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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadInternational Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Hate; Hatred
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haÌ„t, hā´tred (verb, ×©×‚× ×, saÌ„neÌ„', “oftenest,†שׂט×, saÌ„tÌ£am, , etc.; noun, ×©×‚× ××”, sin'aÌ„h; μισεÌω, miseÌoÌ„): A feeling of strong antagonism and dislike, generally malevolent and prompting to injury (the opposite of love); sometimes born of moral resentment. Alike in the Old Testament and New Testament, hate of the malevolent sort is unsparingly condemned (; ; ; ; ), but in the Old Testament hatred of evil and evil-doers, purged of personal malice, is commended (; ; , , etc.). The New Testament law softens this feeling as regards persons, bringing it under the higher law of love (, ; compare -21), while intensifying the hatred of evil (; ). God himself is hated by the wicked (; ; compare ). Sometimes, however, the word “hate†is used hyperbolically in a relative sense to express only the strong preference of one to another. God loved Jacob, but hated Esau (; ); father and mother are to be hated in comparison with Christ (; compare ). See ENMITY.