Bible word study

Raa (Strong’s H7489): Meaning in the Bible

Raa (רָעַע) is the Hebrew word numbered H7489 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as properly, to spoil (literally, by breaking to pieces); figuratively, to make (or be) good for nothing, i.e. bad (physically, socially or morally). In the King James Bible it is translated afflict, associate selves (by mistake for H7462), break (down, in pieces), displease.

• Original wordרָעַע
• Transliterationrâʻaʻ
• Pronunciationraw-ah'
• Part of speechverb (v)
• Strong’s numberH7489
• LanguageHebrew

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. a primitive root;

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Raa appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Raa (H7489) stands behind 83 English renderings in 80 verses across 21 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Psalms (15), Jeremiah (14), Isaiah (11).

How the King James Bible renders Raa, by count

• evil19 of 83 (23 percent)
• evildoers9 of 83 (11 percent)
• hurt7 of 83 (8 percent)
• wickedly5 of 83 (6 percent)
• worse5 of 83 (6 percent)
• wicked4 of 83 (5 percent)

Three places to read Raa

• Genesis 19:7 And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.
• 2 Kings 21:11 Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols:
• Isaiah 1:16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

Counts are made at build time from the King James text tagged with Strong’s numbers (eBible.org, public domain). Verses are read from the stored King James text, never typed.

Why the word matters

Every word the biblical writers chose carries weight. Studying Raa in the original Hebrew lets you read the passages where it appears more carefully, closer to what the first hearers understood, so the meaning is drawn from the text itself rather than from the English alone.

The lexical data on this page comes from the public-domain Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890), a Hebrew and Greek dictionary keyed to the King James Bible. It is a reference tool, not a settled verdict: no single word decides a doctrine, and meaning is finally shaped by how a word is used in its sentences. Read the passages themselves, prayerfully, and in full.

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