Keluaran 22:28

22:28 “You must not blaspheme ¹  God ²  or curse the ruler of your people.

Yesaya 65:15

65:15 Your names will live on in the curse formulas of my chosen ones. ³ 

The sovereign Lord will kill you,

but he will give his servants another name.

Yeremia 24:9

24:9 I will bring such disaster on them that all the kingdoms of the earth will be horrified. I will make them an object of reproach, a proverbial example of disaster. I will make them an object of ridicule, an example to be used in curses. ⁴  That is how they will be remembered wherever I banish them. ⁵ 

Yeremia 25:18

25:18 I made Jerusalem ⁶  and the cities of Judah, its kings and its officials drink it. ⁷  I did it so Judah would become a ruin. I did it so Judah, its kings, and its officials would become an object ⁸  of horror and of hissing scorn, an example used in curses. ⁹  Such is already becoming the case! ¹⁰ 

Yeremia 42:18

42:18 For ¹¹  the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹²  says, ‘If you go to Egypt, I will pour out my wrath on you just as I poured out my anger and wrath on the citizens of Jerusalem. ¹³  You will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example of those who have been cursed and that people use in pronouncing a curse. ¹⁴  You will never see this place again.’ ¹⁵ 

Yeremia 44:12

44:12 I will see to it that all the Judean remnant that was determined to go ¹⁶  and live in the land of Egypt will be destroyed. Here in the land of Egypt they will fall in battle ¹⁷  or perish from starvation. People of every class ¹⁸  will die in war or from starvation. They will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example of those who have been cursed and that people use in pronouncing a curse. ¹⁹ 

Yehezkiel 14:8

14:8 I will set my face against that person and will make him an object lesson and a byword ²⁰  and will cut him off from among my people. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

Zakharia 8:13

8:13 And it will come about that just as you (both Judah and Israel) were a curse to the nations, so I will save you and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid! Instead, be strong!’

[22:28]  ¹ tn The two verbs in this verse are synonyms: קָלַל (qalal) means “to treat lightly, curse,” and אָרַר (’arar) means “to curse.”

[22:28]  ² tn The word אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) is “gods” or “God.” If taken as the simple plural, it could refer to the human judges, as it has in the section of laws; this would match the parallelism in the verse. If it was taken to refer to God, then the idea of cursing God would be more along the line of blasphemy. B. Jacob says that the word refers to functioning judges, and that would indirectly mean God, for they represented the religious authority, and the prince the civil authority (Exodus, 708).

[65:15]  ³ tn Heb “you will leave your name for an oath to my chosen ones.”

[65:15]  sn For an example of such a curse formula see Jer 29:22.

[24:9]  ⁴ tn Or “an object of reproach in peoples’ proverbs…an object of ridicule in people’s curses.” The alternate translation treats the two pairs which are introduced without vavs (ו) but are joined by vavs as examples of hendiadys. This is very possible here but the chain does not contain this pairing in 25:18; 29:18.

[24:9]  sn For an example of how the “example used in curses” worked, see Jer 29:22. Sodom and Gomorrah evidently function much that same way (see 23:14; 49:18; 50:40; Deut 29:23; Zeph 2:9).

[24:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “I will make them for a terror for disaster to all the kingdoms of the earth, for a reproach and for a proverb, for a taunt and a curse in all the places which I banish them there.” The complex Hebrew sentence has been broken down into equivalent shorter sentences to conform more with contemporary English style.

[25:18]  ⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[25:18]  ⁷ tn The words “I made” and “drink it” are not in the text. The text from v. 18 to v. 26 contains a list of the nations that Jeremiah “made drink it.” The words are supplied in the translation here and at the beginning of v. 19 for the sake of clarity. See also the note on v. 26.

[25:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “in order to make them a ruin, an object of…” The sentence is broken up and the antecedents are made specific for the sake of clarity and English style.

[25:18]  ⁹ tn See the study note on 24:9 for explanation.

[25:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “as it is today.” This phrase would obviously be more appropriate after all these things had happened as is the case in 44:6, 23 where the verbs referring to these conditions are past. Some see this phrase as a marginal gloss added after the tragedies of 597 b.c. or 586 b.c. However, it may refer here to the beginning stages where Judah has already suffered the loss of Josiah, of its freedom, of some of its temple treasures, and of some of its leaders (Dan 1:1-3. The different date for Jehoiakim there is due to the different method of counting the king’s first year; the third year there is the same as the fourth year in 25:1).

[42:18]  ¹¹ tn Or “Indeed.”

[42:18]  ¹² tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” See the study note on 2:19 for the translation and significance of this title.

[42:18]  ¹³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[42:18]  ¹⁴ tn See the study note on 24:9 and the usage in 29:22 for the meaning and significance of this last phrase.

[42:18]  ¹⁵ tn Or “land.” The reference is, of course, to the land of Judah.

[44:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “they set their face to go.” Compare 44:11 and 42:14 and see the translator’s note at 42:15.

[44:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “fall by the sword.”

[44:12]  ¹⁸ tn Or “All of them without distinction,” or “All of them from the least important to the most important”; Heb “From the least to the greatest.” See the translator’s note on 42:1 for the meaning of this idiom.

[44:12]  ¹⁹ tn See the study note on 24:9 and the usage in 29:22 for the meaning and significance of this last phrase.

[44:12]  sn See Jer 42:18 for parallel usage.

[14:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “proverbs.”