The Hebrew word roa means evil, badness, or wickedness — particularly in the sense of moral ugliness, harm, or adversity. It is the noun form related to the adjective ra (H7451), meaning evil or bad. Roa describes the quality or state of being evil, the badness of a thing or person.
The concept of evil in the Old Testament is multidimensional. Roa can describe both moral evil (wickedness, sin) and natural adversity (harm, misfortune). Jeremiah uses roa for the badness of the people's heart (Jeremiah 3:17). The word challenges any simplistic view of evil as merely external circumstances — the prophets locate the root of evil in the human heart, corrupted by sin. Yet roa is also used for the 'evil' of suffering and adversity, recognizing that in a fallen world, bad things happen to God's people. The antidote to roa is the transforming work of God: a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26) that is no longer dominated by the stubbornness of its own evil.