be wicked
ra.sah describes acting wickedly and, in judicial contexts, declaring someone guilty.
The occurrences most often describe people acknowledging, persisting in, or being characterized by wicked conduct; in a substantial judicial cluster, the term marks declaring a person guilty or condemning the righteous or innocent.
Senses in use
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Act wickedly or acknowledge wicked conduct · dominant
Qal forms occur in confessions such as 1 Kings 8:47 and Daniel 9:15, where the APB renders the speakers' admission alongside having sinned and perverted. The same conduct is described of a king in 2 Chronicles 20:35 and of the wicked in Daniel 12:10; Job 10:15 frames it as the condition, “If I have been wicked.”
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Declare guilty in judgment · common
Hiphil forms appear where judgment distinguishes righteous and guilty: in 1 Kings 8:32 the APB renders the clause “declaring the wicked guilty” alongside justifying the righteous, and Deuteronomy 25:1 likewise places it in judges' decision-making. Job 40:8 portrays condemning God in order to be justified, while Psalm 94:21 describes people condemning the innocent to death.
In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB presents the conduct cluster with expressions such as “acted wickedly,” “done wickedly,” and “the wicked will continue to be wicked,” while judicial clauses use “condemn” or “declaring the wicked guilty.” These renderings show the clauses' presentation rather than a fixed English equivalent for every form.