וַיֹּאמַ֑ר אַל נָ֥א אַחַ֖י תָּרֵֽעוּ
He said, "Please, my brothers, don't act so wickedly.
World English Bible · Public Domain
Genesis 19:7
Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) Genesis 19:7 appears in the Hebrew Old Testament. The text above is from the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Each word links to its Strong’s number, a concise gloss, and parsing drawn from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology. Click any word for its full Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) entry.
English Translation
He said, "Please, my brothers, don't act so wickedly.
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Compare translations 3
The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.
Each is an independent rendering of the whole verse — the interlinear is not word-aligned to these translations.
Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.
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World English Bible Public Domain
He said, "Please, my brothers, don't act so wickedly.
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King James Version Public Domain
And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
and he said, “Please, my brothers, do not do evil!
unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).
Show all 18 translations
Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.
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World English Bible Public Domain
He said, "Please, my brothers, don't act so wickedly.
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Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
“Please, my brothers,” he pleaded, “don’t do such a wicked thing!
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Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
“Please, my brothers,” he pleaded, “don’t do such a wicked thing!
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King James Version Public Domain
And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.
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American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
And he said, I pray you, my brethren, do not so wickedly.
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Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
And he said, I pray you, my brethren, do not so wickedly.
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Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
And said, I pray you, my brethren, do not so wickedly.
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Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
no not so, I beseech you, my brethren, do not commit this evil.
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Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
and saith, `Do not, I pray you, my brethren, do evil;
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Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
and says, “Please, my brothers, do not do evil;
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Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
He said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
and he said, “Please, my brothers, do not do evil!
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Darby Bible Public Domain
and said, I pray you, my brethren, do not wickedly!
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World Messianic Bible Public Domain
He said, “Please, my brothers, don’t act so wickedly.
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Webster's Bible Public Domain
And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.
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Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
“My friends, please don't do such an evil thing!
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Bible in Basic English Public Domain
And he said, My brothers, do not this evil.
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JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
And he said: 'I pray you, my brethren, do not so wickedly.
Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).
Word by word
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תָּרֵֽעוּ
râʻaʻ
H7489
“to do evil”
Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural
- Appears 102× in the Hebrew Bible
- First appears here
- Part of Speech
- Verb
- Stem
- Hiphil
- Form
- Imperfect
- Person
- 2nd Person
- Gender
- Masculine
- Number
- Plural
Full BDB Definition
to be bad, be evil
- (Qal)
- to be displeasing
- to be sad
- to be injurious, be evil
- to be wicked, be evil (ethically)
- (Hiphil)
- to do an injury or hurt
- to do evil or wickedly
- mischief (participle)
- to break, shatter
- (Qal)
- to break
- broken (participle)
- to be broken
- (Hithpolel) to be broken, be broken in pieces, be broken asunder
- וַיֹּאמַ֑ר ʼâmar H559 “and · to say” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- אַל ʼal H408 “not” Particle, Negative
- נָ֥א nâʼ H4994 “please” Particle, Exhortation
- אַחַ֖י ʼâch H251 “brothers · my” Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular
- תָּרֵֽעוּ râʻaʻ H7489 “to do evil” Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural
About this verse
These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →
- 5
- words
- 5
- distinct lemmas
- Pentateuch
- section
First appearance in Scripture
This word makes its first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:
- תָּרֵֽעוּ to do evil H7489
Grammatical profile
- 2 verbs
- 1 noun
- 2 particles
Verb forms
- וַיֹּאמַ֑ר Qal · Sequential Imperfect
- תָּרֵֽעוּ Hiphil · Imperfect
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 9 words from the Hebrew and 12 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.
A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.
Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.
In the original languages it is 5 Hebrew tokens and 8 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.
Cross-references
10Topical passages linked to Genesis 19:7 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
- Genesis 19:4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter.
- Leviticus 18:22 "'You shall not lie with a man, as with a woman. That is detestible.
- Leviticus 20:13 If a man lies with a male, as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
- Deuteronomy 23:17 There shall be no prostitute of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a sodomite of the sons of Israel.
- Judges 19:23 The man, the master of the house, went out to them, and said to them, No, my brothers, please don't act so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into my house, don't do this folly.
- 1 Samuel 30:23–24 Then said David, You shall not do so, my brothers, with that which Yahweh has given to us, who has preserved us, and delivered the troop that came against us into our hand.
- Acts 17:26 He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings,
- Romans 1:24 Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves,
- 1 Corinthians 6:9–11 Or don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don't be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals,
- Jude 1:7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, having, in the same way as these, given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.
Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).
Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint
The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.
These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.
εἶπον δέ πρός αὐτός μηδαμῶς ἀδελφός μή πονηρεύομαι
and said to them, By no means, brethren, do not act villanously.
LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain
Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →
Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)
The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.
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Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)
וַאֲמַר בְּבָעוּ כְעַן אַחַי לָא תַבְאִישוּן
(no public-domain English translation for this verse)
Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
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Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)
וַאֲמַר בְּבָעוּ לָא כְדוֹן אָחוּי תַּבְאִישׁוּן
And he said, I pray, my brethren, do not thus wickedly.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Lesson kit
Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.
Genesis, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 5 words (5 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is râʻaʻ (“to do evil”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Discussion questions
- How does “to do evil” (râʻaʻ) shape what this verse is saying?
- This is the first place “to do evil” appears in Scripture (first appears here). What does its debut here establish?
- How does Genesis 19:4, which shares this passage’s theme, read alongside this verse?
- These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
- «וַיֹּאמַ֑ר» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
- Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and John Gill's Exposition read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?
Things to notice
- 1 word makes its first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
- This verse counts 5 Hebrew ↔ 8 Greek words.
- These translations choose different wording for 11 words in this verse.
- 5 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 5 words in this verse.
Commentary
Notes on Genesis 19:7 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.
Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →
Trapp's Complete Commentary
John Trapp
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill's Exposition
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Matthew Poole's English Annotations
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Radak
Rabbi David Kimhi (Radak)
Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.