Word studies · Hebrew · Strong's H5771
עָוֺן · ʻâvôn · appears 233 times in the Old Testament
In one line: A crooked bent in a life, and the guilt it carries.
We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:6
Avon is iniquity — crookedness in a life, and the guilt and consequence that come bent around with it.
Avon names twisted conduct, the guilt it incurs, and sometimes the punishment it earns — Hebrew lets one word carry all three, so a person can “bear his avon.” It is the word for sin considered as distortion rather than as a single act.
Avon comes from avah, “to bend, twist or make crooked.” Where chattath pictures an arrow missing its target, avon pictures something warped out of true — a life leaning wrong, which is why it so easily extends to the guilt that leaning produces.
The one word covering offense, guilt and punishment is not vagueness but theology: in Hebrew thought these are not separable, and sin carries its own consequence with it. That is what makes Isaiah 53 so striking — someone else carries the avon, consequence included.
Avon (H5771) appears 203 times in the Hebrew Bible, and its root avah means to bend or twist — iniquity is crookedness before it is anything else.
Iniquity describes the settled bent that produces particular sins, which is why forgiveness in Scripture goes past acts to character — “blot out all my iniquities.” Isaiah's promise that “the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” answers the whole crooked weight, not just the record.
Look past your last failure to the bent underneath it — the recurring lean that produces it. Ask God to straighten that rather than only to forgive the incident.
perversity, i.e. (moral) evil
But Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.
Genesis 4:13You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
Exodus 20:5[“]If someone sins by failing to testify when he hears a public charge about something he has witnessed, whether he has seen it or learned of it, he shall bear the iniquity.
Leviticus 5:1then he is to bring his wife to the priest. He must also bring for her an offering of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He is not to pour oil over it or put frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, an offering of memorial as a reminder of iniquity.
Numbers 5:15You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
Deuteronomy 5:9Was not the sin of Peor enough for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves to this day? It even brought a plague upon the congregation of the LORD.
Joshua 22:17Press and hold iniquity in any chapter and this study opens on the verse you are reading, with the lexicons, every occurrence and the commentaries beside it. The Bible is free to read.
Scripture quoted from the Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Strong's definitions are public domain. Counts come from The Pillar's own tagged text.