The Book of Curses

Does God Forbid Cursing?

"And the Lord said to me, Make no prayer for this people for their good" (Jeremiah 14:11 BBE).

The true believer in Christ, formed by Him, is a new creature; he is a creature of an altogether new nature, with new characteristics, two of those being love and forgiveness. The true believer is not only able to forgive; he or she is unable not to forgive. The true believer is forgiveness incarnate.

Jesus Christ forgave His enemies who hated Him; when He comes to dwell in one, that one will receive and develop a new nature and spirit – Jesus Christ’s Nature and Spirit. As Jesus was (in the days of His flesh), so is the mature true believer on earth. “As My Father has sent Me, so I send you,” said Jesus to those He chose (John 20:21).

It is sincerely, even fervently, declared by many in nominal Christendom that true believers in Christ are not to curse at any time, only to love and bless. Did not the Lord tell His disciples?:

“But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you” (Luke 6:27-28 KJV).

Let us ask these questions, though: Are curses never to be found in the mouth of a true believer in Christ? If found, are they illegitimate in the sight of God?

If true believers are born of God and fashioned in His image, there is but one question to be asked: Would God curse? If God would curse, then His sons and daughters cannot but do as He does, or at least it must be acknowledged that it may be very possible and legitimate for them to curse if their Father curses.

So let us establish the foundation for the answer to our question, “Does God forbid His sons and daughters to curse?” by answering another question: “Does God curse?”

Let’s begin in the beginning, in Genesis, even in the Garden of Eden:

Genesis 3:14-19
(14) And the LORD God said to the serpent, Because you have done this you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every animal of the field. You shall go upon your belly, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.
(15) And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He will bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.
(16) To the woman He said, I will greatly increase your sorrow and your conception. In pain you shall bear sons, and your desire shall be toward your husband, and he shall rule over you.
(17) And to Adam He said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it! The ground is cursed for your sake. In pain shall you eat of it all the days of your life.
(18) It shall also bring forth thorns and thistles to you, and you shall eat the herb of the field.
(19) In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.

So, God curses, and since He makes man in His image, man may curse.

Now we know that there are unrighteous curses; of that there can be no doubt because Jesus gave a command that we not curse, at least not in certain situations. If we curse for the wrong reasons or at the wrong times, is that not unrighteousness? Yes, it is. But seeing that God curses only in righteousness (because there is no unrighteousness in God), can it not be possible that saints can, may, and will also curse in righteousness? The logic is inescapable, is it not? Yet many are they who name His Name and declare it is always a sin to curse. They don’t know what they are talking about.

When Jesus spoke of blessing instead of cursing, He was not speaking of banning the curse altogether, but of refraining from cursing in certain conditions. In this case, He was speaking of developing and maintaining a godly attitude toward all concerned, that being to bless and forgive one’s enemies, even as He forgave His enemies. But if there is no cursing permitted at all, then how is it that He cursed the serpent, the woman, the man, and the ground? Could it be that there is a “bad” curse and a “good” curse?

Those who came after Adam knew the earth was cursed by God, and they waited for deliverance from that curse, for with the earth cursed, they were cursed:

“And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed” (Genesis 5:28-29 KJV).

Believe it, God curses not just ground, but people:

“An evil person borrows and never pays back; a good person is generous and never stops giving. Everyone the LORD blesses will receive the land; everyone the LORD curses will be destroyed” (Psalms 37:21-22 CEV).

Is this a curse?:

Genesis 6:5-7 BBE
(5) And the Lord saw that the sin of man was great on the earth, and that all the thoughts of his heart were evil.
(6) And the Lord had sorrow because He had made man on the earth, and grief was in His heart.
(7) And the Lord said, I will take away man, whom I have made, from the face of the earth, even man and beast and that which goes on the earth and every bird of the air; for I have sorrow for having made them.

“And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come; the earth is full of their violent doings, and now I will put an end to them with the earth” (Genesis 6:13 BBE).

“For truly, I will send a great flow of waters over the earth, for the destruction from under the Heaven of all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything on the earth will come to an end” (Genesis 6:17 BBE).

If that is not a curse, I don’t know what is. There is more:

“Now the Lord said to Abram, Go out from your country and from your family and from your father's house, into the land to which I will be your guide: And I will make of you a great nation, blessing you and making your name great; and you will be a blessing: To them who are good to you will I give blessing, and on him who does you wrong will I put My curse: and you will become a name of blessing to all the families of the earth” (Genesis 12:1-3 BBE).

So clearly, God says He curses. We have already found much on God cursing, and we are only mentioning some of what is in the first of 66 books of the Bible.

“But do righteous men of God curse?” you ask. “Does not God retain the authority and right to curse?”

Here is a record of Noah:

“And he [Noah] said, Cursed be Canaan. He shall be a servant of servants to his brothers. And he said, Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem. And Canaan shall be their servant” (Genesis 9:25-27 MKJV).

From his mouth came forth both cursing and blessing, the sort of thing James seems to condemn:

“Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so” (James 3:10 MKJV).

But what was James talking about? Do his words condemn Noah? No, they don’t, for it is clear that Noah was speaking by Divine inspiration. He was prophesying; that is, he was speaking of realities that were impossible for him to know or predict except by the Spirit of God. How was he to know that Ham’s descendant’s name would be Canaan and that Canaan would be cursed? And he blessed Japheth and Shem, and they were blessed. These things were not spoken by man, but by God through man. Out of this man’s mouth came a curse by inspiration of God. So God curses, and men of God curse, as inspired of God.

When Abram stayed with the Pharaoh, the Pharaoh took Abram’s wife, thinking Sarai was Abram’s sister (as Abram had said). So what did God do?

“And the Lord sent great troubles on Pharaoh's house because of Sarai, Abram's wife” (Genesis 12:17 BBE).

Would you call that a blessing, or would you call it neutral? I would call it a curse.

God commanded Abram and his house to be circumcised, but what happens to the one who is not circumcised? That one is cursed:

“And any male who does not undergo circumcision will be cut off from his people: my agreement has been broken by him” (Genesis 17:14 BBE).

What did God do with Sodom and Gomorrah? Did He bless or curse them? A messenger sent there said this:

“For we are about to send destruction on this place, because a great outcry against them has come to the ears of the Lord; and the Lord has sent us to put an end to the town” (Genesis 19:13 BBE).

One may say that curses only come on sin and because those cursed deserve it. Yes, that is true, and that is precisely the point – there is a place for a curse:

“As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse without cause shall not come” (Proverbs 26:2 MKJV).

There is even such a thing as curses mixed within blessings. When Abraham's son, Isaac, was old, he blessed his son Jacob and within the blessing was a curse, not for the one blessed, but for those who would curse the one blessed:

Genesis 27:26-29 GW
(26) Then his father Isaac said to him, "Come here and give me a kiss, son."
(27) He went over and gave him a kiss. When Isaac smelled his clothes, he blessed him and said, "The smell of my son is like the smell of open country that the LORD has blessed.
(28) May God give you dew from the sky, fertile fields on the earth, and plenty of fresh grain and new wine.
(29) May nations serve you. May people bow down to you. Be the master of your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed. May those who bless you be blessed."

Indeed, Jacob was blessed, and those who cursed him were cursed. When Jacob’s life was over, and he was about to die in Egypt, he gathered his family around his bed and, by the Spirit of God, prophesied things to come throughout the ages for all his sons. In those prophecies was a curse concerning Simeon and Levi:

“Simeon and Levi are brothers; tools of violence are their weapons. Oh my soul, do not come into their secret. Let not my honor be united with their assembly. For in their anger they killed a man, and in their self-will they hamstrung a bull. Let their anger be cursed, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel” (Genesis 49:5-7 MKJV).

If God’s curse was only on their anger and not on them, why did He say He would divide and scatter them? Surely He was not saying He would divide and scatter their anger. Yet, Jacob’s curse on Simeon and Levi were not truly curses in the sense we think of them, for it says of all the words that Jacob spoke:

“All these were the twelve tribes of Israel. And this is what their father spoke to them, and blessed them; everyone according to his blessing he blessed them” (Genesis 49:28 MKJV).

So then, there are curses and there are curses, and who can know the good from the bad, but by the Spirit of God?

When Moses was sent to Egypt to deliver Jacob’s seed from bondage, God brought plagues on the Egyptians - curses. What else would one call plagues so bad that the land was destroyed by them and all people of Egypt lost their beloved firstborn? And God was not done! He finally brought the Red Sea upon Pharaoh’s entire army, destroying them all.

You may argue that God was protecting His people or punishing Pharaoh for his stubbornness. The first is true, but the second is not true. Pharaoh was not being punished - he was being hardened (though he chose to let the people go), and who was hardening him?

“And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he will follow them. And I will be honored upon Pharaoh, and upon all his army, so that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. And they did so” (Exodus 14:4).

If God hardened my heart to withstand Him so that He would destroy me in it, I would call that a curse, wouldn’t you?

Does not God curse the adulteress? Read Numbers 5:12-31 to find out.

To His own people, the Unchanging One said:

Deuteronomy 11:26-29 GW
(26) Today I'm giving you the choice of a blessing or a curse.
(27) You'll be blessed if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I'm giving you today.
(28) You'll be cursed if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God, if you turn from the way I'm commanding you to live today, and if you worship other gods you never knew.
(29) When the LORD your God brings you into the land you're about to enter, recite the blessing from Mount Gerizim and the curse from Mount Ebal.

Now let us see a good example of what and how God curses, and that He calls upon His people to partake in the cursing:

Deuteronomy 27:11-26 GW
(11) That same day Moses gave the people this command:
(12) After you cross the Jordan River, these are the tribes that will stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.
(13) These are the tribes that will stand on Mount Ebal to announce the curses: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.
(14) The Levites will declare to all the people of Israel in a loud voice:
(15) "Whoever has a carved or metal statue, anything disgusting to the LORD that was made by a craftsman, and sets it up in secret will be cursed." Then all the people will say amen.
(16) "Whoever curses his father or mother will himself be cursed." Then all the people will say amen.
(17) "Whoever moves his neighbor's boundary marker will be cursed." Then all the people will say amen.
(18) "Whoever leads blind people in the wrong direction will be cursed." Then all the people will say amen.
(19) "Whoever deprives foreigners, orphans, or widows of justice will be cursed." Then all the people will say amen.
(20) "Whoever has sexual intercourse with his father's wife will be cursed. He has disgraced his father." Then all the people will say amen.
(21) "Whoever has sexual intercourse with any animal will be cursed." Then all the people will say amen.
(22) "Whoever has sexual intercourse with his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter will be cursed." Then all the people will say amen.
(23) "Whoever has sexual intercourse with his mother-in-law will be cursed." Then all the people will say amen.
(24) "Whoever kills another person secretly will be cursed." Then all the people will say amen.
(25) "Whoever accepts money to kill an innocent person will be cursed." Then all the people will say amen.
(26) "Whoever doesn't obey every word of these teachings will be cursed." Then all the people will say amen.

And in what ways are the disobedient cursed?:

Deuteronomy 28:15-68 GW
(15) Obey the LORD your God, and faithfully follow all His commands and laws that I am giving you today. If you don't, all these curses will come to you and stay close to you:
(16) You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.
(17) The grain you harvest and the bread you bake will be cursed.
(18) You will be cursed. You will have few children. Your land will have few crops. Your cattle will be cursed with few calves, and your flocks will have few lambs and kids.
(19) You will be cursed when you come and cursed when you go.
(20) The LORD will send you curses, panic, and frustration in everything you do until you're destroyed and quickly disappear for the evil you will do by abandoning the LORD.
(21) The LORD will send one plague after another on you until He wipes you out of the land you're about to enter and take possession of.
(22) The LORD will strike you with disease, fever, and inflammation; heat waves, drought, scorching winds, and ruined crops. They will pursue you until you die.
(23) The sky above will look like bronze, and the ground below will be as hard as iron.
(24) The LORD will send dust storms and sandstorms on you from the sky until you're destroyed.
(25) The LORD will let your enemies defeat you. You will attack them from one direction but run away from them in seven directions. You will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms in the world.
(26) Your dead bodies will be food for all the birds and wild animals. There will be no one to scare them away.
(27) The LORD will strike you with the same boils that plagued the Egyptians. He will strike you with hemorrhoids, sores, and itching that won't go away.
(28) The LORD will strike you with madness, blindness, and panic.
(29) You will grope in broad daylight as blind people grope in their blindness. You won't be successful in anything you do. As long as you live, you will be oppressed and robbed with no one to rescue you.
(30) You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will have sex with her. You will build a house, but you won't live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you won't enjoy the grapes.
(31) Your ox will be butchered as you watch, but you won't eat any of its meat. You will watch as your donkey is stolen from you, but you'll never get it back. Your flock will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue it.
(32) You will watch with your own eyes as your sons and daughters are given to another nation. You will strain your eyes looking for them all day long, but there will be nothing you can do.
(33) People you never knew will eat what your land and your hard work have produced. As long as you live, you will know nothing but oppression and abuse.
(34) The things you see will drive you mad.
(35) The LORD will afflict your knees and legs with severe boils that can't be cured. The boils will cover your whole body from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.
(36) The LORD will lead you and the king you choose to a nation that you and your ancestors never knew. There you will worship gods made of wood and stone.
(37) You will become a thing of horror. All the nations where the LORD will send you will make an example of you and ridicule you.
(38) You will plant many crops in your fields, but harvest little because locusts will destroy your crops.
(39) You will plant vineyards and take care of them, but you won't drink any wine or gather any grapes, because worms will eat them.
(40) You will have olive trees everywhere in your country but no olive oil to rub on your skin, because the olives will fall off the trees.
(41) You will have sons and daughters, but you won't be able to keep them because they will be taken as prisoners of war.
(42) Crickets will swarm all over your trees and the crops in your fields.
(43) The standard of living for the foreigners who live among you will rise higher and higher, while your standard of living will sink lower and lower.
(44) They will be able to make loans to you, but you won't be able to make loans to them. They will be the head, and you will be the tail.
(45) All these curses will come to you. They will pursue you and stay close to you until you're destroyed, because you didn't obey the LORD your God or follow His commands and laws, which I'm giving you.
(46) These curses will be a sign and an amazing thing to warn you and your descendants forever.
(47) You didn't serve the LORD your God with a joyful and happy heart when you had so much.
(48) So you will serve your enemies, whom the LORD will send against you. You will serve them even though you are already hungry, thirsty, naked, and in need of everything. The LORD will put a heavy burden of hard work on you until He destroys you.
(49) The LORD will bring against you a nation from far away, from the ends of the earth. The nation will swoop down on you like an eagle. It will be a nation whose language you won't understand.
(50) Its people will be fierce-looking. They will show no respect for the old and no pity for the young.
(51) They'll eat the offspring of your animals and the crops from your fields until you're destroyed. They'll leave you no grain, no new wine, no olive oil, no calves from your herds, and no lambs or kids from your flocks. They'll continue to do this until they've completely ruined you.
(52) They will blockade all your cities until the high, fortified walls in which you trust come down everywhere in your land. They'll blockade all the cities everywhere in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
(53) Because of the hardships your enemies will make you suffer during the blockade, you will eat the flesh of your own children, the sons and daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you.
(54) Even the most tender and sensitive man among you will become stingy toward his brother, the wife he loves, and the children he still has left.
(55) He will give none of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all that he has left, because of the hardships your enemies will make you suffer during the blockade of all your cities.
(56) The most tender and sensitive woman among you - so sensitive and tender that she wouldn't even step on an ant - will become stingy toward the husband she loves or toward her own son or daughter.
(57) She won't share with them the afterbirth from her body and the children she gives birth to. She will secretly eat them out of dire necessity, because of the hardships your enemies will make you suffer during the blockade of your cities.
(58) You might not faithfully obey every word of the teachings that are written in this Book. You might not fear this glorious and awe-inspiring name: the LORD your God.
(59) If so, the LORD will strike you and your descendants with unimaginable plagues. They will be terrible and continuing plagues and severe and lingering diseases.
(60) He will again bring all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you.
(61) The LORD will also bring you every kind of sickness and plague not written in this Book of Teachings. They will continue until you're dead.
(62) At one time you were as numerous as the stars in the sky. But only a few of you will be left, because you didn't obey the LORD your God.
(63) At one time the LORD was more than glad to make you prosperous and numerous. Now the LORD will be more than glad to destroy you and wipe you out. You will be torn out of the land you're about to enter and take possession of.
(64) Then the LORD will scatter you among all the people of the world, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will serve gods made of wood and stone that neither you nor your ancestors ever knew.
(65) Among those nations you will find no peace, no place to call your own. There the LORD will give you an unsettled mind, failing eyesight, and despair.
(66) Your life will always be hanging by a thread. You will live in terror day and night. You will never feel sure of your life.
(67) In the morning you'll say, "If only it were evening!" And in the evening you'll say, "If only it were morning!" You'll talk this way because of the things that will terrify you and because of the things you'll see.
(68) The LORD will bring you back to Egypt in ships on a journey that I said you would never take again. There you will try to sell yourselves as slaves to your enemies, but no one will buy you.

We certainly have a few curses here, don’t we? And where are they from? Are they from Hell? Are they from the Devil? Are they from the tongues of wicked men? Did these things just happen, or did God ordain them? I hope you recognize these as rhetorical questions. Wait! As if that wasn’t enough, here’s more:

Deuteronomy 29:17-29 GW
(17) You saw their disgusting gods and idols made of wood, stone, silver, and gold.
(18) Make sure there is no man, woman, family, or tribe among you today who turns from the LORD our God to worship the gods of those nations. Make sure that no one among you is the source of this kind of bitter poison.
(19) Someone may hear the conditions of this promise. He may think that he is so blessed that he can say, "I'll be safe even if I go my own stubborn way. After all, the LORD would never sweep away well-watered ground along with dry ground."
(20) The LORD will never be willing to forgive that person, because the LORD's burning anger will smolder against him. All the curses described in this Book will happen to him. The LORD will erase every memory of that person's name from the earth.
(21) And the LORD will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster based on all the conditions of the promise written in this Book of the Teachings.
(22) Then the next generation of your children and foreigners who come from distant countries will see the plagues that have happened in this land and the diseases the LORD sent here.
(23) They will see all the soil poisoned with sulfur and salt. Nothing will be planted. Nothing will be growing. There will be no plants in sight. It will be as desolate as Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, cities the LORD destroyed in fierce anger.
(24) Then all the other nations in the world will ask, "Why has the LORD done this to their land? Why is He so angry?"
(25) The answer will be, "Because they abandoned the promise of the LORD God of their ancestors. He made this promise to them when He brought them out of Egypt.
(26) They worshiped other gods and bowed down to them. These were gods they never heard of, gods the LORD didn't permit them to have.
(27) So the LORD became angry with this land and brought on it all the curses described in this Book.
(28) In His fierce anger and fury the LORD uprooted these people from their land and deported them to another country, where they still are today."
(29) Some things are hidden. They belong to the LORD our God. But the things that have been revealed in these teachings belong to us and to our children forever. We must obey every word of these teachings.

And more:

Deuteronomy 30:1-7 GW
(1) All these blessings and curses I have spoken about will happen to you. Take them to heart when you are among all the nations where the LORD your God will scatter you.
(2) If you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey Him with all your heart and with all your soul, doing everything I command you today,
(3) He will restore your fortunes. He will have mercy on you and gather you from all the nations of the world where He will scatter you.
(4) Even if you are scattered to the most distant country in the world, the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back from there.
(5) The LORD your God will bring you to the land your ancestors owned. You will take possession of it, and the LORD will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors were.
(6) The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants. You will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and you will live.
(7) Then the LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies, those who hate you and persecute you.

God would rather not curse His own:

“I call on heaven and earth as witnesses today that I have offered you life or death, blessings or curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants will live” (Deuteronomy 30:19 GW).

Joshua was a type of Jesus Christ, in that he led Israel into the Promised Land. His name is the Hebrew for “Jesus” or “Yah saves.” Would such a person curse?

“At that time Joshua pronounced this curse: ‘The LORD will curse whoever comes to rebuild the city of Jericho. It will cost him his firstborn son to lay the foundation. It will cost him his youngest son to set up the city doors’” (Joshua 6:26 GW).

Was the Lord upset with Joshua for cursing?

“So the LORD was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land” (Joshua 6:27 GW).

The curse was fulfilled in due time.

Do angels or messengers of the Lord curse? Let’s see:

"Curse Meroz, said the angel of the LORD. Curse bitterly its inhabitants, because they didn't come to help the LORD, to help the LORD against the mighty" (Judges 5:23 HNV).

King David, who became known as the father of the Messiah (because Jesus came through his lineage and because David was chosen of God to have that honor), said:

“And afterward David heard, and said, My kingdom and I are guiltless before the LORD forever from the blood of Abner the son of Ner. Let it whirl about the head of Joab, and on all his father's house. And let there not fail from the house of Joab one who has an issue, or who is a leper, or who leans on a staff, or who falls on the sword, or who lacks bread” (2 Samuel 3:28-29 MKJV).

And he spoke these words concerning his enemies:

Psalms 35:1-8 GW
(1) By David. O LORD, attack those who attack me. Fight against those who fight against me.
(2) Use Your shields, both small and large. Arise to help me.
(3) Hold Your spear to block the way of those who pursue me. Say to my soul, "I am Your Savior."
(4) Let those who seek my life be put to shame and disgraced. Let those who plan my downfall be turned back in confusion.
(5) Let them be like husks blown by the wind as the Messenger of the LORD chases them.
(6) Let their path be dark and slippery as the Messenger of the LORD pursues them.
(7) For no reason they hid their net in a pit. For no reason they dug the pit to trap me.
(8) Let destruction surprise them. Let the net that they hid catch them. Let them fall into their own pit and be destroyed.

Are those not curses? And again:

Psalms 69:19-28 GW
(19) You know that I have been insulted, put to shame, and humiliated. All my opponents are in front of You.
(20) Insults have broken my heart, and I am sick. I looked for sympathy, but there was none. I looked for people to comfort me, but I found no one.
(21) They poisoned my food, and when I was thirsty, they gave me vinegar to drink.
(22) Let the table set for them become a trap and a snare for their friends.
(23) Let their vision become clouded so that they cannot see. Let their thighs continually shake.
(24) Pour Your rage on them. Let Your burning anger catch up with them.
(25) Let their camp be deserted and their tents empty.
(26) They persecute the one You have struck, and they talk about the pain of those You have wounded.
(27) Charge them with one crime after another. Do not let them be found innocent.
(28) Let their names be erased from the Book of Life. Do not let them be listed with righteous people.

And again:

Psalms 109:1-22 GW
(1) For the choir director; a psalm by David. O God, Whom I praise, do not turn a deaf ear to me.
(2) Wicked and deceitful people have opened their mouths against me. They speak against me with lying tongues.
(3) They surround me with hateful words. They fight against me for no reason.
(4) In return for my love, they accuse me, but I pray for them.
(5) They reward me with evil instead of good and with hatred instead of love.
(6) I said, "Appoint the evil one to oppose him. Let Satan stand beside him.
(7) When he stands trial, let him be found guilty. Let his prayer be considered sinful.
(8) Let his days be few in number. Let someone else take his position.
(9) Let his children become fatherless and his wife a widow.
(10) Let his children wander around and beg. Let them seek help far from their ruined homes.
(11) Let a creditor take everything he owns. Let strangers steal what he has worked for.
(12) Let no one be kind to him anymore. Let no one show any pity to his fatherless children.
(13) Let his descendants be cut off and their family name be wiped out by the next generation.
(14) Let the LORD remember the guilt of his ancestors and not wipe out his mother's sin.
(15) Let their guilt and sin always remain on record in front of the LORD. Let the LORD remove every memory of him from the earth,
(16) because he did not remember to be kind. He drove oppressed, needy, and brokenhearted people to their graves.
(17) He loved to put curses on others, so he, too, was cursed. He did not like to bless others, so he never received a blessing.
(18) He wore cursing as though it were clothing, so cursing entered his body like water and his bones like oil.
(19) Let cursing be his clothing, a belt he always wears."
(20) This is how the LORD rewards those who accuse me, those who say evil things against me.
(21) O LORD Almighty, deal with me out of the goodness of Your Name. Rescue me because of Your mercy.
(22) I am oppressed and needy. I can feel the pain in my heart.

Elijah was one of the greater of the prophets of Israel. He did not die, being translated up into Heaven. When Elijah was taken away, his servant Elisha received his mantle and was granted double Elijah’s anointing of God. Now see what Elisha did one day:

“He went up from there to Beit-El; and as he was going up by the way, some youths came out of the city and mocked him, and said to him, Go up, you baldy; go up, you baldhead. He looked behind him and saw them, and cursed them in the Name of the LORD. Two female bears came out of the woods, and mauled forty-two of those youths” (2 Kings 2:23-24 HNV).

“Was that not a bit severe for a bit of teasing or light fun by youths who perhaps didn’t know any better?” you may ask. That seems to be much of the thinking today. Apparently it was not severe to God because it was in the Name of the Lord that Elisha cursed those young people. Did Elisha’s ministry end right there? Read the next chapter (2 Kings 3) and see.

Again, there are justified curses, ordained of God:

“The LORD curses the house of wicked people, but He blesses the home of righteous people” (Proverbs 3:33 GW).

Curses are earned, and today we find many people, nations, and leaders of nations bringing upon themselves and their people a grievous curse - condemning the innocent and justifying the evildoer. Those who oppose Jesus Christ and His followers bring a curse upon themselves. Those who condemn Jews because they are Jews, or because Jews are perceived to be evil, bring a curse upon themselves. Those who justify and support Islam against Jews and Israel bring a curse upon themselves. Those who even sympathize with evildoers bring upon themselves a curse.

“Whoever says to a guilty person, ‘You are innocent,’ will be cursed by people and condemned by nations” (Proverbs 24:24 GW).

When the remnant of the children of Israel returned from their captivity in Babylon, there was a godly prophet who led, exhorted, and admonished them to obey the Law of God. Did you know that in his anger, Nehemiah also physically rebuked and cursed his own people for their continuing sins?

Nehemiah 13:23-26 MKJV
(23) In those days I also saw Jews who lived with women from Ashdod, Ammon, and from Moab.
(24) And their sons spoke half Ashdod's speech, and there was no caring to speak Jewish, but according to the language of each people.
(25) And I contended with them, and cursed them, and struck certain of them, and plucked off their hair. And I made them swear by the Name of God, saying, You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters to your sons, or for yourselves.
(26) Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations there was no king like him, who was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. But women from other lands caused even him to sin.

More about curses from Isaiah:

Isaiah 24:4-6 MKJV
(4) The earth mourns and languishes; the world droops and languishes; the proud people of the earth droop.
(5) And the land is defiled under its people; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, and have broken the everlasting covenant.
(6) Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and they who dwell in it are deserted; therefore the people of the earth are burned, and few men left.

You may not wish to contemplate or acknowledge it, but the earth and all the peoples upon it are cursed because they deny God and His Son. They deny His existence, His Person (as He is), His right as our Creator, and His Law. He said so:

Isaiah 65:11-17 GW
(11) You have abandoned the LORD and forgotten My holy mountain. You have prepared a table for the god of good fortune and offered cups full of spiced wine to the goddess of destiny.
(12) Now I will destine you for death. All of you will bow to be slaughtered. I called, but you didn't answer. I spoke, but you didn't listen. You did what I consider evil. You chose what I don't like.
(13) This is what the LORD God says: My servants will eat, but you will be hungry. My servants will drink, but you will be thirsty. My servants will be glad, but you will be ashamed.
(14) My servants will sing because of the gladness in their hearts. But you will cry because of your sadness and wail because of your depression.
(15) Your name will be used as a curse by My chosen ones. The Almighty LORD will kill you and call His servants by another name.
(16) Whoever asks for a blessing in the land will be blessed by the God of Truth. Whoever swears an oath in the land will swear by the God of Truth. Past troubles are forgotten. They are hidden from My eyes.
(17) I will create a new heaven and a new earth. Past things will not be remembered. They will not come to mind.

God sent Jeremiah to pronounce a curse upon His people:

Jeremiah 11:1-4 GW
(1) This is the message that the LORD spoke to Jeremiah. He said,
(2) "Listen to the terms of this promise, and tell them to the people of Judah and to those who live in Jerusalem.
(3) Say to them, 'This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Cursed is anyone who doesn't listen to the terms of this promise.
(4) I made this promise to your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, which was an iron smelter. I said, "Obey Me, and do everything that I have told you to do. Then you will be My people, and I will be your God.”

“This is what the LORD says: Cursed is the person who trusts humans, who makes flesh and blood his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD” (Jeremiah 17:5 GW).

Jeremiah was not above cursing his own people, to whom God had sent him, as God formed him to do:

Jeremiah 18:18-23 GW
(18) Then they said, "Let's plot against Jeremiah, because the teachings of the priests, the advice of wise people, and the word of the prophets won't disappear. Accuse him! Pay no attention to anything he says."
(19) Pay attention to me, O LORD, and listen to what my accusers say.
(20) Good should not be paid back with evil. They dig a pit to take my life. Remember how I stood in Your presence and pleaded for them in order to turn Your anger away from them.
(21) Now, hand their children over to famine. Pour out their blood by using Your sword. Then their wives will become childless widows. Their husbands will be put to death. Their young men will be struck down in battle.
(22) Make them cry out from their homes when You suddenly send troops against them, because they dug a pit to catch me and hid snares for my feet.
(23) But You, O LORD, know that they plan to kill me. Don't forgive their crimes. Don't wipe their sins out of Your sight. Make them stumble in Your presence. Deal with them when You get angry.

Here again, God curses and Jeremiah spells out why:

Jeremiah 29:21-23 GW
(21) This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says about Kolaiah's son Ahab and about Maaseiah's son Zedekiah, who prophesy lies to you in My Name: I'm going to hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I will kill them as you watch.
(22) Because of them, all the captives from Judah who are in Babylon will use this curse: May the LORD curse you as He cursed Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon burned to death.
(23) They have done shameful things in Israel. They committed adultery with their neighbors' wives and spoke lies in My Name. I didn't command them to do this. I know what they have done. I'm a witness, declares the LORD.

Here is more testimony of Jeremiah calling for curses on his own people, those who refused to believe and obey God:

Lamentations 3:58-66 GW
(58) Plead my case for me, O LORD. Reclaim my life.
(59) Look at the wrong that has been done to me, O LORD. Give me a fair verdict.
(60) Look at all their malice, all their plots against me.
(61) Listen to their insults, all their plots against me.
(62) The words and thoughts of those who attack me are directed against me all day long.
(63) Look at them! Whether they are sitting or standing, they make fun of me in their songs.
(64) Pay them back, O LORD, for what they deserve, for what their own hands have done.
(65) Make them stubborn. Let Your curse be on them.
(66) Pursue them in anger, and wipe them out from under the LORD'S heaven.

Daniel, a man greatly loved of God, declared the cause of curses:

Daniel 9:10-14 GW
(10) We never listened to You or lived by the teachings You gave us through Your servants the prophets.
(11) All Israel has ignored Your teachings and refused to listen to You. So You brought on us the curses You swore in an oath, the curses written in the Teachings of Your servant Moses. We sinned against You.
(12) So You did what You said You would do to us and our rulers by bringing a great disaster on us. Nowhere in the world has anything ever happened like what has happened to Jerusalem.
(13) This entire disaster happened to us, exactly as it was written in Moses' Teachings. LORD our God, we never tried to gain Your favor by turning from our wrongs and dedicating ourselves to Your truth.
(14) So You were prepared to bring this disaster on us. LORD our God, You are righteous in everything You do. But we never listened to You.

But people today don’t want to hear anything like this. They protest, “God is a loving God! He would never hurt anyone! We need to love and pray for anyone seriously injured in a car accident or dying of cancer or AIDS, or for anyone who has committed crimes and is now paying the price. That’s God’s way!”

Not entirely; God is a God of curses as well as love, sympathy, and blessings, of wrath and justice as well as benevolence and mercy. He has repeatedly and plainly told me that He is finished winking at all the wrongs people think to do and get away with. He is done with it, fed up, I tell you, and He will have no more. So are the apostle's words a solemn warning to all who receive of His grace:

“Behold then the kindness, and the severity of God; on those having fallen, severity; but on you, kindness, if you continue in the kindness. Otherwise you also will be cut off” (Romans 11:22 MKJV).

Zechariah also testifies of curses ordained of God and why these curses come:

Zechariah 5:2-4 BBE
(2) And he said to me, What do you see? And I said, A roll going through the air; it is twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide.
(3) Then he said to me, This is the curse which goes out over the face of all the land: for long enough has every thief gone without punishment, and long enough has every taker of false oaths gone without punishment.
(4) And I will send it out, says the Lord of armies, and it will go into the house of the thief and into the house of him who takes a false oath by My Name: and it will be in his house, causing its complete destruction, with its woodwork and its stones.

Is God so sweet as people in nominal Christendom wish to think? Would He not hurt a fly, much less smear shit on your face for your ways? Let’s see what Malachi has to answer:

Malachi 2:1-3 KJV
(1) And now, O you priests, this commandment is for you.
(2) If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto My Name, says the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because you do not lay it to heart.
(3) Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.

Furthermore, God says this through Malachi:

“A curse on the false man who has a male in his flock, and takes his oath, and gives to the Lord a damaged thing: for I am a great King, says the Lord of armies, and My Name is to be feared among the Gentiles” (Malachi 1:14 BBE).

“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me. But you say, In what have we robbed You? In the tithe and the offering! You are cursed with a curse; for you are robbing Me, the nation, all of it” (Malachi 3:8-9 MKJV).

The Lord God goes on to say that unless people are turned to do right, He will curse them all:

Malachi 4:5-6 KJV
(5) Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
(6) And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

It is written that “As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse without cause shall not come” (Proverbs 26:2 MKJV).

If one is innocent, a curse cannot touch him. A witch or sorcerer does not have the power to secretly curse him. The curse without cause does not come. Therefore, if there is cause, it comes, and therefore God sanctions the curse with cause, or He is not God.

Are any and all curses justified? Here now is a solemn warning to all who would even think of cursing indiscriminately or selfishly. Job spoke these words with godly understanding:

“If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him: Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul” (Job 31:29-30 KJV).

We are not justified in cursing those who hate us. Cursing can never be a personal, social, political, or selfish thing in any way. Cursing without good cause brings the curse back on us. This is to be our attitude to those who do us evil:

“Bless those that persecute you; bless and do not curse” (Romans 12:14 EMTV).

It was Paul the apostle who wrote those words. Does he contradict himself? Does he never curse? Oh yes, he does, when it is called for:

“I, Paul, am writing this greeting with my own hand. If anyone doesn't love the Lord, let him be cursed! Our Lord, come!” (1 Corinthians 16:21-22 GW)

So curses are not only Old Testament stuff. Much of the New Testament is a repetition of the Old. Paul quoted David, who spoke a curse against the Jews of his day (a millennium before Christ):

“And David said, ‘Let their table become for a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a recompense to them. Let their eyes be darkened so that they may not see, and their back always bowing’” (Romans 11:9-10 MKJV).

Paul reminded the Galatians of the curse upon those who do not put their trust in God, but rather trust in their own goodness and works:

“Certainly, there is a curse on all who rely on their own efforts to live according to a set of standards because Scripture says, ‘Whoever doesn't obey everything that is written in Moses' Teachings is cursed’” (Galatians 3:10 GW).

The Galatians were being deceived by another gospel. Millions today are preaching an insidious gospel of salvation. Here is the end of those who do so, as pronounced by a true servant of Jesus Christ, as he wrote to the Galatians:

“I marvel that you so soon are being moved away from Him Who called you into the grace of Christ to another gospel, which is not another, but some are troubling you, and desiring to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from Heaven preach a gospel to you beside what we preached to you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:6-8 MKJV).

We see many professing Christians suffering and dying by all sorts of means. And many have come to believe this is normal, that God really loves them and He is trying their faith or permitting them to suffer these evils because “that is the way things are.” True, that is the way things are, but that is not the way they are supposed to be or how He intended them to be. He has not had pleasure in people suffering and dying of tragedy and disease (persecutions and martyrdom for His sake are other matters). His will has been that His people have the good life:

“The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come so that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10 MKJV).

Plainly, it is Satan who brings the disease because of the sins of the people. Do cancer, heart disease, AIDS, Alzheimer’s, arthritis, diabetes, and car accidents sound like the abundant life to you?

Many are deceived into thinking that Jesus intended abundant life only for the next world, and not this one. Why would people assume He purposed evil for this life and not the abundant life? (People are so foolish in their reasonings and rationalizations, it boggles the mind)! What was it David said by the Spirit? Consider if David speaks of the life to come or this one:

“I have been young, and am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, or his seed begging bread” (Psalms 37:25 MKJV).

Psalms 37:34-37 MKJV
(34) Wait on the Lord, and keep His way, and He shall lift you up to inherit the earth; when the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.
(35) I have seen the wicked ruthless, and spreading himself like a luxuriant native tree.
(36) Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not; and I looked for him, but he could not be found.
(37) Watch the perfect and behold the upright one; for the end of that man is peace.

Our Curses

At the end of 2008, I cursed the Canadian coalition formed by Bob Rae, Jack Layton, Gilles Duceppe, and Stephane Dion the day they publicized their intentions against Stephen Harper and the government in power. And where is each of them now? See what happened to them and how soon it happened.

Likewise, we cursed Hamas and their supporters when Israel was forced into the 2008/2009 Gaza conflict. You will also see their end. In spite of Israel’s painful efforts to spare civilians, greatly risking the lives of its soldiers, remarkably few Israelis were killed or wounded, while hundreds of armed Hamas perished on their own treacherous turf. But as long as Israel sets free known butchering murderers of the innocent and defenseless, trading them for corpses of their own people, Israel will suffer the curse of God, according to this word:

“He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD” (Proverbs 17:15 HNV).

Oh, Israel, you release those who turn your living bodies to dead ones, so that they are free to increase the number of your dead bodies to ransom their living! Does that really make sense to you? What a curse is on you that you should, in craven fear of your enemies and inordinate affection of your dead, betray your own living! What a curse is on you!

Yet God’s curse upon Israel’s enemies holds true. Consider that Hamas has been killing off Fatah. Fatah is the present name for those who were PLO and led by Yasser Arafat, one of the world’s Nobel Peace Prize winners, a vile butcher if there ever was one - Jimmy Carter’s pal. Yes, Arafat hung around with a sleazy crowd indeed, though not a lot can be said for his own character. Anyway, the PLO butchered many an Israeli and now, in their own land, by their own brothers and countrymen, they perish by the curse upon them and by a prophecy spoken long ago. Of the Arab, it is written:

“And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren” (Genesis 16:12 KJV).

Where we have cursed, we have not cursed of our own selfish volition. We did not curse people out of vengeance, hatred, or political persuasion, as many have assumed. No, we cursed them because God gave it to us to curse, and when He gives it to curse, you can be sure the curse is sure and perfectly effective.

I now go on record with a solemn warning to all those who curse us because we have cursed, whether they do so publicly or secretly. Beware, lest the curses we pronounced fall on you. However, if you wish to test the waters, go for it. We are not afraid of your curses because, while ours are justified and sanctioned by God, by His grace, yours will not be.

Nevertheless, by the grace of God, and God willing, we will bless you as you curse us, even as our Lord directs and gives us to do. By blessing, we will be blessed, and indeed we bless because we are blessed. By cursing, you will be cursed and are already cursed, or you would not be cursing us. And as you curse us, you curse the Lord Jesus Christ, Who has sent us, and Whom we represent by His will.

As I said, He is finished winking. Better you should believe us and repent.

Victor Hafichuk