The Progression of Sin

Here are the first three different words for “sin”

Exodus 34:6,7 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The

LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin

1. Sin

#2403. hajx  chatta'ah,  khat-taw-aw' from #2398. 

ajx  chata',  khaw-taw' to miss, hence (figuratively and generally) to sin;

2. Transgression

#6588. evp  pesha`,  peh'-shah, a revolt, to break away from a just authority

3. Iniquity 

#5771. Nwe  `avon,  aw-vone'  perversity, to twist or distort

Shema means to hear and obey so the next sin is direct disobedience.

Deuteronomy 28:45  Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:

4. Not Obey

#8085. emv  shama`,  shaw-mah'

(Refuse) to hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience)

We are to serve God so what follows is a direct refusal to by serving other gods.

Deuteronomy 8:19 And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.

5. Refusal to serve God

#5647. dbe  `abad,  aw-bad' to work (in any sense); by implication, to serve, enslave, etc.:--X be, keep in bondage.

Now it progresses to acting treacherously, translated as trespass:

Numbers 31:6 And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand of every tribe, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the holy instruments, and the trumpets to blow in his hand.

6. To act treacherously

#4604. lem  ma`al,  mah'-al  from 4603; treachery, i.e. sin:falsehood, grievously, sore, transgression, trespass, X very.

This is followed by outright rebellion:

Isaiah 1:20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

7. To make God bitter by being stubbornly disobedient

#4784  hrm  marah,  maw-raw'  to make bitter (figuratively) to rebel

This develops into wickedness:

Isaiah 57:20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

8. To be wicked with strong excitement

7563.  evr  rasha`,  raw-shaw' morally wrong; an (actively) bad person

  

We have a similar Hebrew word also translated as iniquity with the aleph at the beginning rather than the Ayin:

Micah 2:1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.

9. To live worthlessly or without any worthy purpose

205.  Nwa  'aven,  aw-ven' to pant (hence, to exert oneself, usually in vain; to come to naught); strictly nothingness;

Concluding with the Hebrew word for evil:

Genesis 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

10. To spoil or dash to pieces the moral worth 

7451.  er  ra`,  rah  evil (natural or moral):-- affliction,calamity,

This is why:

Genesis 6:6  And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

El Shaddai Ministries