Joshua 24:9

24:9 Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, launched an attack 1  against Israel. He summoned 2  Balaam son of Beor to call down judgment 3  on you.

Psalms 109:17

109:17 He loved to curse 4  others, so those curses have come upon him. 5 

He had no desire to bless anyone, so he has experienced no blessings. 6 

James 3:9-10

3:9 With it we bless the Lord 7  and Father, and with it we curse people 8  made in God’s image. 3:10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. These things should not be so, my brothers and sisters. 9 

1 tn Heb “arose and fought.”

2 tn Heb “sent and called.”

3 tn Or “to curse.”

4 sn A curse in OT times consists of a formal appeal to God to bring judgment down upon another. Curses were sometimes justified (such as the one spoken by the psalmist here in vv. 6-19), but when they were not, the one pronouncing the curse was in danger of bringing the anticipated judgment down upon himself.

5 tn Heb “and he loved a curse and it came [upon] him.” A reference to the evil man experiencing a curse seems premature here, for the psalmist is asking God to bring judgment on his enemies. For this reason some (cf. NIV, NRSV) prefer to repoint the vav (ו) on “it came” as conjunctive and translate the verb as a jussive of prayer (“may it come upon him!”). The prefixed form with vav consecutive in the next line is emended in the same way and translated, “may it be far from him.” However, the psalmist may be indicating that the evil man’s lifestyle has already begun to yield its destructive fruit.

6 tn Heb “and he did not delight in a blessing and it is far from him.”

7 tc Most later mss (Ï), along with several versional witnesses, have θεόν (qeon, “God”) here instead of κύριον (kurion, “Lord”). Such is a predictable variant since nowhere else in the NT is God described as “Lord and Father,” but he is called “God and Father” on several occasions. Further, the reading κύριον is well supported by early and diversified witnesses (Ì20 א A B C P Ψ 33 81 945 1241 1739), rendering it as the overwhelmingly preferred reading.

8 tn Grk “men”; but here ἀνθρώπους (anqrwpous) has generic force, referring to both men and women.

9 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.