Hebrew yetzer ha-ra', literally the evil inclination/formation, the biblical-Hebrew diagnosis of the sinful inclination resident in the unregenerate human heart. The term is anchored in Genesis 6:5 (And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination [yetzer] of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually) and Genesis 8:21 (the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth). The diagnosis is severe and comprehensive: the yetzer of the unregenerate heart is only evil continually; from youth onward the human inclination is to evil. Rabbinic tradition later spoke of two yetzarim — yetzer ha-tov (the good inclination) and yetzer ha-ra' (the evil inclination) — with the moral life understood as the struggle to incline the will toward the good. The Reformed-confessional reading sharpens the OT diagnosis through Paul's teaching: the unregenerate man is dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1), the carnal mind is enmity against God (Romans 8:7), there is none righteous (Romans 3:10), and only the new birth by the Spirit produces in the believer a new inclination toward God (John 3:3-8; 2 Corinthians 5:17; the doctrine of regeneration). The patriarchal-Reformed reader holds the OT-NT diagnosis: total depravity is not the claim that every human is as evil as possible but the claim that no aspect of the unregenerate human is undamaged by sin, including the will's inclination; the gospel meets this diagnosis with the new birth by the Spirit, the regenerate heart given new inclinations, and the believer's ongoing mortification of the remaining indwelling sin under grace.