Evil

Evil is referenced here in a precise way — God's charge against Judah is not vague wickedness but a specific pattern of replacing the living God with objects of their own making.

Evil here is diagnosed as a deliberate, habitual orientation of the heart — not confusion or ignorance, but a generation that has fully committed to following its own stubborn will over God's.

Evil is identified here as the direct cause of God hiding his face — generations of moral and spiritual corruption had brought Judah to this precise moment of military and spiritual disaster.

Ebed-melech uses this word directly to the king's face — naming what was done to Jeremiah as morally wrong — and the plain moral clarity of it appears to shake Zedekiah into authorizing the rescue.

Evil is defined here with precision — using someone's failure or sin as an excuse to exploit them is identified as its own moral category of wrong, distinct from but compounding the original offense.

Evil is invoked here through the well image — Jerusalem's corruption isn't incidental but systemic, flowing outward constantly like water from a spring that never runs dry.

Evil appears here as what the Pharisees are effectively calling Jesus's healing ministry — labeling God's Spirit as demonic — which Jesus identifies as the core of the unforgivable blasphemy.

Evil is personified here as an enemy who plants destructive weeds among good wheat while people sleep — representing the active opposition that corrupts and undermines the kingdom's work.

Evil is invoked here to clarify what Jesus is not saying — wealth itself isn't morally corrupt, but its power to displace trust in God makes it spiritually dangerous in a way few other things are.

Evil is notably absent as the defining characteristic of the Noah generation — Jesus's point is that they weren't destroyed for spectacular wickedness but for ordinary obliviousness, which makes the warning apply more broadly to anyone simply not paying attention.

Evil is examined here not as dramatic villainy but as passive complicity — the text argues that Pilate's failure wasn't malice but the unwillingness to stand against pressure.

Evil is highlighted here for its deceptive nature — the first temptation didn't look evil at all, which is precisely the point: the most effective enticements come disguised as logic and self-care.

Evil is specifically clarified here as what Solomon is not calling money — his point is narrower: wealth is a poor foundation, not that it is inherently corrupt.

Evil is invoked here specifically to clarify what Solomon is not saying — the point isn't that money is morally corrupt, but that it makes protective promises it ultimately cannot keep.

Evil is clarified here as distinct from pleasure itself — Solomon's point is that the problem isn't enjoyment but the compulsive chasing of feeling, which empties a life rather than filling it.

Evil is invoked here in verse 5 to describe not just bad behavior but a corrupted moral perception — those set on evil lose the very capacity to recognize justice, making wickedness self-reinforcing and spiritually blinding.

Evil is named here as the direct object of Wisdom's hatred — specifically manifested as pride, arrogance, corrupt behavior, and dishonest speech, grounding the concept in concrete moral failures rather than abstract wrongdoing.

Evil is invoked here in the context of blaspheming the Holy Spirit — Jesus distinguishes between doubt and the deliberate act of calling God's work evil, which represents a hardened, permanent rejection.

Evil is invoked here to clarify a common misreading — Jesus is not saying money itself is morally corrupt, but that it becomes destructive when it functions as a master rather than a tool.

Evil surfaces here as Jesus clarifies that only God is truly good — deflecting the ruler's flattery and reframing the conversation away from human moral achievement toward the nature of God alone.

Evil spirits are referenced here as part of the healings Jesus performs in direct response to John's question, demonstrating his authority over the full range of afflictions Isaiah had prophesied.

Evil is the explicit charge the text levels against Athaliah's counsel — she wasn't merely a bad influence but an active coach pulling her son toward moral destruction.

Evil is referenced here as the standard charge leveled against unfaithful kings throughout Chronicles, making Hezekiah's opposite verdict — doing what was right — all the more striking.

Evil is the repeated verdict stamped on each king in this chapter — Jehoiachin receives the same damning assessment as his predecessors, reinforcing the pattern that no one on Judah's throne is turning back toward God.

Evil here refers specifically to the religious practices God calls detestable — not just moral failure, but a structured system of worship designed to normalize what God forbids.

Evil is named here as the specific contamination that human trafficking brings into the community — something so corrosive it must be actively purged rather than merely punished.

Evil is embodied here by the Amalekites' deliberate targeting of the weak — their attack wasn't just military aggression but a calculated predation on those who couldn't fight back, which God names as a defining act of moral corruption.

Evil is addressed here in a nuanced way — James is not condemning wealth as inherently evil but exposing the danger of building identity on something as temporary and fragile as material prosperity.

Evil appears here as James categorizes jealousy-driven, selfish ambition not merely as misguided but as demonic — tracing destructive speech and behavior back to the same source as evil itself.

Evil is invoked here to clarify what James is actually targeting: not wealth itself, but the moral corruption of how it was acquired and hoarded — exploitation, unpaid wages, and using power to crush the vulnerable.

Evil appears here as the thing Job is explicitly said to avoid — the text uses this contrast to establish that Job's suffering cannot be explained as punishment for wrongdoing.

Evil is presented here as the seed that produces the barren harvest Eliphaz describes — the wicked 'conceive trouble, give birth to evil,' framing Job's losses as the natural fruit of a corrupt inner life.

Evil is described here through Zophar's food metaphor — something savored and hoarded in the mouth that ultimately becomes poison, emphasizing how moral compromise corrupts from the inside out.

Evil is explicitly ruled out as the explanation for forbidden foods — the text clarifies that shrimp and pigs aren't morally inferior creatures, but that the dietary restrictions were about identity formation, not moral taxonomy.

Evil is invoked here to define community complicity — silent bystanders who watch child sacrifice happen and do nothing are not neutral, but morally implicated in the same wrong.

Evil is referenced here in analogy to clarify what ordinary uncleanness is not — the parking lot isn't evil, just as everyday life isn't sinful, but the sacred space still demands a deliberate shift in readiness.

The evil spirit here is startlingly self-aware — it recognizes Jesus' identity before the religious leaders do, and its terror at his mere presence reveals the cosmic stakes behind what looked like an ordinary teaching session.

Evil is the label the scribes applied to what was plainly good — calling God's restorative work demonic is the core of what makes this sin so severe: a willful inversion of moral reality.

Evil is referenced here in the context of Satan snatching away the word from path-soil hearers — clarifying that the thorns (worldly desires) are distinct from outright evil, yet still spiritually dangerous.

Evil appears here in Paul's stark command to 'hate what is evil' — the necessary counterpart to holding fast to good, establishing that authentic love is not morally neutral but actively opposed to corruption.

Evil appears as the closing item in chapter 1's catalog of human corruption, which Paul's readers were quick to assign to 'those people' before Paul turns the mirror on them.

Evil is explicitly ruled out as a descriptor for the Law here — Paul is preemptively defending the Law's goodness even as he argues it held people captive, insisting the problem was never the Law itself.

Evil here frames the striking point that Saul didn't do something obviously wicked — his disobedience looked reasonable and even responsible, which makes it more instructive, not less serious.

Evil is referenced here to clarify that the false teaching doesn't appear obviously wicked — its danger lies in disguising restriction as virtue, making it harder to recognize and resist.

Evil here is the harvest of misplaced desire — Paul clarifies that money itself is not evil, but that the craving for it grows into every variety of moral corruption and self-destruction.

Evil is personified here in the spirit that overpowers seven men — its response to the sons of Sceva reveals that spiritual evil recognizes authentic authority and exposes counterfeit attempts to borrow it.

Evil spirits are mentioned here as being cast out alongside physical healings — every single case resolved — demonstrating the apostles' authority over both bodily and spiritual affliction.

Evil here is framed as passive complicity rather than active malice — the text's point is that Israel's comfortable elites weren't plotting wickedness, they were simply indifferent to the suffering their comfort caused.

Evil is clarified here as not residing in the luxuries themselves, but in the willful indifference they produced — the real moral failure was comfort that crowded out compassion.

Evil appears here in the irony that God transforms Haman's instrument of destruction — the Pur — into the name of a festival celebrating the deliverance of the very people it was meant to destroy.

Evil is identified here specifically as Haman's scheme against the Jews — and the text notes that divine justice turned that evil plan back on its author's own head.

Evil is contrasted here with tragedy — the text distinguishes deliberate, premeditated murder as a moral category distinct from accidental death, reflecting God's view that intent is foundational to justice.

Evil is illustrated here not as cartoon villainy but as a systemic strategy — Pharaoh's power works by redefining the oppressed as the problem, turning their legitimate suffering into evidence of their own moral failure.

The wicked are named here as the ones being falsely protected — the manipulative practitioners gave comfort and cover to people whose harmful behavior needed confrontation, not validation.

Evil here refers to the pattern of moral corruption Israel grew comfortable with over time — the things they'd stopped seeing as wrong, which God has been watching and is now judging.

Evil is presented here as the reason goodness provokes hostility — John argues that darkness is made uncomfortable by light, explaining the world's hostility toward believers.

Evil is referenced here in the context of Satan's strategy — the point is that spiritual blindness doesn't require making the gospel look evil, only making it look boring or irrelevant.

Evil is what Peter is demonstrating God has never ignored — the rhetorical point of the three examples is that every form of wickedness, from cosmic rebellion to city-scale corruption, has been met with divine response.

Evil is described here as already active in the world but currently restrained — operating within limits it cannot exceed until the appointed time.

Evil is shown here in its most disturbing form — not just violent, but successful, prospering while trampling truth and desecrating the holy, raising the agonizing question of 'how long?'

Evil is explicitly ruled out as the verdict on wealth — the Teacher clarifies that money itself is not the problem, but making it an ultimate pursuit turns it into a consuming, unsatisfying substitute for God.

Evil describes the present age from which Jesus's self-sacrifice rescues believers — Paul frames the gospel not as moral improvement but as a liberation from a corrupted world order.

Evil is described here as something that ripens over time — it accumulates, it reaches capacity, and when the winepress of the valley overflows, Joel's point is that human wickedness has finally filled to the brim.

Evil is what God saw the Ninevites turn from — the text specifies their 'evil ways' as the thing they actually stopped doing, and it's this behavioral change, not just the sackcloth and fasting, that moves God to relent.

Evil is invoked through the devil's confrontation with Michael over Moses' body — the archangel's refusal to hurl accusations even at evil itself becomes the measure against which the false teachers' reckless arrogance is judged.

Evil appears here as the thing Israel has redefined — they have looked at people doing evil and concluded God must approve of them, collapsing the moral distinction God's character depends on.

Evil here is given a specific, historical weight — Nahum's closing question ('who hasn't suffered from your cruelty?') indicts Assyria not in the abstract but as an enumerable list of real nations and peoples they destroyed.

Evil is referenced here in a clarifying aside — the text notes that wine wasn't banned because alcohol is inherently evil, but because it symbolized ordinary pleasure being voluntarily surrendered to God.

Evil is the subject of God's active containment in this vision — the passage insists God is not passive or anxious about it but has a plan that ends with evil sealed and removed.

Evil is clarified here in a careful distinction — the chapter argues that silver and gold are not inherently evil, but that trusting them as protection against divine accountability reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of what they can do.