to rebel: to renounce allegiance to a rightful authority and rise up against it
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
The verb belongs first to the world of politics. It is what a subject king does when he stops paying tribute and throws off the yoke of the emperor who conquered him, and it is the standard word for a vassal breaking a treaty and revolting against his overlord. Most of its occurrences describe exactly this: kings of Judah rising against Babylon or Assyria, or the men of Sodom against their conqueror.
Israel's writers then take this political word and turn it on their own nation. Because Israel was bound to God by a covenant, the language of a treaty broken and a sovereign defied fit sin against God perfectly. To sin is not merely to slip up; it is treason, the deliberate throwing off of loyalty owed to a King. That is why prayers of confession reach for this word: "we have sinned and rebelled."
So the two uses are one idea seen in two arenas. Whether the offended authority is a human emperor or the God of Israel, the act is the same: a bound subject renounces the allegiance he owes and sets himself in open opposition.
Nuances
1ato revolt against a human ruler: to renounce submission to a king or overlord and rise against him, typically by breaking a treaty
names a bond of allegiance being renounced: a vassal against his overlord, or Israel against her covenant God2Ki 18:7Dan 9:5
Both
both describe rising up in open opposition against an authority2Ki 24:1
Only rebel
in everyday English can mean mild or generic defiance, losing the weight of treason against a sovereign one is bound to
“revolt”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How marad differs from similar Hebrew words
מרהto be defiant or contentious, refusing to listen and obey; a broader stubbornness of will rather than the formal revolt against a sovereign that this word names
Names political or military revolt: a subject people or vassal throwing off the rule of a king or overlord they were bound to serve.Gen 14:42Ki 18:72Ki 24:1
Pictures a deliberate break of allegiance, switching sides against the power one owed loyalty to, as when Judah's kings withheld tribute and turned to a rival empire.2Ch 36:13Ezk 17:15Jer 52:3
Both
Both describe turning against God himself, treating his authority as something to throw off rather than submit to.Num 14:9Dan 9:5Ezk 20:8Lam 1:18
Names stubborn defiance of a command or spoken word: refusing to listen and obey rather than overthrowing a ruler.Deu 1:261Sa 12:151Ki 13:21
Is the word for Israel's repeated wilderness obstinacy, where the people grieve God by disobeying his voice even after he rescues them.Psa 78:17Psa 106:7Isa 63:10
Describes personal insubordination as well, such as a son who will not obey his parents or a person who resists correction.Deu 21:18Deu 21:20
פשׁעto transgress or rebel by breaking a relationship; frames the offense as a rupture of trust between two parties, where this word frames it as a subject casting off a ruler
Pictures a vassal casting off an overlord he had been serving, withholding the tribute and submission he formerly rendered.Gen 14:42Ki 18:72Ki 24:1
When turned toward God it casts him as the sovereign King whose rule is refused, an act of open insubordination rather than a general lapse into wrongdoing.Num 14:9Neh 9:26Dan 9:9
Both
Both describe a subject nation or vassal throwing off a ruling power and breaking away into open revolt.2Ki 24:202Ki 1:1
Both name Israel's rebellion against God and can stand side by side in a single prophetic indictment.Ezk 2:3
Reaches well beyond politics to mean transgression or sin in general, breaking faith with any moral or cultic obligation and not only a ruler's authority.Amo 4:4Isa 43:27Isa 59:13
Frames the offense as the rupture of a relationship, a breach of trust between parties who were bound to one another.Isa 1:2Hos 8:1Pro 18:19
סררto be stubborn and turn away, dig in one's heels; describes a settled defiant disposition rather than the active uprising this word describes
Names an active uprising against a ruler: throwing off the yoke of a king or overlord one had been subject to. It is a concrete act of revolt with a clear moment of breaking away, most often political.2Ki 18:72Ki 24:1Gen 14:4
Frames sin against God as treason against a sovereign king: a deliberate revolt that breaks a standing allegiance, not merely a bad attitude.Ezk 2:3Dan 9:5Ezk 20:38
Both
Both indict a people for refusing to submit to God and both are used as covenant charges against Israel, so English Bibles render either one as rebellious.Neh 9:26Neh 9:29
Names a settled stubbornness of character: a defiant, ungovernable disposition rather than a single uprising. The classic case is the stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey.Deu 21:18Deu 21:20Psa 78:8
Pictures being persistently wayward and refractory, turning aside again and again like a balky animal that will not be led. It describes an ingrained temperament, not one decisive act.Hos 4:16Jer 5:23Isa 1:23
מעלto act treacherously, a quiet breach of faith from inside a bond still nominally kept, rather than the open uprising against a sovereign that this word names
Names a quiet breach of trust from inside a bond that is still nominally kept: taking for oneself what was set apart as holy, rather than any open break.Lev 5:15Jos 7:1
Covers private betrayal within a personal relationship, such as a wife being unfaithful to her husband while the marriage outwardly stands.Num 5:12Num 5:27
Used of overstepping a sacred boundary one is bound to honor, such as a king forcing his way into the temple to do what only priests may do.2Ch 26:162Ch 26:18
Names a concrete act of breaking away from a ruler at a particular moment: people who had been serving stop serving and throw off the yoke.Gen 14:42Ki 18:72Ki 24:20
Takes a human overlord as the one defied, so it belongs to the world of kings, sworn treaties, and empires, and a broken oath is what makes it a crime.2Ch 13:62Ch 36:13Ezk 17:15
Works as a public charge that someone levels at someone else, a specific accusation to be answered or thrown back.Neh 2:19Neh 6:6Isa 36:5
When God is the one defied, the picture does not change: he is the sovereign whose subjects owed him service and have walked out on it.Num 14:9Jos 22:19Ezk 20:38
Both
Both name Israel's refusal of God's rule, and Ezekiel puts each on the very same audience he is sent to.Ezk 2:3Ezk 2:5
Both carry real guilt and belong to the confession of national sin, not only to accounts of political conflict: one long prayer in Nehemiah reaches for each of them in turn.Neh 9:26Neh 9:17
Both are paired with a stiff neck, the standing image for someone who will not be turned.2Ch 36:13Deu 31:27
Names a settled condition rather than an event, so it labels what people ARE: Ezekiel calls his hearers a "house of rebellion" again and again, and Moses is told to keep Aaron's staff as a sign for the "sons of rebellion".Ezk 2:5Ezk 12:9Ezk 44:6Num 17:10
The specific failure it names is refusing to listen, and it sits right next to the language of hearing and not hearing.Ezk 2:7Ezk 12:2Isa 30:9
Gets weighed as a named sin in moral and proverbial speech, measured against other sins rather than reported as something that happened.1Sa 15:23Pro 17:11
marad in the other biblical languages
ἀφίστημιGreek“to leave”to withdraw or fall away; the Greek word often used for defecting or apostatizing, the closest counterpart to renouncing an allegiance one owes
It names active political revolt: a vassal throwing off the yoke of an overlord king and refusing to serve him any longer, an aggressive breach of allegiance rather than a quiet withdrawal.Gen 14:42Ki 18:72Ch 36:13
It always presupposes a binding loyalty being broken, so it carries built-in defiance and treaty-breaking; the Greek word can mean simple leaving without any oath in view.Neh 2:19Ezk 17:15
Both
Both describe breaking away from a rightful authority to whom loyalty is owed, abandoning an allegiance one was bound to keep.Heb 3:122Ki 18:7
Both become the language of turning against God himself: falling away from the living God on one side, rebelling against the LORD on the other, so each names apostasy from him.Heb 3:121Ti 4:1Num 14:9Neh 9:26
Its ordinary sense is plain physical departure: to leave a place or person, or to have something go away, with no notion of revolt at all.Luk 2:37Act 12:102Co 12:8
It is used for deliberately keeping clear of wrongdoing or of bad company, a moral drawing-back that the Hebrew word for rebellion never carries.2Ti 2:191Ti 6:5Act 19:9
ἀπειθέωGreek“to disobey”to disobey or refuse to be persuaded; overlaps with rebelling against God but stresses the refusal to obey rather than the open uprising
Denotes political revolt: a vassal or subject people throwing off the yoke of an overlord king, breaking the treaty and withholding further tribute.Gen 14:42Ki 18:72Ki 24:1Ezk 17:15
Serves as the charge of sedition leveled at those suspected of plotting insurrection against the reigning empire.Neh 2:19Neh 6:6
Both
Both name a refusal to submit to God's rightful authority as culpable treason that brings his judgment down on the offender.Neh 9:26Ezk 2:3Jhn 3:36Rom 10:21
Both indict a covenant people who go on resisting God despite his repeated appeals through his messengers and his outstretched hand.Dan 9:5Jos 22:16Rom 10:21Heb 3:18
Frames the refusal as unbelief: rejecting the Son or the preached gospel is itself the act of disobeying, and it leaves God's wrath resting on the one who will not believe.Jhn 3:36Heb 3:181Pe 4:17
Describes hostile hearers who not only reject the message but harden against it and stir up others against the ones proclaiming it.Act 14:2Act 19:9Rom 15:31
Holds out that such refusal of the word can be overcome without argument, won over by the quiet conduct of believers.1Pe 3:1
What scholars say about marad
The lexica agree the root denotes revolt, and locate its home in the political sphere of vassal and suzerain: a subordinate king casting off the yoke of his overlord, typically by ceasing tribute and breaking the treaty (BDB, HALOT). Most occurrences are political in exactly this sense (Genesis 14:4; the late kings of Judah against Babylon and Assyria). The theologically weighty usage is the transfer of this treaty language to Israel's covenant with God, so that apostasy is cast as political treason against the divine sovereign (TWOT; TDOT). Standard treatments distinguish it from the near-synonym מרה, which centers on defiant refusal to obey rather than the formal renunciation of allegiance, and from פשׁע, which frames wrongdoing as the rupture of a relationship.