The Hebrew noun avon is one of the three primary words for sin in the OT (alongside chata and pesha). Used over 230 times, it denotes a bending or twisting away from what is right — iniquity, moral perversity, guilt, and the punishment that guilt brings. It emphasizes the inner corruption of sin and its consequences.
Avon captures the depth dimension of sin: not just wrong acts, but a twisted, bent condition of the soul. The Psalms use it to confess personal moral failure before God (Psalm 51:2, 9). Isaiah declares that the Servant of the LORD would bear Israel's avon (53:6) — the theological foundation for substitutionary atonement. Where chata emphasizes missing the mark, avon emphasizes moral perversion requiring deep cleansing.