Curse
קְלָלָהStrong’s H7045qelalah (qe-la-lah)
Appears in 33 verses of the Old Testament
In short
Qelalah is the Hebrew word usually translated “curse”, “curses” and “into a curse”. It appears in 33 verses of the Old Testament.
“And it shall come to pass, that as ye were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah, and house of Israel; so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing: fear not, but let your hands be strong.”
Meaning
- Curse, vilification, execration
How it's translated
- a curse 9
- and a curse 6
- the curse 4
- and the curse 3
- the curses 2
- and into a curse 2
- curse your 1
- a curse of 1
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- Deuteronomy 11
- Jeremiah 9
- Genesis 2
- Psalms 2
- Proverbs 2
- Joshua 1
12 books in all.
Explore in Scripture
- Genesis 27:12My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing.
- Genesis 27:13And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them.
- Deuteronomy 11:26Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;
- Deuteronomy 11:28And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.
- Deuteronomy 11:29And it shall come to pass, when the LORD thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the curse upon mount Ebal.
- Deuteronomy 21:23His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.
Hebrew dictionary
קְלָלָה qelalah · curse
curse, vilification, execration
From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “curse” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
CURSE, verb transitive
preterit tense and participle passive cursed or curst.
- To utter a wish of evil against one; to imprecate evil upon; to call for mischief or injury to fall upon; to execrate.“Thou shalt not curse the ruler of thy people” Exodus 22:28“Bless and curse not” Romans 12:14“CURSE me this people, for they are too mighty for me” Numbers 22:6
- To injure; to subject to evil; to vex, harass or torment with great calamities.
- To devote to evil.
All definitions and other forms of “curse”
CURSE, verb intransitive
To utter imprecations; to affirm or deny with imprecations of divine vengeance.
- “Then began he to curse and to swear” Matthew 26:74
CURSE, noun
- Malediction; the expression of a wish of evil to another.
- Imprecation of evil.“They entered into a curse and into an oath” Nehemiah 10:29
- Affliction; torment; great vexation.“I will make this city a curse to all nations” Jeremiah 26:6
- Condemnation; sentence of divine vengeance on sinners.“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law” Galatians 3:13
- Denunciation of evil.“The priest shall write all these curses in a book” Numbers 5:23
Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Verse references are checked against the KJV. Read the full entry.
Verses are from the King James Version. Word meanings come from the original Hebrew, not from any one translation.