Deuteronomy 11:28-29

11:28 and the curse if you pay no attention ¹  to his ²  commandments and turn from the way I am setting before ³  you today to pursue ⁴  other gods you have not known. 11:29 When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are to possess, you must pronounce the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. ⁵ 

Deuteronomy 27:15-26

27:15 ‘Cursed is the one ⁶  who makes a carved or metal image – something abhorrent ⁷  to the Lord, the work of the craftsman ⁸  – and sets it up in a secret place.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’ ⁹  27:16 ‘Cursed ¹⁰  is the one who disrespects ¹¹  his father and mother.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’ 27:17 ‘Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor’s boundary marker.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’ 27:18 ‘Cursed is the one who misleads a blind person on the road.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’ 27:19 ‘Cursed is the one who perverts justice for the resident foreigner, the orphan, and the widow.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’ 27:20 ‘Cursed is the one who has sexual relations with ¹²  his father’s former wife, ¹³  for he dishonors his father.’ ¹⁴  Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’ 27:21 ‘Cursed is the one who commits bestiality.’ ¹⁵  Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’ 27:22 ‘Cursed is the one who has sexual relations with his sister, the daughter of either his father or mother.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’ 27:23 ‘Cursed is the one who has sexual relations with his mother-in-law.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’ 27:24 ‘Cursed is the one who kills ¹⁶  his neighbor in private.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’ 27:25 ‘Cursed is the one who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’ 27:26 ‘Cursed is the one who refuses to keep the words of this law.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’

Deuteronomy 28:15-68

Curses as Reversal of Blessings

28:15 “But if you ignore ¹⁷  the Lord your God and are not careful to keep all his commandments and statutes I am giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you in full force: ¹⁸  28:16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field. 28:17 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be cursed. 28:18 Your children ¹⁹  will be cursed, as well as the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. 28:19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. ²⁰ 

Curses by Disease and Drought

28:20 “The Lord will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you ²¹  in everything you undertake ²²  until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me. ²³  28:21 The Lord will plague you with deadly diseases ²⁴  until he has completely removed you from the land you are about to possess. 28:22 He ²⁵  will afflict you with weakness, ²⁶  fever, inflammation, infection, ²⁷  sword, ²⁸  blight, and mildew; these will attack you until you perish. 28:23 The ²⁹  sky ³⁰  above your heads will be bronze and the earth beneath you iron. 28:24 The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; it will come down on you from the sky until you are destroyed.

Curses by Defeat and Deportation

28:25 “The Lord will allow you to be struck down before your enemies; you will attack them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions and will become an object of terror ³¹  to all the kingdoms of the earth. 28:26 Your carcasses will be food for every bird of the sky and wild animal of the earth, and there will be no one to chase them off. 28:27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, eczema, and scabies, all of which cannot be healed. 28:28 The Lord will also subject you to madness, blindness, and confusion of mind. ³²  28:29 You will feel your way along at noon like the blind person does in darkness and you will not succeed in anything you do; ³³  you will be constantly oppressed and continually robbed, with no one to save you. 28:30 You will be engaged to a woman and another man will rape ³⁴  her. You will build a house but not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but not even begin to use it. 28:31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your very eyes but you will not eat of it. Your donkey will be stolen from you as you watch and will not be returned to you. Your flock of sheep will be given to your enemies and there will be no one to save you. 28:32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you look on in vain all day, and you will be powerless to do anything about it. ³⁵  28:33 As for the produce of your land and all your labor, a people you do not know will consume it, and you will be nothing but oppressed and crushed for the rest of your lives. 28:34 You will go insane from seeing all this. 28:35 The Lord will afflict you in your knees and on your legs with painful, incurable boils – from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. 28:36 The Lord will force you and your king ³⁶  whom you will appoint over you to go away to a people whom you and your ancestors have not known, and you will serve other gods of wood and stone there. 28:37 You will become an occasion of horror, a proverb, and an object of ridicule to all the peoples to whom the Lord will drive you.

The Curse of Reversed Status

28:38 “You will take much seed to the field but gather little harvest, because locusts will consume it. 28:39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink wine or gather in grapes, because worms will eat them. 28:40 You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with olive oil, because the olives will drop off the trees while still unripe. ³⁷  28:41 You will bear sons and daughters but not keep them, because they will be taken into captivity. 28:42 Whirring locusts ³⁸  will take over every tree and all the produce of your soil. 28:43 The foreigners ³⁹  who reside among you will become higher and higher over you and you will become lower and lower. 28:44 They will lend to you but you will not lend to them; they will become the head and you will become the tail!

28:45 All these curses will fall on you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping his commandments and statutes that he has given ⁴⁰  you. 28:46 These curses ⁴¹  will be a perpetual sign and wonder with reference to you and your descendants. ⁴² 

The Curse of Military Siege

28:47 “Because you have not served the Lord your God joyfully and wholeheartedly with the abundance of everything you have, 28:48 instead in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty ⁴³  you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. They ⁴⁴  will place an iron yoke on your neck until they have destroyed you. 28:49 The Lord will raise up a distant nation against you, one from the other side of the earth ⁴⁵  as the eagle flies, ⁴⁶  a nation whose language you will not understand, 28:50 a nation of stern appearance that will have no regard for the elderly or pity for the young. 28:51 They ⁴⁷  will devour the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil until you are destroyed. They will not leave you with any grain, new wine, olive oil, calves of your herds, ⁴⁸  or lambs of your flocks ⁴⁹  until they have destroyed you. 28:52 They will besiege all of your villages ⁵⁰  until all of your high and fortified walls collapse – those in which you put your confidence throughout the land. They will besiege all your villages throughout the land the Lord your God has given you. 28:53 You will then eat your own offspring, ⁵¹  the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege ⁵²  by which your enemies will constrict you. 28:54 The man among you who is by nature tender and sensitive will turn against his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children. 28:55 He will withhold from all of them his children’s flesh that he is eating (since there is nothing else left), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict ⁵³  you in your villages. 28:56 Likewise, the most ⁵⁴  tender and delicate of your women, who would never think of putting even the sole of her foot on the ground because of her daintiness, ⁵⁵  will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters, 28:57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth ⁵⁶  and her newborn children ⁵⁷  (since she has nothing else), ⁵⁸  because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.

The Curse of Covenant Termination

28:58 “If you refuse to obey ⁵⁹  all the words of this law, the things written in this scroll, and refuse to fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, 28:59 then the Lord will increase your punishments and those of your descendants – great and long-lasting afflictions and severe, enduring illnesses. 28:60 He will infect you with all the diseases of Egypt ⁶⁰  that you dreaded, and they will persistently afflict you. ⁶¹  28:61 Moreover, the Lord will bring upon you every kind of sickness and plague not mentioned in this scroll of commandments, ⁶²  until you have perished. 28:62 There will be very few of you left, though at one time you were as numerous as the stars in the sky, ⁶³  because you will have disobeyed ⁶⁴  the Lord your God. 28:63 This is what will happen: Just as the Lord delighted to do good for you and make you numerous, he ⁶⁵  will take delight in destroying and decimating you. You will be uprooted from the land you are about to possess. 28:64 The Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of wood and stone. 28:65 Among those nations you will have no rest nor will there be a place of peaceful rest for the soles of your feet, for there the Lord will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a spirit of despair. 28:66 Your life will hang in doubt before you; you will be terrified by night and day and will have no certainty of surviving from one day to the next. ⁶⁶  28:67 In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ And in the evening you will say, ‘I wish it were morning!’ because of the things you will fear and the things you will see. 28:68 Then the Lord will make you return to Egypt by ship, over a route I said to you that you would never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

Deuteronomy 29:19-28

29:19 When such a person ⁶⁷  hears the words of this oath he secretly ⁶⁸  blesses himself ⁶⁹  and says, “I will have peace though I continue to walk with a stubborn spirit.” ⁷⁰  This will destroy ⁷¹  the watered ground with the parched. ⁷²  29:20 The Lord will be unwilling to forgive him, and his intense anger ⁷³  will rage ⁷⁴  against that man; all the curses ⁷⁵  written in this scroll will fall upon him ⁷⁶  and the Lord will obliterate his name from memory. ⁷⁷  29:21 The Lord will single him out ⁷⁸  for judgment ⁷⁹  from all the tribes of Israel according to all the curses of the covenant written in this scroll of the law. 29:22 The generation to come – your descendants who will rise up after you, as well as the foreigner who will come from distant places – will see ⁸⁰  the afflictions of that land and the illnesses that the Lord has brought on it. 29:23 The whole land will be covered with brimstone, salt, and burning debris; it will not be planted nor will it sprout or produce grass. It will resemble the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his intense anger. ⁸¹  29:24 Then all the nations will ask, “Why has the Lord done all this to this land? What is this fierce, heated display of anger ⁸²  all about?” 29:25 Then people will say, “Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. 29:26 They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods they did not know and that he did not permit them to worship. ⁸³  29:27 That is why the Lord’s anger erupted against this land, bringing on it all the curses ⁸⁴  written in this scroll. 29:28 So the Lord has uprooted them from their land in anger, wrath, and great rage and has deported them to another land, as is clear today.”

Psalms 109:17-20

109:17 He loved to curse ⁸⁵  others, so those curses have come upon him. ⁸⁶ 

He had no desire to bless anyone, so he has experienced no blessings. ⁸⁷ 

109:18 He made cursing a way of life, ⁸⁸ 

so curses poured into his stomach like water

and seeped into his bones like oil. ⁸⁹ 

109:19 May a curse attach itself to him, like a garment one puts on, ⁹⁰ 

or a belt ⁹¹  one wears continually!

109:20 May the Lord repay my accusers in this way, ⁹² 

those who say evil things about ⁹³  me! ⁹⁴ 

Proverbs 3:33

3:33 The Lord’s curse ⁹⁵  is on the household ⁹⁶  of the wicked, ⁹⁷ 

but he blesses ⁹⁸  the home ⁹⁹  of the righteous. ¹⁰⁰ 

Isaiah 24:6

24:6 So a treaty curse ¹⁰¹  devours the earth;

its inhabitants pay for their guilt. ¹⁰² 

This is why the inhabitants of the earth disappear, ¹⁰³ 

and are reduced to just a handful of people. ¹⁰⁴ 

Isaiah 43:28

43:28 So I defiled your holy princes,

and handed Jacob over to destruction,

and subjected ¹⁰⁵  Israel to humiliating abuse.”

Jeremiah 26:6

26:6 If you do not obey me, ¹⁰⁶  then I will do to this temple what I did to Shiloh. ¹⁰⁷  And I will make this city an example to be used in curses by people from all the nations on the earth.’”

Daniel 9:11

9:11 “All Israel has broken ¹⁰⁸  your law and turned away by not obeying you. ¹⁰⁹  Therefore you have poured out on us the judgment solemnly threatened ¹¹⁰  in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against you. ¹¹¹ 

Malachi 3:9

3:9 You are bound for judgment ¹¹²  because you are robbing me – this whole nation is guilty. ¹¹³ 

Malachi 4:6

4:6 He will encourage fathers and their children to return to me, ¹¹⁴  so that I will not come and strike the earth with judgment.” ¹¹⁵ 

Matthew 25:41

25:41 “Then he will say ¹¹⁶  to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels!

Galatians 3:10-13

3:10 For all who ¹¹⁷  rely on doing the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not keep on doing everything written in the book of the law.” ¹¹⁸  3:11 Now it is clear no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous one will live by faith. ¹¹⁹  3:12 But the law is not based on faith, ¹²⁰  but the one who does the works of the law ¹²¹  will live by them. ¹²²  3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming ¹²³  a curse for us (because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”) ¹²⁴ 

Hebrews 6:6-8

6:6 and then have committed apostasy, ¹²⁵  to renew them again to repentance, since ¹²⁶  they are crucifying the Son of God for themselves all over again ¹²⁷  and holding him up to contempt. 6:7 For the ground that has soaked up the rain that frequently falls on ¹²⁸  it and yields useful vegetation for those who tend it receives a blessing from God. 6:8 But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is useless and about to be cursed; ¹²⁹  its fate is to be burned.

Revelation 21:8

21:8 But to the cowards, unbelievers, detestable persons, murderers, the sexually immoral, and those who practice magic spells, ¹³⁰  idol worshipers, ¹³¹  and all those who lie, their place ¹³²  will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. ¹³³  That ¹³⁴  is the second death.”

Revelation 22:15

22:15 Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers ¹³⁵  and the sexually immoral, and the murderers, and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood! ¹³⁶ 

[11:28]  ¹ tn Heb “do not listen to,” that is, do not obey.

[11:28]  ² tn Heb “the commandments of the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[11:28]  ³ tn Heb “am commanding” (so NASB, NRSV).

[11:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “walk after”; NIV “by following”; NLT “by worshiping.” This is a violation of the first commandment, the most serious of the covenant violations (Deut 5:6-7).

[11:29]  ⁵ sn Mount Gerizim…Mount Ebal. These two mountains are near the ancient site of Shechem and the modern city of Nablus. The valley between them is like a great amphitheater with the mountain slopes as seating sections. The place was sacred because it was there that Abraham pitched his camp and built his first altar after coming to Canaan (Gen 12:6). Jacob also settled at Shechem for a time and dug a well from which Jesus once requested a drink of water (Gen 33:18-20; John 4:5-7). When Joshua and the Israelites finally brought Canaan under control they assembled at Shechem as Moses commanded and undertook a ritual of covenant reaffirmation (Josh 8:30-35; 24:1, 25). Half the tribes stood on Mt. Gerizim and half on Mt. Ebal and in antiphonal chorus pledged their loyalty to the Lord before Joshua and the Levites who stood in the valley below (Josh 8:33; cf. Deut 27:11-13).

[27:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “man,” but in a generic sense here.

[27:15]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew term translated here “abhorrent” (תּוֹעֵבָה, to’evah) speaks of attitudes and/or behaviors so vile as to be reprehensible to a holy God. See note on the word “abhorrent” in Deut 7:25.

[27:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “craftsman’s hands.”

[27:15]  ⁹ tn Or “So be it!” The term is an affirmation expressing agreement with the words of the Levites.

[27:16]  ¹⁰ tn The Levites speak again at this point; throughout this pericope the Levites pronounce the curse and the people respond with “Amen.”

[27:16]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew term קָלָה (qalah) means to treat with disdain or lack of due respect (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV “dishonors”; NLT “despises”). It is the opposite of כָּבֵד (kaved, “to be heavy,” that is, to treat with reverence and proper deference). To treat a parent lightly is to dishonor him or her and thus violate the fifth commandment (Deut 5:16; cf. Exod 21:17).

[27:20]  ¹² tn Heb “who lies with” (so NASB, NRSV); also in vv. 22, 23. This is a Hebrew idiom for having sexual relations (cf. NIV “who sleeps with”; NLT “who has sexual intercourse with”).

[27:20]  ¹³ tn See note at Deut 22:30.

[27:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he uncovers his father’s skirt” (NASB similar). See note at Deut 22:30.

[27:21]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “lies with any animal” (so NASB, NRSV). “To lie with” is a Hebrew euphemism for having sexual relations with someone (or in this case, some animal).

[27:24]  ¹⁶ tn Or “strikes down” (so NRSV).

[28:15]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “do not hear the voice of.”

[28:15]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and overtake you” (so NIV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “and overwhelm you.”

[28:18]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[28:19]  ²⁰ sn See note on the similar expression in v. 6.

[28:20]  ²¹ tn Heb “the curse, the confusion, and the rebuke” (NASB and NIV similar); NRSV “disaster, panic, and frustration.”

[28:20]  ²² tn Heb “in all the stretching out of your hand.”

[28:20]  ²³ tc For the MT first person common singular suffix (“me”), the LXX reads either “Lord” (Lucian) or third person masculine singular suffix (“him”; various codices). The MT’s more difficult reading probably represents the original text.

[28:21]  ²⁴ tn Heb “will cause pestilence to cling to you.”

[28:22]  ²⁵ tn Heb “The Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:22]  ²⁶ tn Or perhaps “consumption” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV). The term is from a verbal root that indicates a weakening of one’s physical strength (cf. NAB “wasting”; NIV, NLT “wasting disease”).

[28:22]  ²⁷ tn Heb “hot fever”; NIV “scorching heat.”

[28:22]  ²⁸ tn Or “drought” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[28:23]  ²⁹ tc The MT reads “Your.” The LXX reads “Heaven will be to you.”

[28:23]  ³⁰ tn Or “heavens” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[28:25]  ³¹ tc The meaningless MT reading זַעֲוָה (za’avah) is clearly a transposition of the more commonly attested Hebrew noun זְוָעָה (zÿva’ah, “terror”).

[28:28]  ³² tn Heb “heart” (so KJV, NASB).

[28:29]  ³³ tn Heb “you will not cause your ways to prosper.”

[28:30]  ³⁴ tc For MT reading שָׁגַל (shagal, “ravish; violate”), the Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate presume the less violent שָׁכַב (shakhav, “lie with”). The unexpected counterpart to betrothal here favors the originality of the MT.

[28:32]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and there will be no power in your hand”; NCV “there will be nothing you can do.”

[28:36]  ³⁶ tc The LXX reads the plural “kings.”

[28:40]  ³⁷ tn Heb “your olives will drop off” (נָשַׁל, nashal), referring to the olives dropping off before they ripen.

[28:42]  ³⁸ tn The Hebrew term denotes some sort of buzzing or whirring insect; some have understood this to be a type of locust (KJV, NIV, CEV), but other insects have also been suggested: “buzzing insects” (NAB); “the cricket” (NASB); “the cicada” (NRSV).

[28:43]  ³⁹ tn Heb “the foreigner.” This is a collective singular and has therefore been translated as plural; this includes the pronouns in the following verse, which are also singular in the Hebrew text.

[28:45]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “commanded”; NAB, NIV, TEV “he gave you.”

[28:46]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the curses mentioned previously) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[28:46]  ⁴² tn Heb “seed” (so KJV, ASV).

[28:48]  ⁴³ tn Heb “lack of everything.”

[28:48]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “he” (also later in this verse). The pronoun is a collective singular referring to the enemies (cf. CEV, NLT). Many translations understand the singular pronoun to refer to the Lord (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV).

[28:49]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “from the end of the earth.”

[28:49]  ⁴⁶ tn Some translations understand this to mean “like an eagle swoops down” (e.g., NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), comparing the swift attack of an eagle to the attack of the Israelites’ enemies.

[28:51]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “it” (so NRSV), a collective singular referring to the invading nation (several times in this verse and v. 52).

[28:51]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “increase of herds.”

[28:51]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “growth of flocks.”

[28:52]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “gates,” also in vv. 55, 57.

[28:53]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”

[28:53]  ⁵² tn Heb “siege and stress.”

[28:55]  ⁵³ tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”

[28:56]  ⁵⁴ tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.

[28:56]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”

[28:57]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”

[28:57]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”

[28:57]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”

[28:58]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “If you are not careful to do.”

[28:60]  ⁶⁰ sn These are the plagues the Lord inflicted on the Egyptians prior to the exodus which, though they did not fall upon the Israelites, must have caused great terror (cf. Exod 15:26).

[28:60]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “will cling to you” (so NIV); NLT “will claim you.”

[28:61]  ⁶² tn The Hebrew term תּוֹרָה (torah) can refer either (1) to the whole Pentateuch or, more likely, (2) to the book of Deuteronomy or even (3) only to this curse section of the covenant text. “Scroll” better reflects the actual document, since “book” conveys the notion of a bound book with pages to the modern English reader. Cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV “the book of this law”; NIV, NLT “this Book of the Law”; TEV “this book of God’s laws and teachings.”

[28:62]  ⁶³ tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[28:62]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “have not listened to the voice of.”

[28:63]  ⁶⁵ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:66]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “you will not be confident in your life.” The phrase “from one day to the next” is implied by the following verse.

[29:19]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the subject of the warning in v. 18) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[29:19]  ⁶⁸ tn Heb “in his heart.”

[29:19]  ⁶⁹ tn Or “invokes a blessing on himself.” A formalized word of blessing is in view, the content of which appears later in the verse.

[29:19]  ⁷⁰ tn Heb “heart.”

[29:19]  ⁷¹ tn Heb “thus destroying.” For stylistic reasons the translation begins a new sentence here.

[29:19]  ⁷² tn Heb “the watered with the parched.” The word “ground” is implied. The exact meaning of the phrase is uncertain although it appears to be figurative. This appears to be a proverbial observation employing a figure of speech (a merism) suggesting totality. That is, the Israelite who violates the letter and even spirit of the covenant will harm not only himself but everything he touches – “the watered and the parched.” Cf. CEV “you will cause the rest of Israel to be punished along with you.”

[29:20]  ⁷³ tn Heb “the wrath of the Lord and his zeal.” The expression is a hendiadys, a figure in which the second noun becomes adjectival to the first.

[29:20]  ⁷⁴ tn Heb “smoke,” or “smolder.”

[29:20]  ⁷⁵ tn Heb “the entire oath.”

[29:20]  ⁷⁶ tn Or “will lie in wait against him.”

[29:20]  ⁷⁷ tn Heb “blot out his name from under the sky.”

[29:21]  ⁷⁸ tn Heb “set him apart.”

[29:21]  ⁷⁹ tn Heb “for evil”; NAB “for doom”; NASB “for adversity”; NIV “for disaster”; NRSV “for calamity.”

[29:22]  ⁸⁰ tn Heb “will say and see.” One expects a quotation to appear, but it seems to be omitted. To avoid confusion in the translation, the verb “will say” is omitted.

[29:23]  ⁸¹ tn Heb “the anger and the wrath.” This construction is a hendiadys intended to intensify the emotion.

[29:24]  ⁸² tn Heb “this great burning of anger”; KJV “the heat of this great anger.”

[29:26]  ⁸³ tn Heb “did not assign to them”; NASB, NRSV “had not allotted to them.”

[29:27]  ⁸⁴ tn Heb “the entire curse.”

[109:17]  ⁸⁵ 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.

[109:17]  ⁸⁶ 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.

[109:17]  ⁸⁷ tn Heb “and he did not delight in a blessing and it is far from him.”

[109:18]  ⁸⁸ tn Heb “he put on a curse as [if it were] his garment.”

[109:18]  ⁸⁹ tn Heb “and it came like water into his inner being, and like oil into his bones.” This may refer to this individual’s appetite for cursing. For him cursing was as refreshing as drinking water or massaging oneself with oil. Another option is that the destructive effects of a curse are in view. In this case a destructive curse invades his very being, like water or oil. Some who interpret the verse this way prefer to repoint the vav (ו) on “it came” to a conjunctive vav and interpret the prefixed verb as a jussive, “may it come!”

[109:19]  ⁹⁰ tn Heb “may it be for him like a garment one puts on.”

[109:19]  ⁹¹ tn The Hebrew noun מֵזַח (mezakh, “belt; waistband”) occurs only here in the OT. The form apparently occurs in Isa 23:10 as well, but an emendation is necessary there.

[109:20]  ⁹² tn Heb “[may] this [be] the repayment to my accusers from the Lord.”

[109:20]  ⁹³ tn Or “against.”

[109:20]  ⁹⁴ tn The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being; soul”) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).

[3:33]  ⁹⁵ tn Heb “the curse of the Lord.” This expression features a genitive of possession or source: “the Lord’s curse” or “a curse from the Lord.” The noun מְאֵרַה (mÿ’erah, “curse”) connotes banishment or separation from the place of blessing. It is the antonym of בְּרָכָה (bÿrakhah, “blessing”). The curse of God brings ruin and failure to crops, land in general, an individual, or the nation (Deut 28:20; Mal 2:2; 3:9; see BDB 76 s.v. מְאֵרַה; HALOT 541 s.v.).

[3:33]  ⁹⁶ tn Heb “house.” The term בֵּית (bet, “house”) functions as a synecdoche of container (= house) for the persons contained (= household). See, e.g., Exod 1:21; Deut 6:22; Josh 22:15 (BDB 109 s.v. 5.a).

[3:33]  ⁹⁷ sn The term “wicked” is singular; the term “righteous” in the second half of the verse is plural. In scripture such changes often hint at God’s reluctance to curse, but eagerness to bless (e.g., Gen 12:3).

[3:33]  ⁹⁸ sn The term “bless” (בָּרַךְ, barakh) is the antithesis of “curse.” A blessing is a gift, enrichment, or endowment. The blessing of God empowers one with the ability to succeed, and brings vitality and prosperity in the material realm, but especially in one’s spiritual relationship with God.

[3:33]  ⁹⁹ tn Heb “habitation.” The noun נָוֶה (naveh, “habitation; abode”), which is the poetic parallel to בֵּית (bet, “house”), usually refers to the abode of a shepherd in the country: “habitation” in the country (BDB 627 s.v. נָוֶה). It functions as a synecdoche of container (= habitation) for the contents (= people in the habitation and all they possess).

[3:33]  ¹⁰⁰ tn The Hebrew is structured chiastically (AB:BA): “The curse of the Lord / is on the house of the wicked // but the home of the righteous / he blesses.” The word order in the translation is reversed for the sake of smoothness and readability.

[24:6]  ¹⁰¹ sn Ancient Near Eastern treaties often had “curses,” or threatened judgments, attached to them. (See Deut 28 for a biblical example of such curses.) The party or parties taking an oath of allegiance acknowledged that disobedience would activate these curses, which typically threatened loss of agricultural fertility as depicted in the following verses.

[24:6]  ¹⁰² tn The verb אָשַׁם (’asham, “be guilty”) is here used metonymically to mean “pay, suffer for one’s guilt” (see HALOT 95 s.v. אשׁם).

[24:6]  ¹⁰³ tn BDB 359 s.v. חָרַר derives the verb חָרוּ (kharu) from חָרַר (kharar, “burn”), but HALOT 351 s.v. II חרה understands a hapax legomenon חָרָה (kharah, “to diminish in number,” a homonym of חָרָה) here, relating it to an alleged Arabic cognate meaning “to decrease.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has חורו, perhaps understanding the root as חָוַר (khavar, “grow pale”; see Isa 29:22 and HALOT 299 s.v. I חור).

[24:6]  ¹⁰⁴ tn Heb “and mankind is left small [in number].”

[43:28]  ¹⁰⁵ tn The word “subjected” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[26:6]  ¹⁰⁶ tn 26:4-6 are all one long sentence containing a long condition with subordinate clauses (vv. 4-5) and a compound consequence in v. 6: Heb “If you will not obey me by walking in my law…by paying attention to the words of the prophets which…and you did not pay heed, then I will make…and I will make…” The sentence has been broken down in conformity to contemporary English style but an attempt has been made to reflect all the subordinations in the English translation.

[26:6]  ¹⁰⁷ sn See the study note on Jer 7:13.

[9:11]  ¹⁰⁸ tn Or “transgressed.” The Hebrew verb has the primary sense of crossing a boundary, in this case, God’s law.

[9:11]  ¹⁰⁹ tn Heb “by not paying attention to your voice.”

[9:11]  ¹¹⁰ tn Heb “the curse and the oath which is written.” The term “curse” refers here to the judgments threatened in the Mosaic law (see Deut 28) for rebellion. The expression “the curse and the oath” is probably a hendiadys (cf. Num 5:21; Neh 10:29) referring to the fact that the covenant with its threatened judgments was ratified by solemn oath and made legally binding upon the covenant community.

[9:11]  ¹¹¹ tn Heb “him.”

[3:9]  ¹¹² tn Heb “cursed with a curse” that is, “under a curse” (so NIV, NLT, CEV).

[3:9]  ¹¹³ tn The phrase “is guilty” is not present in the Hebrew text but is implied, and has been supplied in the translation for clarification and stylistic reasons.

[4:6]  ¹¹⁴ tn Heb “he will turn the heart[s] of [the] fathers to [the] sons, and the heart[s] of [the] sons to their fathers.” This may mean that the messenger will encourage reconciliation of conflicts within Jewish families in the postexilic community (see Mal 2:10; this interpretation is followed by most English versions). Another option is to translate, “he will turn the hearts of the fathers together with those of the children [to me], and the hearts of the children together with those of their fathers [to me].” In this case the prophet encourages both the younger and older generations of sinful society to repent and return to the Lord (cf. Mal 3:7). This option is preferred in the present translation; see Beth Glazier-McDonald, Malachi (SBLDS), 256.

[4:6]  ¹¹⁵ tn Heb “[the] ban” (חֵרֶם, kherem). God’s prophetic messenger seeks to bring about salvation and restoration, thus avoiding the imposition of the covenant curse, that is, the divine ban that the hopelessly unrepentant must expect (see Deut 7:2; 20:17; Judg 1:21; Zech 14:11). If the wicked repent, the purifying judgment threatened in 4:1-3 will be unnecessary.

[25:41]  ¹¹⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[3:10]  ¹¹⁷ tn Grk “For as many as.”

[3:10]  ¹¹⁸ tn Grk “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the things written in the book of the law, to do them.”

[3:11]  ¹¹⁹ tn Or “The one who is righteous by faith will live” (a quotation from Hab 2:4).

[3:12]  ¹²⁰ tn Grk “is not from faith.”

[3:12]  ¹²¹ tn Grk “who does these things”; the referent (the works of the law, see 3:5) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:12]  ¹²² sn A quotation from Lev 18:5. The phrase the works of the law is an editorial expansion on the Greek text (see previous note); it has been left as normal typeface to indicate it is not part of the OT text.

[3:13]  ¹²³ tn Grk “having become”; the participle γενόμενος (genomenos) has been taken instrumentally.

[3:13]  ¹²⁴ sn A quotation from Deut 21:23. By figurative extension the Greek word translated tree (ζύλον, zulon) can also be used to refer to a cross (L&N 6.28), the Roman instrument of execution.

[6:6]  ¹²⁵ tn Or “have fallen away.”

[6:6]  ¹²⁶ tn Or “while”; Grk “crucifying…and holding.” The Greek participles here (“crucifying…and holding”) can be understood as either causal (“since”) or temporal (“while”).

[6:6]  ¹²⁷ tn Grk “recrucifying the son of God for themselves.”

[6:7]  ¹²⁸ tn Grk “comes upon.”

[6:8]  ¹²⁹ tn Grk “near to a curse.”

[21:8]  ¹³⁰ tn On the term φαρμακεία (farmakeia, “magic spells”) see L&N 53.100: “the use of magic, often involving drugs and the casting of spells upon people – ‘to practice magic, to cast spells upon, to engage in sorcery, magic, sorcery.’ φαρμακεία: ἐν τῇ φαρμακείᾳ σου ἐπλανήθησαν πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ‘with your magic spells you deceived all the peoples (of the world)’ Re 18:23.”

[21:8]  ¹³¹ tn Grk “idolaters.”

[21:8]  ¹³² tn Grk “their share.”

[21:8]  ¹³³ tn Traditionally, “brimstone.”

[21:8]  ¹³⁴ tn Grk “sulfur, which is.” The relative pronoun has been translated as “that” to indicate its connection to the previous clause. The nearest logical antecedent is “the lake [that burns with fire and sulfur],” although “lake” (λίμνη, limnh) is feminine gender, while the pronoun “which” (ὅ, Jo) is neuter gender. This means that (1) the proper antecedent could be “their place” (Grk “their share,”) agreeing with the relative pronoun in number and gender, or (2) the neuter pronoun still has as its antecedent the feminine noun “lake,” since agreement in gender between pronoun and antecedent was not always maintained, with an explanatory phrase occurring with a neuter pronoun regardless of the case of the antecedent. In favor of the latter explanation is Rev 20:14, where the phrase “the lake of fire” is in apposition to the phrase “the second death.”

[22:15]  ¹³⁵ tn On the term φάρμακοι (farmakoi) see L&N 53.101.

[22:15]  ¹³⁶ tn Or “lying,” “deceit.”