembered.And wickedness will be broken like a tree.
“Therefore, listen to me, you men of understanding.Far be it from God to do wickedness,And from the Almighty to do wrong.
“Your wickedness is for a man like yourself,And your righteousness is for a son of man.
For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness;No evil dwells with You.
Behold, he travails with wickedness,And he conceives mischief and brings forth falsehood.
His mouth is full of curses and deceit and oppression;Under his tongue is mischief and wickedness.
Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer,Seek out his wickedness until You find none.
Do all the workers of wickedness not know,Who eat up my people as they eat bread,And do not call upon the Lord?
The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit;He has ceased to be wise and to do good.
He plans wickedness upon his bed;He sets himself on a path that is not good;He does not despise evil.
And when he comes to see me, he speaks falsehood;His heart gathers wickedness to itself;When he goes outside, he tells it.
You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;Therefore God, Your God, has anointed YouWith the oil of joy above Your fellows.
Have the workers of wickedness no knowledge,Who eat up My people as though they ate breadAnd have not called upon God?
Because of wickedness, cast them forth,In anger put down the peoples, O God!
If I regard wickedness in my heart,The Lord will not hear;
For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside.I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my GodThan dwell in the tents of wickedness.
“The enemy will not deceive him,Nor the son of wickedness afflict him.
They pour forth words, they speak arrogantly;All who do wickedness vaunt themselves.
Who will stand up for me against evildoers?Who will take his stand for me against those who do wickedness?
He has brought back their wickedness upon themAnd will destroy them in their evil;The Lord our God will destroy them.
A fruitful land into a salt waste,Because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
Those who follow after wickedness draw near;They are far from Your law.
For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest upon the land of the righteous,So that the righteous will not put forth their hands to do wrong.
Do not incline my heart to any evil thing,To practice deeds of wickednessWith men who do iniquity;And do not let me eat of their delicacies.
For they eat the bread of wickednessAnd drink the wine of violence.
“For my mouth will utter truth;And wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
Doing wickedness is like sport to a fool,And so is wisdom to a man of understanding.
The righteousness of the blameless will smooth his way,But the wicked will fall by his own wickedness.
A man will not be established by wickedness,But the root of the righteous will not be moved.
Righteousness guards the one whose way is blameless,But wickedness subverts the sinner.
It is an abomination for kings to commit wicked acts,For a throne is established on righteousness.
Though his hatred covers itself with guile,His wickedness will be revealed before the assembly.
Furthermore, I have seen under the sun that in the place of justice there is wickedness and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness.
I have seen everything during my lifetime of futility; there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his wickedness.
For wickedness burns like a fire;It consumes briars and thorns;It even sets the thickets of the forest aflameAnd they roll upward in a column of smoke.
For a fool speaks nonsense,And his heart inclines toward wickedness:To practice ungodliness and to speak error against the Lord,To keep the hungry person unsatisfiedAnd to withhold drink from the thirsty.
“You felt secure in your wickedness and said,‘No one sees me,’Your wisdom and your knowledge, they have deluded you;For you have said in your heart,‘I am, and there is no one besides me.’
“Is this not the fast which I choose,To loosen the bonds of wickedness,To undo the bands of the yoke,And to let the oppressed go freeAnd break every yoke?
“Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’If you remove the yoke from your midst,The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness,
For your hands are defiled with bloodAnd your fingers with iniquity;Your lips have spoken falsehood,Your tongue mutters wickedness.
I will pronounce My judgments on them concerning all their wickedness, whereby they have forsaken Me and have offered sacrifices to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands.
“Your own wickedness will correct you,And your apostasies will reprove you;Know therefore and see that it is evil and bitterFor you to forsake the Lord your God,And the dread of Me is not in you,” declares the Lord God of hosts.
“Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see;Where have you not been violated?By the roads you have sat for themLike an Arab in the desert,And you have polluted a landWith your harlotry and with your wickedness.
For a voice declares from Dan,And proclaims wickedness from Mount Ephraim.
‘They are fat, they are sleek,They also excel in deeds of wickedness;They do not plead the cause,The cause of the orphan, that they may prosper;And they do not defend the rights of the poor.
“As a well keeps its waters fresh,So she keeps fresh her wickedness.Violence and destruction are heard in her;Sickness and wounds are ever before Me.
“But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.
“I have listened and heard,They have spoken what is not right;No man repented of his wickedness,Saying, ‘What have I done?’Everyone turned to his course,Like a horse charging into the battle.
How long is the land to mournAnd the vegetation of the countryside to wither?For the wickedness of those who dwell in it,Animals and birds have been snatched away,Because men have said, “He will not see our latter ending.”
The people also to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and there will be no one to bury them—neither them, nor their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters—for I will pour out their own wickedness on them.
We know our wickedness, O Lord,The iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against You.
“The wind will sweep away all your shepherds,And your lovers will go into captivity;Then you will surely be ashamed and humiliatedBecause of all your wickedness.
“For both prophet and priest are polluted;Even in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the Lord.
“Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing:The committing of adultery and walking in falsehood;And they strengthen the hands of evildoers,So that no one has turned back from his wickedness.All of them have become to Me like Sodom,And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.
‘While they are coming to fight with the Chaldeans and to fill them with the corpses of men whom I have slain in My anger and in My wrath, and I have hidden My face from this city because of all their wickedness:
because of their wickedness which they committed so as to provoke Me to anger by continuing to burn sacrifices and to serve other gods whom they had not known, neither they, you, nor your fathers.
But they did not listen or incline their ears to turn from their wickedness, so as not to burn sacrifices to other gods.
Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
“Let all their wickedness come before You;And deal with them as You have dealt with meFor all my transgressions;For my groans are many and my heart is faint.”
Yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself.
Violence has grown into a rod of wickedness. None of them shall remain, none of their people, none of their wealth, nor anything eminent among them.
“Then it came about after all your wickedness (‘Woe, woe to you!’ declares the Lord God),
before your wickedness was uncovered, so now you have become the reproach of the daughters of Edom and of all who are around her, of the daughters of the Philistines—those surrounding you who despise you.
The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.
Again, when a wicked man turns away from his wickedness which he has committed and practices justice and righteousness, he will save his life.
therefore I will give it into the hand of a despot of the nations; he will thoroughly deal with it. According to its wickedness I have driven it away.
And you, son of man, say to your fellow citizens, ‘The righteousness of a righteous man will not deliver him in the day of his transgression, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he will not stumble because of it in the day when he turns from his wickedness; whereas a righteous man will not be able to live by his righteousness on the day when he commits sin.’
But when the wicked turns from his wickedness and practices justice and righteousness, he will live by them.
And they do not consider in their heartsThat I remember all their wickedness.Now their deeds are all around them;They are before My face.
With their wickedness they make the king glad,And the princes with their lies.
All their evil is at Gilgal;Indeed, I came to hate them there!Because of the wickedness of their deedsI will drive them out of My house!I will love them no more;All their princes are rebels.
You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped injustice,You have eaten the fruit of lies.Because you have trusted in your way, in your numerous warriors,
Thus it will be done to you at Bethel because of your great wickedness.At dawn the king of Israel will be completely cut off.
Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.Come, tread, for the wine press is full;The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.
“Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.”
“Is there yet a man in the wicked house,Along with treasures of wickednessAnd a short measure that is cursed?
Why do You make me see iniquity,And cause me to look on wickedness?Yes, destruction and violence are before me;Strife exists and contention arises.
Your eyes are too pure to approve evil,And You can not look on wickedness with favor.Why do You look with favorOn those who deal treacherously?Why are You silent when the wicked swallow upThose more righteous than they?
Then he said, “This is Wickedness!” And he threw her down into the middle of the ephah and cast the lead weight on its opening.
So now we call the arrogant blessed; not only are the doers of wickedness built up but they also test God and escape.’”