A revolt (national, moral or religious)
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פֶּשַׁע (peša') is a noun for transgression, rebellion, or revolt. Genesis 31:36 uses it in Jacob's demand to know his offense, Exodus 22:9 uses it in a property dispute brought before judges, and First Samuel 24:11 uses it in David's denial of rebellion against Saul.
Reader summary
Full entry for פֶּשַׁע (H6588) · Open the biblical lexicon
פֶּשַׁע (peša') is a noun for transgression, rebellion, or revolt. Genesis 31:36 uses it in Jacob's demand to know his offense, Exodus 22:9 uses it in a property dispute brought before judges, and First Samuel 24:11 uses it in David's denial of rebellion against Saul.
The BSB source-word alignment has 93 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include transgressions (11), my transgressions (7), transgression (6), your transgressions (6), our transgressions (4).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 31:36. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (14), Proverbs (12), Isaiah (11), Amos (10).
פֶּשַׁע (peša') is a noun for transgression, rebellion, or revolt. Genesis 31:36 uses it in Jacob's demand to know his offense, Exodus 22:9 uses it in a property dispute brought before judges, and First Samuel 24:11 uses it in David's denial of rebellion against Saul. These legal and relational contexts show that a transgression may be alleged, investigated, denied, or established; accusation is not proof.
Covenant texts name both guilt and pardon. Exodus 34:7 says the Lord forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin while not treating guilt as nothing. Leviticus 16:16 and 16:21 include Israel's transgressions in the Day of Atonement rites. Psalms 32 and 51 join acknowledgment with forgiveness, while Proverbs 28:13 contrasts concealment with confession and forsaking. Mercy does not require minimizing the offense, and confession does not eliminate restitution, protection, or consequences.
Prophets expose corporate and personal rebellion and announce God's action. Isaiah 43:25 and 44:22 speak of blotting out transgressions, Isaiah 53:5 and 53:8 place the people's transgression within the servant's suffering, Ezekiel 18:30 calls Israel to turn from transgressions, and Micah 7:18 praises God for passing over rebellion. These passages ground atonement and forgiveness themes, but the noun alone does not settle a complete theory or authorize transferring blame to victims.
Pesha names an offense arising from breached obligation or allegiance. Legal cases, relational disputes, covenant confession, ritual cleansing, prophetic indictment, servant suffering, and divine pardon all retain the offense's seriousness while distinguishing allegation, guilt, consequence, and forgiveness.
A disputed property transgression is brought before judges for a finding rather than decided by accusation alone.
God's self-proclamation joins forgiveness of transgression with refusal to make guilt morally weightless.
Israel's transgressions are confessed over the living goat and symbolically carried away.
David appeals to evidence that no transgression or rebellion against Saul is in his hand.
The worshiper stops hiding, acknowledges transgression, and receives forgiveness.
Concealing transgressions is contrasted with confession, forsaking, and mercy.
God declares that he blots out transgressions for his own sake and will not remember sins.
The servant is wounded because of the people's transgressions within the song's representative suffering.
The prophet praises the incomparable God who forgives iniquity and passes over transgression.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Deliberate rebellion against established authority—God or ruler—emphasizing volitional defiance rather than inadvertent error
Deliberate rebellion against established authority—God or ruler—emphasizing volitional defiance rather than inadvertent error
a revolt (national, moral or religious) BDB: transgression Usage: rebellion, sin, transgression, trespass.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 93 lexical occurrence verses.
פֶּשַׁע is built from this root:
Excessive speech often crosses moral boundaries through careless words. Isaiah 24:16b-23
The earth’s collapse is linked directly to human rebellion. Isaiah 43:22-28
Identifies sin as willful covenant violation. Proverbs 10:19
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Pesha supports serious, evidence-aware teaching about wrongdoing. Exodus 22 and First Samuel 24 show that an accusation of rebellion requires adjudication and can be denied with evidence. Exodus 34 and Leviticus 16 refuse both despair and trivialization: transgression is forgiven and carried away, yet guilt is morally real. Psalms and Proverbs move from concealment toward acknowledgment, forsaking, and mercy.
Isaiah and Micah ground hope in God's action rather than human self-cleansing. Pastoral application should distinguish confession to God, disclosure needed for safety and justice, and coerced exposure that may endanger a victim. Forgiveness must never be used to suppress investigation, restitution, boundaries, or consequences. Isaiah 53 can support representative atonement teaching, but the noun alone cannot establish every mechanism or model.
Isa.53.5
H6588 is the noun related to H6586. It can name an offense, rebellion, guilt, or charge, while legal, cultic, poetic, and prophetic settings determine its precise force.
The New Testament speaks through several terms about trespass, lawlessness, sin, confession, forgiveness, and Christ's representative suffering. Those texts develop rather than merely repeat the semantic range of H6588.
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain