The active participle of ʾāyab (to be hostile), denoting one who bears enmity, hatred, or active hostility. It encompasses personal enemies, national adversaries in warfare, and spiritual opponents of God's people. The word implies not passive dislike but active opposition — an enemy is one who acts against you.
The biblical theology of enmity begins in Genesis 3:15, where God declares enmity between the serpent's seed and the woman's seed — the protoevangelium that frames all subsequent conflict as an outworking of this cosmic struggle. Israel's enemies are consistently portrayed as God's enemies (Ps 68:1), and victory over them is attributed to YHWH alone (Deut 20:4). Yet the ethic of enemy-love also emerges: Proverbs 25:21 commands feeding a hungry enemy, which Paul quotes in Romans 12:20. The Psalms give voice to the full range of responses to enemies — from cries for vindication to trust in God's justice — modeling honest prayer in the face of opposition.