Hebrew word · H5767

עַוָּל

'aval

unjust

An unjust person, a habitual wrongdoer. The word pattern describes someone characterized by ʿawel, which is injustice: crookedness, unfairness, perverting what is right, especially in social and legal dealings (false weights, corrupt judging, cheating the weak).

Appears 5 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

unjust one, perverse one, unrighteous one

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Job 31:3

Range of meaning

An unjust person, a habitual wrongdoer. The word pattern describes someone characterized by ʿawel, which is injustice: crookedness, unfairness, perverting what is right, especially in social and legal dealings (false weights, corrupt judging, cheating the weak).

Against the English

BSB 'unjust' and WEB 'unrighteous' keep the focus on justice. KJV 'the wicked' is broader and loses the specific sense of injustice. YLT 'perverse' catches the 'twisted, crooked' picture.

How it drifted

Not a real drift, but 'wicked' blurs a word that is specifically about violating fairness toward others.

Used elsewhere in the period

Job 18:21 (Bildad: 'the dwellings of the ʿawwāl'); 27:7 ('let my enemy be like the wicked, my opponent like the ʿawwāl'); 29:17 (Job 'broke the fangs of the ʿawwāl' and tore the prey from his teeth); Zeph 3:5 ('the ʿawwāl knows no shame'). Lev 19:15, 35 forbid ʿawel in judgment and in measures.

Where it appears

Job · 4

  1. Job 18:21 עַוָּ֑ל an evil-doer

    Surely such is the dwelling of the wicked and the place of one who does not know God.”

  2. Job 27:7 כְעַוָּֽל׃ like an evil-doer

    May my enemy be like the wicked and my opponent like the unjust.

  3. Job 29:17 עַוָּ֑ל [the] unrighteous

    I shattered the fangs of the unjust and snatched the prey from his teeth.

  4. Job 31:3 לְעַוָּ֑ל [belong] to an evil-doer

    Does not disaster come to the unjust and calamity to the workers of iniquity?

    Here: 'For / belonging to the unjust person.' The form describes someone whose habit and character is injustice ('awel): a person who twists what is fair and right in dealings with others. In 29:17 Job said he used to break the jaws of such people.

Zephaniah · 1

  1. Zephaniah 3:5 עַוָּ֖ל an unrighteous person

    The LORD within her is righteous; He does no wrong. He applies His justice morning by morning; He does not fail at dawn, yet the unjust know no shame.

    Here: The person who practices ʿawlāh, the very 'injustice' Yahweh never does. The wordplay sets God and the wrongdoer directly against each other.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.