No word in the Scriptures has given the translators more trouble than the word ‘curse’. There are about 20 words in the original tongue which the translators have rendered as curse, but many have little relationship to the subject matter and in one case none whatever.
The meaning of curse in the English language is — “to utter a wish against; to invoke evil upon; to vex, harass or torment; malediction, imprecation”. These are the main meanings we apply to the word curse, and it can easily be seen that these meanings cannot be applied to God. God invokes no one, nor utters a wish against any one. He is the one who curses by vexing the disobedient ones by adverse judgements. To get a clear understanding of the word curse, we need to consider the context of the Scriptures in which it is found. To help you understand, I have selected some classes of curses for your consideration. These are direct, indirect, national and developed, which by no means exhausts the subject.
Gen. 3:14 shows the Lord cursing (punishing) the serpent for its part in the deception of the woman. This was direct. Also the ground (v.17) was cursed by the introduction of thorns and thistles. Indirectly, Adam was cursed; for the production of food was now more difficult; in sorrow, sweat and toll he would eat bread all the days of his life.
Another example of direct cursing is iu 2 Sam. 16:11, where Shimei cursed David, casting stones and vilifyiug him as a man of blood and a man of Belial — meaning a worthless person. David’s servants wanted to execute Shimei, but David said, “Let him curse, for the Lord hath bidden him”. David believed that Shimei was moved by God to curse him; but Shimei, because he was of the family of Saul, could have nursed a hatred for David and taken this opportunity to express it.
The Mt. Ebal curses (Deut. 27 and 28) are notable for direct and indirect curses; direct as punishment for disobedience of God’s laws, where every part or circumstance of life would turn to misfortune against the wicked, and no matter what they did, would turn out for the worse. In the national curses, even those who were righteous and law-abiding would suffer with the guilty. For, in the days of Elijah, when for 31/2 years there was a great famine throughout the land, because there was no rain on account of Israel’s wickedness under King Ahab, all the people would be equally distressed and mauy would die.
If this were so, we know from Scripture that God remembers the righteous. Deut. 27 shows the extent of the cursing, vexation and rebuke, that would come upon the nation because of wickedness. It is very sad that Israel felt the full weight of these punishments, as history records the truth of the effects of the curses.
To continue with the curses, take the four examples in the early chapters of Job. Let us consider one verse, ch. 2:9, “Then said his wife unto him, dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.” The word ‘curse’ in the Hebrew text is barak, meaning bless, as any lexicon will show. Evidently the translators had a problem in interpretation of why Job was critical of his wife’s words, “bless God and die” as v.10 shows he was. The pnly conclusion I can come to is that Job’s wife had spoken in an impious manner, and not with the reverence due to God’s holy name.
Experience teaches that often it is not thewords spoken that give offence, but the way they are said, and the tone of voice used. In the other three cases in Job ch. 1 and 2, where ‘bank’ is translated as curse, I am at a loss in understanding why, for curse is just the opposite to bless.
There is another class of curses which is very important, which I have called developed curses, all those adverse traits of character which are a curse to oneself and also to others. Simeon and Levi, sons of Jacob, are such a case. Gen. 49:5 shows that they developed a vicious nature. “Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations”, or as the A.V. margin, “their swords are weapons of violence”. They brought trouble to Jacob (Gen. 34:30) and the descendants of both tribes ever afterwards. It was a wicked act, the slaying of the Hivites who were not responsible for the original cause of Simeon and Levi’s hostility over the defiling of their sister Dinah, for which Shechem tried to make amends as best he could.
“Cursed be their anger for it was fierce, and their wrath for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel”. (Gen. 49:7). This prophecy of Jacob’s came into effect when the tribes received their inheritance in the land of Israel. There was no inheritance given to the tribe of Levi; they were scattered throughout Israel with a heavy load of responsibility to instruct the people in the law of God, with heavy penalties for failure if they failed to do so.
This was the case throughout much of Israel’s history, culminating in their crime against the Son of God. Simeon was not blessed by Moses in the blessing of the tribes of Israel, and their inheritance was within the tribe of Judah, in the south and most infertile part. (Joshua 19:1).
Then there are the many developed curses which are of vital importance to us, for we can, if not very careful, develop habits which are injurious curses. For example, over-eating, drinking, smoking and gambling and many more than we realise, bring us much trouble in later years.
There is another word in the Hebrew tongue called therem’ translated as “a devoted thing” in Deut. 7:25, 26. This was the Lord’s warning against idolatry, “Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt abhor it, for it is a cursed thing”.
You may consider that this injunction to Israel would not apply in these days, for most people would decry the worship of household gods. It could be that what it would mean to us would be the attachment to things to the exclusion of worship of God, the study of the Word and the neglect of the meetings. It becomes evident in these last days, that those endeavouring to develop the spiritual mind should abhor, or be very selective in what they should read, hear and see, lest they become accursed things to them.
Another word in the Hebrew text for curse is ‘qelalah’, defined as to lightly esteem. We find this used in Deut. 21:23, which reads, “For he that is hanged is accursed of God”. The Jews applied this Scripture to our Lord Jesus, for the early Christians were called the followers of the hung. The Jews could not accept that the Messiah (who they expected would redeem Israel from the Roman yoke) would allow Himself to be hung. To them this was unthinkable and they reasoned that Jesus was not the Messiah and that He was accursed of God.
The 22nd verse of Deut. 21 answers that reasoning it reads, “If a man have committed a sin worthy of death”. It must be obvious that this is the main point, for if a man was taken by wicked hands, and hanged on a tree, though innocent, no stigma would be attached to him. It appears that this is what the Apostle Paul is referring to in 1 Cor. 12:3, “Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed”.
The Jews cursed Jesus as a blasphemer (Mark 14:64), but he was not cursed of God, but of men, for wicked hands slew a righteous man, who had done nothing worthy of death, and by hatred they cursed themselves and their descendants ever afterwards. Of a truth the evil that men do lives after them; it was ever thus.
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