The Hebrew noun khamas means violence, wrong, cruelty, or injustice. Appearing about 60 times in the Old Testament, it describes the violent, unjust treatment of persons that violates God's moral order and provokes His judgment.
Khamas is the word God uses to describe the moral condition of the earth before the Flood: 'Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence' (Genesis 6:11). This is not random chaos but deliberate harm — the exploitation of the weak, the perversion of justice, and the shedding of innocent blood. The Psalms cry out to God against khamas (Psalm 11:5; 72:14). Isaiah and the prophets identify it as the characteristic sin of Israel's corrupt rulers (Isaiah 53:9; Ezekiel 7:23). Significantly, Isaiah 53:9 says the Suffering Servant 'had done no violence' — using khamas to affirm Christ's complete innocence. Habakkuk builds his entire lament around the apparent triumph of khamas over justice (Habakkuk 1:2–3), and God's response in Habakkuk 2:8 is that those who built their houses through violence will reap it in return. Khamas stands as the antithesis of mishpat (justice) and tsedaqah (righteousness).