Thus we get abar, transgression.  The primary meaning of abar is 'to

pass over' (see Gen. 32:10,16,31 and 33:3; Exod. 12:23).  Pesha, 'rebellion',

and rasha, 'wickedness'.  1 Samuel 20:3 uses the word pesa, 'There is but a

step between me and death', and the marginal reading of Isaiah 27:4, 'I would

march against them'.  These usages show that pasha is similar to abar in the

thought of overstepping.  Abar oversteps the bounds, pasha revolts against

authority. 'I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled

against Me' (Isa. 1:2).

Rasha, wickedness, is revolt in progress, rebellion rushing to ruin.

Its essential meaning is that of violent commotion, the exact opposite of

peace.  Micah 6:11 speaks of the 'wicked balances' which contrast with that

sense of equal poise expressed by 'just balances'.  Job 3:17 speaks of the

wicked in a context that expresses restless character.  'There the wicked

cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest'.  So also Isaiah

57:20,21 speaks to the same effect: 'The wicked are like the troubled sea,

when it cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and dirt.  There is no peace,

saith my God to the wicked'.  These are the 'ungodly' of Psalm 1:1,4,5,6 and

the 'malefactors' and 'thieves' indicated prophetically in Isaiah 53:9.

Such negation of right and commission of wrong has but one end.  This

is foreshadowed in the word ra, 'evil'.  This word is translated 'evil' no

less than 444 times in the Old Testament  Its primary meaning is to break,

and to destroy, 'Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron' (Psa. 2:9).  Then

'to afflict', to 'entreat evil' (Job 24:21).  Ra is translated by a number of

words that suggest calamity and trouble: adversity 4 times, affliction 6,

calamity once, displeasure 4, distress once, grief and grievous 3, harm 4,

hurt 20, misery once, sad, sore, sorrow, trouble, wretchedness, among others

will show that the primitive idea of 'ruin' is never absent from the word.

The reader, with a concordance before him, or even the above citations, will

not be greatly troubled by those who wish to bring out of Isaiah 45:7 a

bolster for the teaching that God is the creator of sin.  The book of

Ecclesiastes provides a commentary upon the meaning of evil no less than that

of vanity.  The writer speaks of sore travail (1:13), work that is grievous

(2:17), a vanity and a great evil (2:21), as he sees the ruin and the

purposeless toil that has resulted from sin.

There are several other words used to portray the manysidedness of sin,

but those we have considered are the chief.  By one man sin entered into the

world, and all have sinned and come short (chata).  This condition is named

as one of lawlessness and unrighteousness.  Our very natures are wrung out of

their course, or wrong and crooked (avah), we are plunged into ignorance that

can exist side by side with guilt (asham), and all our efforts are

purposeless, wearisome toil (amal).  We have turned our backs upon God, and a

usurper has dominion over us.  Sin has attempted to mount the throne of God

(aven), deceit and inequality, iniquity in fact, now marks us (aval).  We

pass over or transgress the law of conscience or of revelation (abar), and

become rebels (pasha).  Restless wickedness becomes our characteristic

(rasha), and utter ruin, or evil, is our end (ra).  Such is the condition of

the sons of Adam.  From such a state nothing can deliver them, but the

redemption that is in Christ Jesus.