Bible dictionaries
Mischief
What Bible dictionaries say about “Mischief”, one article after the other.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary & Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
Mischief - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)
MIS'CHIEF, n.
1. Harm; hurt; injury; damage; evil, whether intended or not. A new law is made to remedy the mischief.
2. Intentional injury; harm or damage done by design.
Thy tongue deviseth mischief. Psa 52.
3. Ill consequence; evil; vexatious affair.
The mischief was, these allies would never allow that the common enemy was subdued.
MIS'CHIEF, v.t. To hurt; to harm; to injure.
Matthew George Easton, Easton’s Bible Dictionary; Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)
The article in Easton + Webster 1828International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE 1915)
mis'-chif: The word, in the sense of "hurt" or "evil" befalling, plotted against, or done to, anyone, represents a variety of Hebrew terms (e.g. 'acon, the King James Version Ge 42:4; 44:29; Ex 21:22; ra`, 1Sa 23:9; 2Sa 16:8; 1Ki 11:25, etc.; `amal, Ps 7:14,16; 10:7,14; Pr 24:2, etc.). Sometimes the Revised Version (British and American) changes the word, as to "evil" (Ex 32:12,22); in Ac 13:10, to "villany" (rhadiourgia).
In the Revised Version (British and American) Apocrypha the word is used for kaka, "evils," Additions to Esther 13:5 (compare Sirach 19:28); kakia, "evil," 1 Macc 7:23; and Latin malum, "evil," 2 Esdras 15:56. "Mischievous" is used, Additions to Esther 14:19, for ponereuomai, "to be evil." The use in the King James Version Apocrypha is considerably more extended (Sirach 11:33; 19:27; 27:27, etc.).
James Orr
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia — James Orr, general editor and contributors; CrossWire SWORD module ISBE 2.2
The article in ISBE 1915