curse Summary and Overview

denounced by God against the serpent (Gen. 3:14), and against Cain (4:11). These divine maledictions carried their effect with them. Prophetical curses were sometimes pronounced by holy men (Gen. 9:25; 49:7; Deut. 27:15; Josh. 6:26). Such curses are not the consequence of passion or revenge, they are predictions. No one on pain of death shall curse father or mother (Ex. 21:17), nor the prince of his people (22:28), nor the deaf (Lev. 19:14). Cursing God or blaspheming was punishable by death (Lev. 24:10-16). The words "curse God and die" (R.V., "renounce God and die"), used by Job's wife (Job 2:9), have been variously interpreted. Perhaps they simply mean that as nothing but death was expected, God would by this cursing at once interpose and destroy Job, and so put an end to his sufferings.

CURSE . Gen 27:12. In the scriptural use it is the opposite of bless. To curse is to imprecate evil upon any one. Gen 9:25; comp. Gen 27:12; Neh 13:2; Matt 5:44; John 7:49:James 3:9. The curses which are recorded in the Bible as being pronounced by Noah, Moses, Joshua, and others, are not to be regarded as the effects of passion or revenge. They were either pronounced under the immediate influence of God's Spirit, or are to be viewed as only predictions of evil uttered in the form of imprecation. The words "curse" and "cursed" are the opposite of "bless" and "blessed," and are often so contrasted. Deut 28. See Bless. The curse of the ground and of the serpent. Gen 3:14, 2 Sam 21:17, is to be regarded as the doom or judgment of God upon them. The curse of the Law is the sentence of condemnation which it pronounces on the transgressor, Gal 3:10, and from which Christ redeems us by "being made a curse for us." Gal 3:13; comp. Rom 8:1 and Gal 3:13 with Rom 5:16 and 2 Cor 3:7-9. To curse, in an evil or blasphemous sense, is to affirm or deny anything with thoughtless or rash imprecations of divine vengeance. Matt 26:74.