to be bad, go wrong, or be displeasing; to do evil or bring harm on someone
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled
This is the verb behind the common Hebrew family of words for badness and evil. In its plainest use it simply means that something is bad or has turned out badly, often in the recurring phrase that an act or report "was evil in the eyes of" a person, meaning it displeased or grieved them. From there it stretches in two directions that hold together as one idea: a thing can be bad in itself, and a person can actively make things bad, either by behaving wickedly or by deliberately harming someone else.
The most frequent use describes doing wrong as a way of life. One form of the verb, often translated "evildoers" or "the wicked," names people defined by the harm they cause, a standing category especially in the Psalms and the prophets. Alongside this runs the sense of doing harm to a particular victim: God or a person "deals badly with" or "brings disaster on" someone, which is why the same verb covers both moral evil and the suffering it produces.
A few passages use the phrase about the "eye" being bad toward someone, which is the Hebrew way of describing a grudging, stingy attitude that refuses to give. It is the same verb of badness narrowed to an inner disposition rather than an outward act.
Nuances
1ato be bad or displeasing; for something to seem wrong or grievous to someone (often "be evil in the eyes of")
1efor the eye to be bad toward someone: to be grudging, stingy, or hostile in attitude
Deu 15:9Deu 28:54Deu 28:56
2
to break, shatter, or smash to pieces
TranslatabilityDirectCertaintyStrong
A smaller group of verses uses this verb not for moral evil but for physical breaking. A ruler smashes rebellious nations like a clay pot, the ground is shattered and split apart in an earthquake, and one hard metal is asked whether it can break another. In these settings the word means to crush or smash so that something falls to pieces.
Scholars debate whether this is a separate, unrelated word that merely looks the same in Hebrew (a close relative of the verb meaning "to crush") or a vivid extension of the ordinary verb, since to ruin and to wreck overlap naturally in many languages. Either way, the contexts make the meaning clear: here the word is about destruction by breaking, not wrongdoing, and a reader should not import the idea of "evil" into these verses.
Whether the breaking and shattering sense (as in Psalm 2:9 and Isaiah 24:19) belongs to the same word as "be bad / do evil" or is a separate homonym, usually traced to the root meaning "to crush."
majorityTwo distinct verbs that happen to share the same spelling: one meaning "be bad / do evil," and a separate one meaning "break / shatter."; Koehler-Baumgartner, HALOT, s.v. רעע I and רעע II; Brown-Driver-Briggs, BDB, s.v. רעע
minorityOne word whose range runs from ruining and wrecking to breaking, the destructive sense being an extension rather than a separate root.; Clines, ed., Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, s.v. רעע
often means simply that something is bad or has gone wrong, with no necessary sense of sin; it commonly says an act "was bad in someone's eyes," that is, displeased themGen 21:111Sa 8:6
Both
both can carry the full weight of moral wickedness, as of those who habitually do wrongPsa 37:1
Only be evil
the English "evil" sounds heavily moral and sinister, which overstates the many places where the Hebrew just means unpleasant, harmful, or unwelcome
the same verb that means "be bad" is used for actively making things bad for someone, so harm is heard as "doing evil to" a person, blurring injury and wrongdoingGen 31:7Num 16:15
Both
—
Only harm
the English "harm" is neutral about blame and can be accidental, where the Hebrew usually implies a bad act done on purpose
a rarer, poetic use of the verb for smashing something to pieces, distinct from its usual meaning of badness or evilPsa 2:9Isa 24:19
Both
—
Only break
the plain English "break" gives no hint that this is the same verb elsewhere translated "be evil," and many scholars in fact treat the breaking sense as a separate word
How ra'a differs from similar Hebrew words
רָשַׁעto be guilty or act wickedly, framed in terms of being in the wrong before a standard or a court, where רעע points to the badness or harm of the act itself
Names the harm an action does to someone, the actual hurt or damage inflicted, not a verdict about it.Gen 31:7Num 11:11
Covers treating a person badly or dealing ill with them, the everyday sense of doing someone wrong or making things go badly for them.Gen 43:6Num 20:15
Used for bringing calamity or trouble down on someone, evil as misfortune and ruin rather than moral fault.1Ki 17:20Rut 1:21
Both
Both can describe acting wrongly, a person behaving in a way that is morally bad, though one stresses the badness of the deed and the other the guilt incurred.Gen 19:7Job 10:15
Belongs to the courtroom: to declare someone guilty, to condemn a person as in the wrong against a standard or judgment.Deu 25:1Exo 22:9
Sets the guilty against the innocent as a fixed pair, so its core is the verdict of being in the wrong, the opposite of being declared righteous.1Ki 8:32Pro 17:15
Used of admitting one's own guilt before God, owning that one has been in the wrong rather than describing harm done.Neh 9:33Dan 9:5
חָמַסto do violence or wrong someone by force, a narrower and more aggressive harm than the broad "be bad / do harm" of רעע
Covers the whole range of being bad or going wrong, including things simply turning out badly for someone, with no act of force involved.Gen 21:11Gen 43:6Rut 1:21
Names moral evil and wrongdoing broadly: displeasing God, acting wickedly, dealing badly with people, the standing opposite of doing good.Gen 38:10Deu 26:61Ki 14:9
Both
Both can describe one person harming or mistreating another, so English renders each with words like "hurt", "wrong", or "do harm".Jer 22:3Gen 31:7
Names a forceful act of violence done to someone or something: stripping, wrenching away, or wronging by aggression, not merely treating badly.Job 15:33Jer 22:3Lam 2:6
Used for doing violence to what is sacred or settled: priests forcing the law, prophets handling holy things recklessly, a person ruining their own life.Ezk 22:26Zep 3:4Pro 8:36
עָשַׁקto oppress or exploit, harm inflicted specifically by the strong on the weak, where רעע covers harm in general
Ranges far wider than wronging a person: it means to be bad or to act badly across every domain, including displeasing someone, something appearing wrong in one's eyes, or simply doing what is evil.Gen 21:11Gen 21:12Gen 31:7
Names harm or destruction in a general sense, the doing of damage, without the specific charge of exploiting a weaker party that the other word carries.Gen 19:7Gen 19:9Gen 44:5
Both
Both describe mistreating people and inflicting wrong on them, so where one person harms another either word can sit close to the same act.Deu 24:14Num 20:15
Names a specific wrong: defrauding or exploiting someone weaker, especially withholding what is owed (wages, the poor man's due). The harm is economic and relational, the strong taking from the vulnerable.Lev 19:13Deu 24:14Mal 3:5
Carries a built-in social asymmetry: the typical objects are the poor, the hired laborer, the widow, the foreigner, the one who cannot fight back. It is the verb of the oppressor crushing the helpless.Amo 4:1Ezk 22:29Zec 7:10
שָׁחַתto spoil, ruin, or corrupt something so it is no longer fit for use; overlaps with רעע's destructive sense but centers on decay and corruption rather than the act of breaking
Centers on doing evil or wrong to a person: treating someone badly, mistreating them, or acting wickedly toward them, with the harm felt as a moral offense rather than physical wreckage.Gen 19:7Gen 31:7Num 20:15
Names a thing being or seeming bad in someone's eyes, a displeasure or grief: a matter is bad, or it is bad to a person, with no sense of something being wrecked.Gen 21:11Gen 21:12Num 11:10
Both
Both reach a sense of inflicting destructive harm, so the same scene can pair them: to hurt and to ruin together describe the violence that is absent on God's holy mountain.Isa 11:9Isa 65:25Isa 14:20Isa 1:4
Centers on spoiling or ruining something so it is no longer fit: land, property, a body, or a thing is laid waste, marred, or rendered worthless, the focus being on the wreckage itself.Gen 13:10Exo 8:24Deu 20:19
Names moral rotting, corruption: people or their conduct become depraved and degenerate, the word picturing a thing gone bad from the inside rather than an evil aimed at another.Gen 6:11Gen 6:12Deu 4:16Deu 32:5
שָׁבַרto break or shatter, the ordinary word for breaking; it is the everyday term where רעע's "break/smash" sense is rarer and poetic
Its breaking sense is rare and poetic: only in elevated, often violent or judgment poetry does the word mean smash or shatter, and even then it pictures dashing something to pieces rather than the plain snapping of an object.Psa 2:9Isa 24:19
Most of the time it does not mean break at all but be bad, go wrong, or do harm. Its center of gravity is moral and emotional, not physical, which is the opposite of an ordinary word for breaking.Gen 38:10Exo 5:22
This is the everyday, ordinary Hebrew word for breaking, used freely of common physical objects in plain prose: smashing tablets, idols, gates, bars, bones, jars, and yokes.Exo 32:19Jer 19:11
It readily extends to crushing or shattering a person, a nation, or a power, and is the standard verb for breaking a yoke off the neck or snapping a bow, so it carries the normal weight of force and defeat.Lev 26:13Psa 46:9
ra'a in the other biblical languages
κακοποιέωGreek“to do evil/harm”the Greek verb "to do evil, do harm," the closest counterpart to רעע's active sense of doing wrong or injuring someone
Covers being bad or going wrong as a state, not only the active doing of evil, so it can describe harm that happens to someone rather than wrong they commit.Gen 43:6Num 11:11
Carries the everyday idiom of something being displeasing or grievous in a person's eyes, a shading of mere distaste or grief that the Greek word does not reach.Gen 21:111Sa 8:6
Stretches to concrete physical harm and even shattering or breaking in pieces, beyond moral wrongdoing.Psa 2:9
Both
Both name the active doing of evil or harm to others, deliberate wrong that injures someone, which is why Greek can render the Hebrew sense of mistreating a neighbor.Gen 19:71Pe 3:17
Names an action: to act wickedly, to do wrong, where the word is the doing of evil rather than a quality.Gen 19:71Sa 12:25
Carries the sense of doing harm or injury to someone, treating another badly or bringing trouble on them.Gen 31:7Num 20:15
Describes something going badly or displeasing someone, the situation turning sour in a person's eyes.Gen 21:111Sa 8:6
Both
Both cover the realm of moral evil and wrongdoing, so the Greek adjective and the Hebrew verb name the same dark territory from different angles, one as a quality and one as an act.Rom 1:301Ki 16:25
Both reach the idea of harm or injury done to a person, evil as something that hurts another rather than mere abstract badness.Act 9:13Gen 31:7
Names the moral quality itself: a bad or evil thing, deed, or trait described as what it is, not an action being done.Rom 7:19Rom 12:17
Functions as an adjective tagging a person or thing as bad in character or kind, even when no harm is in view.Php 3:2Tit 1:12
What scholars say about ra'a
The standard lexica (HALOT, BDB) list two homonymous roots: רעע I "to be bad, do evil, do harm," by far the more common, and רעע II "to break, shatter," often connected to רצץ "to crush" and appearing in a small set of poetic verses such as Psalm 2:9 and Isaiah 24:19. The theological dictionaries trace רעע I across the wide Hebrew vocabulary of evil (the noun רַע / רָעָה), where it covers both moral wickedness and the harm or calamity it causes, the two held together because in Hebrew thought a bad act and its bad consequences are described by one family of words. The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew is more cautious about splitting the breaking sense off as a wholly separate root. The vocalization of Psalm 2:9 is a well-known crux, with the ancient Greek translation reading "rule/shepherd" rather than "break."
Sources
Koehler-Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT), s.v. רעעlexicon
Brown, Driver, and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (BDB), s.v. רעעlexicon
Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (DCH), s.v. רעעlexicon
Livingston, 'רעע,' in Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (TWOT)dictionary
Dohmen and Rick, 'רעע,' in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT)dictionary