קְלָלָה
qe.la.lah (H7045)
curse
AI Word Study
# Qelálah: The Hebrew Word for Curse The Hebrew word qelálah (קְלָלָה) carries the fundamental meaning of "curse"—a spoken pronouncement of harm or divine judgment against a person or entity. With 33 occurrences throughout the Hebrew Bible, this term represents a significant concept in biblical language, appearing with enough frequency to indicate its importance in the religious and legal discourse of ancient Israel. The word's prevalence across the biblical text suggests that curses held a recognized place in Israelite culture, whether as warnings of divine punishment, expressions of hostility, or formal legal pronouncements. The specific number of occurrences—33 times—indicates the concept was neither marginal nor overwhelming in biblical vocabulary, but rather a standard element of how ancient writers expressed ideas about consequences, judgment, and the power of spoken words. Without access to the specific contexts of each occurrence, the lexical data alone confirms that qelálah functioned as a straightforward term for this concept rather than as a metaphor or secondary meaning. Its sustained presence in the biblical corpus reflects the worldview of ancient Israel, in which words—especially those invoking divine or legal authority—were understood to carry real force and consequence.
AI synthesis uses only provided lexicon data -- never training knowledge.
What if my father touches me? I will seem to him as a deceiver, and I would bring a curse on myself, and not a blessing.”
His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice, and go get them for me.”
and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn away out of the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.
It shall happen, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land that you go to possess, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal.
his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day; for he who is hanged is accursed of God. Don’t defile your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.
Nevertheless Yahweh your God wouldn’t listen to Balaam, but Yahweh your God turned the curse into a blessing to you, because Yahweh your God loved you.
These shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.
But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come on you and overtake you.
All these curses will come on you, and will pursue you and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you didn’t listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you.
Therefore Yahweh’s anger burned against this land, to bring on it all the curses that are written in this book.
It shall happen, when all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations where Yahweh your God has driven you,
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your descendants,
Afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law.
and God repaid all the wickedness of the men of Shechem on their heads; and the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal came on them.
It may be that Yahweh will look on the wrong done to me, and that Yahweh will repay me good for the cursing of me today.”
“Behold, there is with you Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite, of Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim; but he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by Yahweh, saying, ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’
because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before Yahweh, when you heard what I spoke against this place, and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and have torn your clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard you,’ says Yahweh.
because they didn’t meet the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, to curse them; however our God turned the curse into a blessing.
Yes, he loved cursing, and it came to him. He didn’t delight in blessing, and it was far from him.
He clothed himself also with cursing as with his garment. It came into his inward parts like water, like oil into his bones.
Like a fluttering sparrow, like a darting swallow, so the undeserved curse doesn’t come to rest.
He who blesses his neighbor with a loud voice early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse by him.
I will even give them up to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth for evil; to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I will drive them.
Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, with its kings and its princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is today;
then I will make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.” ’ ”
A curse will be taken up about them by all the captives of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, ‘Yahweh make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;’
For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘As my anger and my wrath has been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you, when you enter into Egypt; and you will be an object of horror, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach; and you will see this place no more.’
in that you provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you have gone to live; that you may be cut off, and that you may be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?
I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to live there, and they will all be consumed. They will fall in the land of Egypt. They will be consumed by the sword and by the famine. They will die, from the least even to the greatest, by the sword and by the famine. They will be an object of horror, an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.
Thus Yahweh could no longer bear it, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which you have committed. Therefore your land has become a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is today.
For I have sworn by myself,” says Yahweh, “that Bozrah will become an astonishment, a reproach, a waste, and a curse. All its cities will be perpetual wastes.”
It shall come to pass that, as you were a curse among the nations, house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you, and you shall be a blessing. Don’t be afraid. Let your hands be strong.”