# H5771 - avon **Strong's:** [H5771](https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h5771/) · BLB lookup **Pronunciation:** aw-vone' **Part of speech:** masculine noun (from the verbal root H5753 *ʿawah*, "to bend / twist / pervert / be crooked") **Frequency:** ~231 occurrences in the Hebrew Bible, heavily concentrated in Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the priestly atonement texts ([Lev 16](/codex/leviticus-16/), 26). **LXX equivalents:** ἀνομία (*anomia*), ἁμαρτία (*hamartia*), ἀδικία (*adikia*), the Greek correspondent varies by context. **Triad companions:** [H6588 - pesha](/codex/h6588-pesha/) (*peshaʿ*, transgression / rebellion); [H2403 - chattath](/codex/h2403-chattath/), *chattath*, sin / missing the mark / sin-offering. ## Semantic range (Brown-Driver-Briggs) 1. **Iniquity / perversity / crookedness**, the primary lexical sense; sin viewed as **twisted / perverted state**, the warping of moral faculties from their right orientation. The verbal root *ʿawah* means "to bend / twist / pervert." 2. **Guilt**, the *standing condition* of having committed iniquity; the moral-judicial liability that attaches to the sinner. 3. **Punishment for iniquity**, by metonymy, *ʿawon* sometimes refers to the *consequence* / penal outcome of iniquity ([Gen 4:13](/codex/genesis-4-13/), Cain: "my *ʿawon* is too great to bear", ambiguous: my iniquity / my punishment). 4. **Iniquity-bearing**, the technical priestly idiom in [Lev 16](/codex/leviticus-16/) etc.: to *bear ʿawon* is to absorb / carry the moral weight of another's iniquity for them; the substitution-vocabulary that drives the Day of Atonement ritual. ## Theological force, sin as crookedness, with bearable weight *ʿAwon* is the second of the three principal Hebrew sin-words, complementing *peshaʿ* (rebellion) and *chattath* (missing-the-mark). The triad's distinctive contributions: - **[H6588 - pesha](/codex/h6588-pesha/)** (rebellion), the *willful breach* sense; covenant-treason - **H5771 *ʿawon*** (iniquity), the *perverted-state* sense; moral crookedness, twisted-from-true - **H2403 *chattath*** (sin / sin-offering), the *missed-mark* sense; failure-to-attain; the technical sin-offering *ʿAwon*'s special theological weight is its **bearability**. The verb *nasaʾ* ("to lift up / carry / bear") is repeatedly applied to *ʿawon* in priestly and prophetic contexts: - [Lev 16:21-22](/codex/leviticus-16-21-22/), the scapegoat *bears* (*nasaʾ*) the *ʿawonot* of Israel into the wilderness - [Lev 5:1](/codex/leviticus-5-1/), [17](/codex/leviticus-5-17/), "he shall *bear his ʿawon*" - [Num 14:18](/codex/numbers-14-18/), "the LORD... forgiving *ʿawon* and *peshaʿ*" - [Num 14:34](/codex/numbers-14-34/), "you shall *bear your ʿawon*", for forty years - [Isa 53:6](/codex/isaiah-53-6/), "the LORD has caused the *ʿawon* of us all to fall on Him" (*hifgia*, caused-to-strike) - [Isa 53:11](/codex/isaiah-53-11/), "He shall bear (*yisbol*) their *ʿawonot*" The *bear-iniquity* idiom is the OT vocabulary the New Testament reaches for when it describes substitutionary atonement. **Christ bears the *ʿawon* of His people** is the Hebrew-Bible-shaped formula behind [1 Pet 2:24](/codex/1-peter-2-24/) ("He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree"), [2 Cor 5:21](/codex/2-corinthians-5-21/) ("He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf"), and [Heb 9:28](/codex/hebrews-9-28/) ("Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many"). The penal-substitutionary atonement (cf. [Penal Substitutionary Atonement](/codex/penal-substitutionary-atonement/)) draws its grammar from the *ʿawon-nasaʾ* pairing. ## Notable verses ### The mercy formula and the triad - **[Exodus 34.6-7](/codex/exodus-34-6-7/)**, the LORD's self-revelation: "forgiving *ʿawon* and *peshaʿ* and *chattath*" - **[Numbers 14:18](/codex/numbers-14-18/)**, the formula repeated - **[Micah 7:18](/codex/micah-7-18/)**, "Who is a God like You, who pardons *ʿawon* and passes over *peshaʿ*?" ### The Day of Atonement - **[Leviticus 16:21-22](/codex/leviticus-16-21-22/)**, Aaron lays both hands on the live goat and confesses "all the *ʿawonot* of the sons of Israel and all their *peshaʿim* in regard to all their *chattaʾoth*... the goat shall *bear all their ʿawonot* on himself to a solitary land" ### [Isaiah 53](/codex/isaiah-53/), the Servant bearing iniquity - **[Isaiah 53.5](/codex/isaiah-53-5/)**, "He was pierced through for our *peshaʿ*, He was crushed for our *ʿawon*" - **[Isaiah 53:6](/codex/isaiah-53-6/)**, "the LORD has caused the *ʿawon* of us all to fall on Him" - **[Isaiah 53.11](/codex/isaiah-53-11/)**, "He shall bear (*yisbol*) their *ʿawonot*" ### Psalms, confession and forgiveness - **[Psalms 32.5](/codex/psalms-32-5/)**, "I acknowledged my *chattaʾah* to You... and You forgave the *ʿawon* of my *chattaʾath*" - **[Psalms 51:2](/codex/psalms-51-2/)**, "wash me thoroughly from my *ʿawon*" - **[Psalm 51:5](/codex/psalms-51-5/)**, "behold, I was brought forth in *ʿawon*, and in sin (*chetʾ*) my mother conceived me", the original-sin proof-text in Reformed tradition - **[Psalm 51:9](/codex/psalms-51-9/)**, "blot out all my *ʿawonot*" - **[Psalm 103:3](/codex/psalms-103-3/), [10](/codex/psalms-103-10/)**, "who pardons all your *ʿawonot* / He has not dealt with us according to our *ʿawonot*" - **[Psalm 130:3](/codex/psalms-130-3/), [8](/codex/psalms-130-8/)**, "if You, LORD, should mark *ʿawonot*, who could stand?... He will redeem Israel from all his *ʿawonot*" ### Ezekiel, individual responsibility - **[Ezekiel 18:17](/codex/ezekiel-18-17/), [20](/codex/ezekiel-18-20/), [30](/codex/ezekiel-18-30/)**, "the soul who sins will die... the son will not bear the punishment for the father's *ʿawon*, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's *ʿawon*" - **[Ezekiel 33:8-9](/codex/ezekiel-33-8-9/)**, the watchman's responsibility for the wicked; bearing of iniquity ### Daniel, eschatological resolution - **[Daniel 9:24](/codex/daniel-9-24/)**, the Seventy Weeks: "to finish the *peshaʿ*, to make an end of *chattath*, and **to atone for *ʿawon***", the eschatological resolution of the entire sin-triad ### Jeremiah, covenant new - **[Jeremiah 31:34](/codex/jeremiah-31-34/)**, "I will forgive their *ʿawon*, and their *chattath* I will remember no more", the New Covenant forgiveness promise ### NT atonement-language (LXX-Greek absorbing the *ʿawon* tradition) - **[1 Peter 2.24](/codex/1-peter-2-24/)**, "He Himself bore our sins (*hēmartias*) in His body on the tree" - **[2 Corinthians 5.21](/codex/2-corinthians-5-21/)**, "He made Him who knew no sin (*hamartian*) to be sin on our behalf" - **[Hebrews 9:28](/codex/hebrews-9-28/)**, "Christ also, having been offered once to bear (*anenenkein*) the sins of many" ## Patristic / scholarly note The Suffering Servant Songs of Isaiah (esp. [Isa 52:13-53](/codex/isaiah-52-13-53/):12) center the *ʿawon-nasaʾ* idiom, and the patristic tradition reads them as the controlling OT prefiguration of Christ's atoning work. **[Justin Martyr](/codex/justin-martyr/)** (*Dialogue with Trypho* 13) cites [Isaiah 53](/codex/isaiah-53/) extensively. **[Cyril of Alexandria](/codex/cyril-of-alexandria/)** (*Commentary on Isaiah*) develops the *ʿawon*-bearing language into substitutionary-atonement theology. **Athanasius** (*De Incarnatione* 9) applies the iniquity-bearing motif to Christ's incarnational mission. In modern scholarship, the *ʿawon-pesha-chattath* triad has received renewed attention (Joseph Scharbert, *Solidarität in Segen und Fluch im Alten Testament*, 1958; Gary Anderson, *Sin: A History*, 2009). Anderson particularly emphasizes that the OT moves from a *weight* metaphor (sin as a load to be carried, driven by *ʿawon-nasaʾ*) toward a *debt* metaphor in Second-Temple literature, preparing the financial-economic atonement-language that Paul will deploy. The Christian doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement is the natural heir of the OT *ʿawon*-bearing tradition, with [Isaiah 53](/codex/isaiah-53/) as the canonical hinge. ## Verses in this codex _See Obsidian's backlinks pane for every verse page linking here._ Central anchors: [Isaiah 53](/codex/isaiah-53/) cluster (esp. [Isaiah 53.5](/codex/isaiah-53-5/), [Isaiah 53:6](/codex/isaiah-53-6/), [Isaiah 53.11](/codex/isaiah-53-11/)); [Exodus 34.6-7](/codex/exodus-34-6-7/); [Leviticus 16](/codex/leviticus-16/) (Day of Atonement); [Daniel 9.24](/codex/daniel-9-24/) (eschatological resolution). ## See also - [H6588 - pesha](/codex/h6588-pesha/), *peshaʿ* (transgression / rebellion), companion in the sin-triad - [H2403 - chattath](/codex/h2403-chattath/), *chattath* (sin / sin-offering), companion in the sin-triad - [H3722 - kaphar](/codex/h3722-kaphar/), *kaphar* (to atone / cover), what is required to deal with *ʿawon* - [G0266 - hamartia](/codex/g0266-hamartia/), *hamartia* (sin), Greek correspondent (LXX often renders *ʿawon* with *hamartia*) - [Penal Substitutionary Atonement](/codex/penal-substitutionary-atonement/), the doctrine grounded in the *ʿawon*-bearing tradition - Passages: [Isaiah 53](/codex/isaiah-53/), [Psalms 32](/codex/psalms-32/), [Psalms 51](/codex/psalms-51/), [Daniel 9.24](/codex/daniel-9-24/), [Exodus 34.6-7](/codex/exodus-34-6-7/)