עָוֺן
iniquity
also: perversity, depravity fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Construct-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Gender
- Both
- Attested as both masculine and feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
1 verse where H5771 appears in the Absolute state in the Book of Daniel. Filtered view — show all forms. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Daniel
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
At its core, עון (ʻâvôn) means “iniquity.” Beyond its headline sense, its full sense range takes in “perversity” and “depravity”. It turns up in 215 verses across 26 books, a common footprint. It first appears in Genesis 4:13. It clusters with עוה, מעי and עוה under a shared root. Dig into 215-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H5771 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 215
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 215 distinct verses.
- 26 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 26 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #205
- by frequency
- Top 250 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 205 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 215 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 215 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 119 verses · 55%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 60 verses · 28%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 36 verses · 17%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 2 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.
- King James Version†: Iniquity 137×, Iniquities 33×, Punishment 3×
- American Standard Version†: Iniquity 121×, Iniquities 28×, Punishment 3×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Iniquity 123×, Iniquities 34×, Guilt 20×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Iniquity 102×, Iniquities 28×, Iniquity of 28×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H5771 across 229† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 47 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H5771 across 229† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 67 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H5771 across 230† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 19 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 2 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H5771 across 225† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 24 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
11 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 11 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
- 1. iniquity, Jb 15:5; 20:27 Je 11:10; 14:7; 16:17 La 2:14 Ez 4:5; 7:13; ‖ חטאת 1 S 20:1 Jb 13:23 Is 5:18; 43:24; 59:2 Je 5:25; 16:10 La 4:6, 13 Dn 9:16 Ho 4:8; 13:12; ‖ פשׁע Jb 14:17; 31:33 ψ 107:17 Is 50:1; 53:5; ‖ אשׁמה Ezr 9:6, 7, 13; רעה Jb 22:5 Ho 7:1. e.g. Job 15:5
- a. ע׳ נְעוּרַי Jb 13:26 iniquities of my youth; ע׳ חֶרֶב 19:29 iniquities calling for the sword; ע׳ פְּלִילִי(ם) 31:11, 28 iniquity for (to be punished by) judges; שְׁתֵּי עֲוֹנֹתָם Ho 10:10 (so read Vrss Hi al.); כשׁל בע׳ stumble by iniquity Ho 5:5; 14:2; cf. מִבְשׁוֹל ע׳ Ez 7:19; 14:3, 4, 7; 18:30; 44:12; לכל־עון Dt 19:15; אשׁתמרה מע׳ 2 S 22:24 = ψ 18:24; עָוֹן אֲשֶׁר־חֵטְא Ho 12:9. e.g. Job 13:26
- b. iniquity as recognized, ידע ע׳ 1 S 3:13; Is 59:12; Je 3:13; 14:20; confessed, התודה ע׳ Lv 16:21; 26:40(×2) (P), Ne 9:2; הגיד ע׳ ψ 38:19; לא כסה ע׳ 32:5; brought to remembrance, הזכיר ע׳ Nu 5:15 (P) 1 K 17:18; Ez 21:28, 29; 29:16; causing shame, יִכָּֽלְמוּ מע׳ Ez 43:10; turned from, שׁוּב מע׳ Dn 9:13, cf. השׁיב מע׳ Mal 2:6. e.g. 1 Samuel 3:13
- c. (i) phrases of punishment: פקד ע׳ על Ex 20:5 = Dt 5:9; Ex 34:7; Nu 14:18; (J), Lv 18:25 (H) 2 S 3:8; Is 13:11; 26:21; Je 25:12; 36:31; Am 3:2; without על, La 4:22, פקד ע׳ ב ψ 89:33; Jb 11:6 v. II. [נשׁא]; יסּר על ע׳ ψ 39:12 chastise for iniquity; שַׁתָּ֯ ע׳לנגדךָ 90:8 set our iniquities before thee; גמל כע׳ 103:10; שׁמר ע׳ 130:3; שׁלּם ע׳ Is 65:7(×2); Je 16:18; 32:18; מַטְבֵּחַ בע׳ Is 14:21; (2) of forgiveness or removal: העביר ע׳ 2 S 24:10 = 1 Ch 21:8; Jb 7:21 Zc 3:4; משׁתי ע׳ 3:9; סלח לע׳ Ex 34:9 Nu 14:19 (J), ψ 25:11; 103:3; Je 31:34; 33:8; 36:3; נשׂא ע׳ Ex 34:7; Nu 14:18 (J), ψ 32:5; 85:3; Is 33:24; Ho 14:3; Mi 7:18; סר ע׳ Is 6:7; יכבושׁ ע׳ Mi 7:19; (3) of covering over, כסה על ע׳ Ne 3:37; כפּר ע׳ ψ 78:38; Pr 16:6; Is 22:14; 27:9; Dn 9:24; כפּר על ע׳ Je 18:23; יתכפּר ע׳ 1 S 3:14; (4) of cleansing from: כבּס מע׳ ψ 51:4; מחה ע׳ v 11; טהר מע׳ Je 33:8; Ez 36:33; (5) of imputing, reckoning to one: חשׁב ע׳ ל 2 S 19:20 ψ 32:2; (ל) זכר ע׳ 79:8; Is 64:8; Je 14:10; Ho 8:13; 9:9; יִזָּכֵר ע׳ ψ 109:14; בקשׁ (ל)ע׳ Jb 10:6; Je 50:20; (6) פדה מע׳ ψ 130:8 ransom from iniquity. e.g. Exodus 20:5
- 2. Guilt of iniquity (not always easy to disting. from 1; SS give more, Buhl fewer, sub 2);—‖ תועבות Ez 36:31; ‖ דם Is 59:3; ‖ חמם Ez 9:9; ע׳ פעור Jos 22:17 (P); ע׳ סדם Ez 16:49; ע׳ בצעוֹ Is 57:17; שְׁנֵי עונם Ez 4:4; נִכְתָּם עֲוֹנֵךְ לְפָנַי Je 2:22 the guilt of thine iniquity is marked before me; מצא ע׳ Gn 44:16 (E) ψ 36:3. e.g. Ezekiel 36:31
- a. ע׳ בְ: guilt of iniquity upon one Nu 15:31 (P) 1 S 20:8; 2 S 14:32; לא ע׳ לִי Jb 33:9 (‖ זַךְ); בלי־עון ψ 59:5 without my guilt. e.g. Numbers 15:31
- b. guilt, as great, increased: רֹב עָוֹן Je 13:22; 30:14, 15; Ez 28:18; Ho 9:7; לֹא־שָׁלֵם ע׳ Gn 15:16 (J); ע׳ עָֽבְרוּ רֹאשִׁי ψ 38:5; ע׳ עֲקֵבַי יְסוּבֵּנִי 49:6; ע׳ הִשִּׂיגוּנִי 40:13; ע׳ גברו מני 65:4; עַם כֶּבֶד ע׳ Is 1:4; בע׳ נלקח Ez 33:6. e.g. Jeremiah 13:22
- c. as a condition, בע׳:
- d. חוללתי was I brought forth ψ 51:7; e.g. Psalms 51:7
- e. גָּוַע expire Jos 22:20 (P); c. מות die Je 31:30; Ez 3:18, 19; 18:17, 18; 33:8, 9. e.g. Joshua 22:20
- 3. Consequence of, or punishment for, iniquity (SS include most of these under 2, and do not recognize 3; Buhl thinks this meaning rare, giving only Gn 4:13; Is 5:18);—אִם יִקְּ֯רֵךְ ע׳ בדבר הזה 1 S 28:10 no punishment shall happen unto thee for, etc.; נשׂא ע׳ bear the punishment for iniquity of others Ex 28:38; Lv 10:17 (take away ע׳ Di Nowii. 233 n.) 16:22; Nu 30:16 (P), Ez 4:4, 5, 6; בע׳ 18:19, 20(×2); one’s own, Ex 28:43 Lv 5:1, 17; 7:18; 17:16; 19:8; 20:17, 19; 22:16; Nu 5:31; 14:34; 18:1(×2), 23 (P), Ez 14:10; 44:10, 12; גדול ע׳מנשׂוא Gn 4:13 (J) my punishment is greater than I can bear; נִרְצָה עֲוֹנָהּ Is 40:2 her punishment is accepted, cf. רצה ע׳ Lv 26:41, 43 (H); ומצאנוּ ע׳ 2 K 7:9 punishment will overtake us; תנה ע׳ על ע׳ ψ 69:28 add punishment to their punishment; ע׳ הוא יסבל Is 53:11 the consequences of their iniquities he shall bear, cf. ע׳ סָבָ֑לְנוּ La 5:7; הפגיע בו ע׳ Is 53:6; נִקָּה מע׳ freed from punishment Nu 5:31 (P) Jb 10:14; בי אני העון 1 S 25:24 on me the punishment; עלי הע׳ 2 S 14:9; בע׳ c. various vbs.: Gn 19:15 (J) Lv 26:39(×2) (H) ψ 31:11; 106:43; Je 51:6; Ez 4:17; 7:16; 24:23; 39:23; עת ע׳ קץ 21:30, 34; 35:5; see also: Pr 5:22 (‖ חַבְלֵי חטאת), Is 30:13; 64:5, 6; La 4:22; Ez 4:4; 14:10(×2); 32:27. e.g. Genesis 4:13
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
n.m. Is 22:14 iniquity, guilt or punishment of iniquity;—ע׳ abs. Ex 28:43 +; עָווֹן 2 K 7:9 ψ 51:7; cstr. עֲוֹן Gn 15:16 +; עֲווֹן 1 Ch 21:8; sf. עֲוֹנִי Gn 4:13 + (2 S 16:12 read בְּעָנְיִי), עֲוֹנְךָ Ho 9:7 +; עֲוֹנֵ֑כִי ψ 103:3; עֲוֹ֔נָהֿ Nu 15:31 (Ges§ 91 e), etc.; pl. עֲוֹנוֹת abs. ψ 130:3 +, cstr. Jb 13:26 +; עְוֹנֹת abs. ψ 65:4, cstr. Lv 16:21 +; sf. עֲוֹנֹתֶיךָ Is 43:24, עֲוֹנֹתֵיכֶם Nu 14:34 +, etc.; also עֲוֹנֶיךָ Ez 28:18; עֲוֹנֵינוּ Is 64:6 +, etc. (SS doubt all these);—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from עוה (ʻâvâh) (H5753) — to twist.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
עָוֹן
- 1. perversion, wrong. Deut. R. s. 3 לא חטא ולא ע׳ no sin or wrong. Sabb. 30ᵃ אותו ע׳ that sin (of David’s, against Uriah and Bathsheba); Snh. 107ᵃ מחול לי על אותו ע׳ כולו pardon me for that sin entirely. Sabb. 88ᵇ עֲוֹן גדי, v. כָּרַם. Snh. 44ᵇ אם יש בי ע׳ זה if I am guilty of that crime (for which I am to be put to death); a. fr.—ע׳ גליון, v. אָוֶן.—Pl. עֲוֹנוֹת, עֲווֹנוֹת. Ib. תהא … עֲווֹנוֹתַיי may my death be an atonement for all my wrong-doings. Ber. 5ᵇ מוחלין לו כל עֲוֹנוֹתָיו is forgiven all his sins. Yoma III, 8. Ib. 39ᵇ עְווֹנוֹתֵיהֶן של ישראל the sins of Israel; a. v. fr.
- 2. (sub. עוֹנֶשׁ) penalty. Yeb. 47ᵃ מודיעין אותו עֲוֹן לקט וכ׳ we acquaint him (the proselyte) with the consequences of a neglect of the laws concerning the share of the poor &c., v. עוֹנֶשׁ.—בַּעֲ׳ as a punishment for, in consequence of. Sabb. 32ᵇ בע׳ נדרים (sub. ביטול) as a punishment for the neglect of vows; בע׳ מזוזה for neglecting the law concerning the door-post inscription; בע׳ ביטול תורה for neglecting the study of the Law; בע׳ גילוי עריות for unchastity; a. fr.
עוּן
- to be round, curved; denom. עַיִן.
- (denom. of עַיִן)
- 1. to look in, read. Tanḥ. Ki Thissa 34 אסור … לעַיֵּין בתורה וכ׳ the interpreter must not look into the Torah (Hebrew text) and translate; (Pesik. R. s. 5 ליתן עיניו).
- 2. to look carefully; to search, investigate (cmp. דּוּק a. דִּקְדֵּק). B. Bath. 115ᵃ (ref. ובן אין לו, Num. XXVII, 8) עַיֵּין עליו (Ar. אַיֵּין) investigate his case (whether he has really no male issue); Yeb. 22ᵇ. Kidd. 4ᵃ (ref. to Lev. XXII, 13 וזרע אין לה) עיין לה; Yeb. 70ᵃ עיין עלה (Chald.). e.g. Numbers 27:8
- 3. to speculate, contemplate. Ber. 55ᵃ המאריך בתפלתו ומְעַיֵּין בה he who stays long in prayer and speculates on it (expecting its fulfillment as a reward for his lengthy prayer); Yalk. Prov. 950; Ber. 32ᵇ; a. e.
- 4. [to measure with the eye] to balance exactly, opp. הכריע (v. כָּרַע). B. Bath. 89ᵃ אין מְעַיְּינִין … במקום שמעיינין where it is customary to give overweight, you dare not sell by exact weight, and vice versa; a. e.—Part. pass. מְעוּיָּין a) (adv.) weighed exactly, even-balanced. Num. R. s. 16, end (ref. to עין בעין, Num. XIV, 14) הרי מאזנים מע׳ אתה וכ׳ behold the scales are evenly balanced, thou sayest …, and I say &c.; Deut. R. s. 5 הרי מדת הדין בכף מאזנים מע׳ judgment lies on evenly balanced scales. Tanḥ. Ki Thissa 34; Pesik. R. s. 5, beg. המאזניים מע׳ the claims on both sides are equal. Y. Snh. X, beg. 27ᶜ היה מע׳ if it (his sins and his merits) be even; Y. Peah I, 16ᵇ bot.; Y. Kidd. I, end, 61ᵈ מחציין (corr. acc.); Yalk. Ps. 784 כף מאזניים מע׳ [היה]; a. e.—b) having eyes (rings) or colors. Y. Kil. I, 27ᵃ, v. לְעוּנִים. e.g. Numbers 14:14
- (b. h.) [to contemplate; to augur;] to produce apparitions, to conjure. Snh. 65ᵇ, a. e. (interpret. מעונן, Deut. XVIII, 10) המעביר … על העין, v. זְכוּרוּ. Ib. (oth. interpret.) האוהז את העינים, v. אָחַז. Ib. (oth. interpret.; cmp. Pi.) המחשב עתים ושעות וכ׳ who calculates what times and hours are auspicious &c.; [Comment. on המחשב עתים explain עונן as denomin. of עוֹנָה I]; Tosef. Sabb. VII (VIII), 14 נותני עתים וכ׳. e.g. Deuteronomy 18:10
עוּן ²
- Pa. עֵיֵּין, עַיֵּן same,
- 1. to watch, guard. Targ. Y. II, Deut. XXXII, 10 עַיְּינֵי (Paeli).—B. Kam. 32ᵇ איבעי ליה עַיּוּנֵי (עַיּוּנֵיה) he ought to have been on his guard; Macc. 8ᵃ לעַיּיוּנֵיה.
- 2. to look out for, select. Targ. Job VIII, 17 יְעַיֵּין ed. Lag. (oth. ed. יְעוֹיִן).
- 3. to look into, meditate, study, speculate. M. Kat. 14ᵇ לעיוני בדיניה to study his case (not to decide it). Ib. אתו מצפרא ומְעַיְּינֵי בדיניה וכ׳ they meet in the morning and consider his case …, and then they come again at sunset &c. Ber. 25ᵃ עַיֵּין אי וכ׳ examine and see whether &c. Ib. 58ᵃ עד דמעייני ביה בדינא while they were arguing about him in court. Snh. 18ᵇ ומְעַיְּינִינָא וכ׳ and we argue on his case. Meg. 30ᵇ מְעַיְּינִינָן במילי דמתא we look into the affairs (the moral condition) of the town. Gitt. 60ᵃ; Tem. 14ᵇ מְעַיְּינֵי בספרא וכ׳ used to study the book of &c. R. Hash. 16ᵃ בחינה עיוני בעלמא היא ‘to probe’ (בחן) means merely to investigate (without decreeing). Ber. 55ᵃ דמְעַיּין בה when he thinks of his prayer (expecting its fulfilment), v. preced; a. fr.—[Pol. עוֹנֵן, v. עֲנַן.]
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 136 distinct written forms H5771 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 76 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H5771, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
- מעי mᵉʻîy H4596 ruin
- עוה ʻavvâh H5754 distortion
- עויא ʻivyâʼ H5758 perversity
- עועה ʻavʻeh H5773 distorting
- עי ʻîy H5856 ruin
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 8 — not the complete family. 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 203 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 215 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- Genesis 4:13
- Exodus 20:5
- Leviticus 5:1
- Numbers 5:15
- Deuteronomy 5:9
- Joshua 22:17
- 1 Samuel 3:13
- 2 Samuel 3:8
- 1 Kings 17:18
- 2 Kings 7:9
- 1 Chronicles 21:8
- Ezra 9:6
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
