'Evil' in the Bible

“I will pronounce My judgments against them for all the evil they did when they abandoned Me to burn incense to other gods and to worship the works of their own hands.

For My people have committed a double evil:They have abandoned Me,the fountain of living water,and dug cisterns for themselves,cracked cisterns that cannot hold water.

Evil generation,pay attention to the word of the Lord!Have I been a wilderness to Israelor a land of dense darkness?Why do My people claim,“We will go where we want;we will no longer come to You”?

How skillfully you pursue love;you also teach evil women your ways.

Will He bear a grudge forever?Will He be endlessly infuriated?”This is what you have said,but you have done the evil thingsyou are capable of.

At that time Jerusalem will be called, Yahweh’s Throne, and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the name of Yahweh in Jerusalem. They will cease to follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts.

Circumcise yourselves to the Lord;remove the foreskin of your hearts,men of Judah and residents of Jerusalem.Otherwise, My wrath will break out like fireand burn with no one to extinguish itbecause of your evil deeds.

Wash the evil from your heart, Jerusalem,so that you will be delivered.How long will you harbormalicious thoughts within you?

“For My people are fools;they do not know Me.They are foolish children,without understanding.They are skilled in doing what is evil,but they do not know how to do what is good.”

They have become fat and sleek.They have also excelled in evil matters.They have not taken up cases,such as the case of the fatherless, so they might prosper,and they have not defended the rights of the needy.

As a well gushes out its water,so she pours out her evil.Violence and destruction resound in her.Sickness and wounds keep coming to My attention.

The bellows blow,blasting the lead with fire.The refining is completely in vain;the evil ones are not separated out.

“But return to My place that was at Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at first. See what I did to it because of the evil of My people Israel.

Yet they didn’t listen or pay attention but followed their own advice and according to their own stubborn, evil heart. They went backward and not forward.

However, they wouldn’t listen to Me or pay attention but became obstinate; they did more evil than their ancestors.

“For the Judeans have done what is evil in My sight.” This is the Lord’s declaration. “They have set up their detestable things in the house that is called by My name and defiled it.

Death will be chosen over life by all the survivors of this evil family, those who remain wherever I have banished them.” This is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.

I have paid careful attention.They do not speak what is right.No one regrets his evil,asking, ‘What have I done?’Everyone has stayed his courselike a horse rushing into battle.

They bent their tongues like their bows;lies and not faithfulness prevail in the land,for they proceed from one evil to another,and they do not take Me into account.This is the Lord’s declaration.

Yet they would not obey or pay attention; each one followed the stubbornness of his evil heart. So I brought on them all the curses of this covenant, because they had not done what I commanded them to do.”

What right does My beloved haveto be in My house,having carried out so many evil schemes?Can holy meat prevent your disasterso you can rejoice?

How long will the land mournand the grass of every field wither?Because of the evil of its residents,animals and birds have been swept away,for the people have said,“He cannot see what our end will be.”

This is what the Lord says: “Concerning all My evil neighbors who attack the inheritance that I bequeathed to My people, Israel, I am about to uproot them from their land, and I will uproot the house of Judah from them.

These evil people, who refuse to listen to Me, who follow the stubbornness of their own hearts, and who have followed other gods to serve and worship—they will be like this underwear, of no use at all.

Can the Cushite change his skin,or a leopard his spots?If so, you might be able to do what is good,you who are instructed in evil.

The people they are prophesying to will be thrown into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword. There will be no one to bury them—they, their wives, their sons, and their daughters. I will pour out their own evil on them.”

I will deliver you from the power of evil peopleand redeem you from the control of the ruthless.

You did more evil than your fathers. Look, each one of you was following the stubbornness of his evil heart, not obeying Me.

However, if that nation I have made an announcement about turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the disaster I had planned to do to it.

However, if it does what is evil in My sight by not listening to My voice, I will relent concerning the good I had said I would do to it.

So now, say to the men of Judah and to the residents of Jerusalem: This is what the Lord says: I am about to bring harm to you and make plans against you. Turn now, each from your evil way, and correct your ways and your deeds.

But they will say, ‘It’s hopeless. We will continue to follow our plans, and each of us will continue to act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’”

Should good be repaid with evil?Yet they have dug a pit for me.Remember how I stood before Youto speak good on their behalf,to turn Your anger from them.

Sing to the Lord!Praise the Lord,for He rescues the life of the needyfrom the hand of evil people.

House of David, this is what the Lord says:Administer justice every morning,and rescue the victim of robberyfrom the hand of his oppressor,or My anger will flare up like fireand burn unquenchablybecause of their evil deeds.

The wind will take charge of all your shepherds,and your lovers will go into captivity.Then you will be ashamed and humiliatedbecause of all your evil.

“Therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says about the shepherds who shepherd My people: You have scattered My flock, banished them, and have not attended to them. I will attend to you because of your evil acts”—this is the Lord’s declaration.

For the land is full of adulterers;the land mourns because of the curse,and the grazing lands in the wilderness have dried up.Their way of life has become evil,and their power is not rightly used

Among the prophets of Jerusalem alsoI saw a horrible thing:They commit adultery and walk in lies.They strengthen the hands of evildoers,and none turns his back on evil.They are all like Sodom to Me;Jerusalem’s residents are like Gomorrah.

If they had really stood in My council,they would have enabled My people to hear My wordsand would have turned them back from their evil waysand their evil deeds.

He announced, ‘Turn, each of you, from your evil way of life and from your evil deeds. Live in the land the Lord gave to you and your ancestors long ago and forever.

Perhaps they will listen and return—each from his evil way of life—so that I might relent concerning the disaster that I plan to do to them because of the evil of their deeds.

From their youth, the Israelites and Judeans have done nothing but what is evil in My sight! They have done nothing but provoke Me to anger by the work of their hands”—this is the Lord’s declaration—

because of all the evil the Israelites and Judeans have done to provoke Me to anger—they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets, the men of Judah, and the residents of Jerusalem.

The people coming to fight the Chaldeans will fill the houses with the corpses of their own men that I strike down in My wrath and rage. I have hidden My face from this city because of all their evil.

Time and time again I have sent you all My servants the prophets, proclaiming: Turn, each one from his evil way of life, and correct your actions. Stop following other gods to serve them. Live in the land that I gave you and your ancestors. But you would not pay attention or obey Me.

Perhaps when the house of Judah hears about all the disaster I am planning to bring on them, each one of them will turn from his evil way. Then I will forgive their wrongdoing and their sin.”

Perhaps their petition will come before the Lord, and each one will turn from his evil way, for the anger and fury that the Lord has pronounced against this people are great.”

“My lord the king, these men have been evil in all they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have dropped him into the cistern where he will die from hunger, because there is no more bread in the city.”

When Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the armies with him heard of all the evil that Ishmael son of Nethaniah had done,

because of their evil ways that provoked Me to anger, going and burning incense to serve other gods that they, you, and your fathers did not know.

But they did not listen or pay attention; they did not turn from their evil or stop burning incense to other gods.

The Lord can no longer bear your evil deeds and the detestable acts you have committed, so your land has become a waste, a desolation, and an object of cursing, without inhabitant, as you see today.

Zedekiah did what was evil in the Lord’s sight just as Jehoiakim had done.