OLD TESTAMENT SINNERS
Aaron - when he was left in charge during his brother Moses' sojourn on the Mount (Exod. 24:14), under pressure from the people (Exod. 32:22), he took the initiative in making the golden calf and promoting its worship (Exod. 32:2, 5). For this he attracted the LORD's anger and was saved by the intercession of his brother (Deut. 9:20). Zondervan.
Absalom - was the third of David's six sons. His passionate behaviour was shown in the murder of Amnon (see Amnon) when he discovered that the latter had raped his sister Tamar (2 Sam. 13). The life of Absalom serves to illustrate the fact that the consequences of sin outlive sincere regret. Zondervan.
Amnon - was David's first son (2 Sam. 3:2; 1 Chron. 3:1). When he was older he fell in love with Tamar, Absalom's sister, and his own half-sister. He pretended to be ill in order to ask Tamar to serve him food in his bedroom. When she came he raped her and then threw her out. Tamar then withdrew and lived a desolate life with her brother Absalom (2 Sam. 13). Two years later Absalom took his revenge and had his men kill Amnon (v. 29).Zondervan.
Abraham - gave up Sarah to another man. When Abraham entered Canaan (the land God promised to him and his progeny) he encountered Abimelech, the Philistines King of Gerar (Genesis 20:2), in order to protect his wife, Sarah, he referred to her as his 'sister' rather than his 'wife'. Believing the deception, Abimelech took Sarah as his wife, but before he had had sexual intercourse with her, God appeared to him in a dream threatening death because he had taken Abraham's wife. Now return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. (Gen. 20:6–7). When Abimelech challenged Abraham about this deception, he responded that he had been afraid that Sarah would be killed because there was no fear of the true God in Gerar. Zondervan.
Adam - And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them and they were naked and not ashamed. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Adam, wouldn’t stand his ground (Genesis 3:12). They were created without sin and lived in innocence. Eve was tempted by the 'serpent' (Satan) and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In turn, she fed the fruit to Adam. Immediately the purity of creation was destroyed. Their desire to cover themselves was an aspect of their desire to hide from God, whom they knew they had disobeyed. So, having been happy to talk to God and obey his commands, they hid from God as he walked through the Garden. The only conversation recorded in the Bible between God and Adam is the one in which Adam tried to lay the blame for what had happened on his wife. Through Adam sin entered the world and brought upon the whole of creation God's judgment curse. It is important to note that even after the judgment and the exclusion from the Garden of Eden, Adam was still Adam. He did not regress into something no better than the animals. He was still made in the image of God and he still had the breath of God within him. However, he was sinful and, as the biblical narrative continues, it becomes clear that every aspect of man was permeated with that sin and that desire to deny God in thought, word and deed. See “Punishment and Salvation” for the punishment of God on Adam's sin.
Ahab - Ruler of Israel at a time overlapping with the great prophet Elijah, was that of being the worst king of Israel (see 1 Kings 16:30–33; 2 Chron. 18). His crimes were not primarily political. His guilt lay in the failure to expunge the threat of Baal worship. His marriage to Jezebel highlighted the consistent link made in biblical narrative between idolatrous practice and immoral behaviour (See Jezebel in “Woman Sinners” below). So bad was his behaviour perceived to be that the phrase 'house of Ahab' came to be the yardstick by which particularly bad kings could be judged (2 Kings 21:2f.). He was accused of committing adultery with their neighbour's wives (Jer. 29:23). See “Punishment and Salvation” for the punishment of God on Ahab's sin.
Uzzah - Guided the cart on which the Ark of the Covenant was being carried when King David brought it from Baalah of Judah to Jerusalem (2 Sam. 6:3; 1 Chron. 13:7). When the oxen pulling the cart stumbled, Uzzah put out his hand to steady the cart and touched the ark, something every-one had been strictly forbidden to do (2 Sam. 6:6; Num. 4:15).
Cain - Cain was Adam and Eve's first son. His name is linked by his mother to her exclamation of thanks to the LORD 'With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man' (Gen. 4:1). Cain 'worked the soil', unlike his brother Abel, who was a shepherd. (vv. 2–3). As time went on both Cain and Abel brought 'offerings' to God. Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil and Abel brought 'fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock' (vv. 3–4). 'The LORD looked with favour on Abel and his offering' but did not do so on Cain's. Gen. 4 examines Cain's behaviour following this rejection by God. Cain was angry and depressed (v. 5). God spoke to Cain challenging him about this reaction and pointing out that his offering would be acceptable if he did 'what is right'. The implication of God's comments with his mention of 'sin . . . crouching at your door . . . you must master it' (v. 7). God knew that Cain's heart was sinful. He was angry against both God and his brother. Cain asked his brother to accompany him to a field, where he killed him (Gen 4:8). When God asked Cain what had happened to Abel he replied with the famous statement: 'I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper?' (Gen. 4:9).
Noah - Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent (Genesis 9:20-21). Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”
MOSES - Now there was no water for the congregation. And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord! Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink.” Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them, and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” And Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he commanded him. Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. (Numbers 20:3-12)
Solomon - Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods. (1 Kings 11:2-12)
David - David sent all of Israel to fight the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. He saw from the roof of his house the very beautiful Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, bathing. David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her and she conceived. So Daved devised a plan to have Uriah the Hittite killed in battle. When Bathsheba was finished mourning David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. Thus says the Lord ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword of the Ammonites and have taken his wife to be your wife. (2 Samuel 11:1-27)
Saul - Saul, first king of Israel. As they were coming home, when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments. And the women sang to one another as they celebrated,
“Saul has struck down his thousands, and
David his ten thousands.”
And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands, and what more can he have but the kingdom?” And Saul eyed David from that day on. The next day a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand. And Saul hurled the spear, for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David evaded him twice. Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul. So Saul removed him from his presence and made him a commander of a thousand. And he went out and came in before the people. And David had success in all his undertakings, for the Lord was with him. And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in fearful awe of him. But all Israel and Judah loved David, for he went out and came in before them.
And again, Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he eluded Saul, so that he struck the spear into the wall. And David fled and escaped that night. Saul then chased David through the Judean Desert. (1 Samuel 18:6-16). When David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest he said to Ahimelech, “Have you not a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me.” And the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the Valley of Elah, is here wrapped in a cloth.” And David said, “There is none like that; give it to me.”
Then the king sent to summon Ahimelech the priest, all the priests who were at Nob, and all of them came to the king. And Saul said, “Why have you conspired against me, you and David, in that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him, so that he has risen against me, to lie in wait?” Ahimelech answered the king, “And who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king’s son-in-law, and captain over your bodyguard, and honored in your house? Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? No! Let not the king impute anything to his servant or to all the house of my father, for your servant has known nothing of all this.” And Doeg the Edomite turned and struck down the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who wore the linen ephod. And Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword; both man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey and sheep, he put them all to the sword.
Jacob - Jacob deceived his twin brother Esau twice, first by tricking him into selling his birthright for a bowl of soup and then by disguising himself as Esau to steal his father's blessing. These actions caused a deep rivalry between the brothers, which led to Jacob fleeing for many years.
Samson - God called Samson to an important role. He was to take the lead in delivering God’s people from their enemies, the Philistines—and for this task he received a special blessing of strength. Samson was so strong that he tore a lion apart with his bare hands, carried a city gate on his shoulders, and killed a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey (Judges 13-15).
But Samson was also foolish in his actions. He disobeyed God’s call in many ways. Eventually he fell in love with a Philistine prostitute, Delilah, who secretly worked for his enemies. God took Samson’s strength away, and Delilah managed to get him captured (Judges 16:1-21).
Jonah - God first instructs Jonah, “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city of more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not yet know their right hand from their left, and many animals as well,” and proclaim judgment upon it; for their wickedness has come before Me” (1:2). Jonah runs in the opposite direction, boarding a ship to Tarshish. While on the boat, God brings a storm, conveying to the sailors and Jonah that attempting to skirt God’s commands puts their lives in danger.
WOMEN SINNERS of the BIBLE
Eve - Eve ate forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:6). The Lord God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. The Lord God then said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then Adam said, “This is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Now of all the beasts of the field that God had created the serpent was the most crafty. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him and Eve out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
Jezebel - Jezebel was a queen who was known for her wickedness and who was seen as the perpetrator of immorality and idolatry in Ahab's line. She was the daughter of Ethbaal, king of Tyre and Sidon, and the wife of Ahab, king of Israel (874–853 BC). In biblical Hebrew her name means, 'Where is the Prince (Baal)' or 'The Prince (Baal) exists', which praises her god, the Phonecian Baal. The writer of Kings misconstrued her name to show his utter contempt for her actions and her religion. He characterized the queen as entirely evil. Jezebel devoted herself to bringing the worship of Baal and his consort Asherah to Israel. She employed 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophetesses of Asherah (1 Kings 18:19), and persecuted the prophets of the LORD, including Elijah. She also extended her religion by violating Israel's concept of limited monarchical power . When Naboth refused to sell his God-given inheritance to Ahab, Jezebel arranged for Naboth's execution by hiring men to accuse him falsely of blasphemy (1 Kings 9-21) (Deut. 17:14–20) .
Sarah - Now Sarai (Sarah), Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. (Genesis 16:1-4)
Athaliah - Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab, king of Israel, and granddaughter of Omri . By marrying Jehoram, king of Judah, she sealed an alliance between the split kingdoms of Israel and Judah. She was queen in Judah from about 842 BC for six years. She got rid of all the rest of the royal family. Her horrendous slaughter of family members brought to an end the brief alliance between Judah and Israel. (2 Kings 8:18; 2 Kings 11:1; 2 Chron. 22: 2-10)
Delilah - Delilah was a beautiful woman from the valley of Sarek in Philistine territory, home of the Israelites' enemies. Samson, having already shown his propensity to fickleness, fell foul of her snare and they married. Using devious seduction and persistent nagging, she enticed Samson to reveal the secret of his strength, which she then disclosed to the Philistines, who gouged out his eyes and bound him with bronze shackles. What Delilah eventually discovered was that Samson's strength depended on the length of his hair. While he was sleeping she cut his hair so he could be taken captive. Her intrigue led to Samson's death, but not before the LORD had used Samson to bring destruction on hundreds of Philistines (Judg. 16:6–22) (vv. 26–30).
Edith - Edith was Lot's wife - She, her husband Lot, and their two daughters were fleeing the city of Sodom, which was to be destroyed by God. The angels warned them to escape and not to look back. (Genesis 19:24–25)
Zuleikha - Joseph, the youngest of Jacob’s twelve sons was kidnapped and became a servant to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh’s guard. Potiphar’s wife, Zuleikha, falsely accused Joseph of attempted rape after he rejected her sexual advances, resulting in his imprisonment. Joseph later became a profit to the Pharaoh and gained much power. (Genesis 39:5–20)