Curses in Genesis

Bowls like this 5000 year Egyptian incantation bowl
were used by priests to bless or curse.

Alice C. Linsley

The word "curse" appears in biblical passages that involve imprecatory prayers, banishment, belittling, diminishment, and disparagement of a clan such as the Hamites or a general population such as the Canaanites (Genesis 9). Numerous curses are listed in Deuteronomy 28 as a consequence of violating the terms of the covenant. These include being scattered, slavery, poverty, and disease.

Jeremiah cursed the day of his birth (Jeremiah 20:14). Job refused to curse God, though he was urged to do so by his wife (Job 2:9). Balak sent for Balaam to come and curse "this people” (Numbers 22:6). Jesus Messiah cursed the fig tree (Mark 11:14). The word "curse" appears in Genesis 12:3 where Abraham is told: "I will bless them that bless you and I will curse them that curse you."

Blessing and curse are often intertwined so that our perception depends on our perspective. This is true of the Crucifixion of Jesus Messiah. Deuteronomy 21:22-23 says that anyone hanged upon a tree or pole is cursed. This is how the Apostle Paul expresses this paradox: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (I Corinthians 1:18)

Wheaton College Professor John H. Walton has noted, "Blessing and curse are common terms in Genesis from the initial blessing in Genesis 1 to the curses of Genesis 3, 4 and 9, and then to the juxtaposition of curse and blessing in Genesis 12:1-3."

In Genesis 27:1-13, Rebekah is willing to be cursed for plotting to deceive her husband. Jacob said to his mother, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man while I have smooth skin. What if my father touches me? I would appear to be tricking him and would bring down a curse on myself rather than a blessing.” His mother said to him, “My son, let the curse fall on me. Just do what I say; go and get them for me.”

Jacob is banished to the territory of his maternal uncle from which he returns a rich man. Esau, as Isaac's rightful heir, becomes a ruler of Edom. In the end, Rebekah's sons are both blessed and a blessing to her. It appears to be true that "where sin abounded, grace abounded much more." (Romans 5:20b)

In the ancient world, official curses and blessing were primarily the work of priests. They sometimes used bowls to bless and to curse. To be blessed was to be under divine protection and to be cursed was to be removed from divine protection. The curse was inscribed inside the bowl and the priest pronouncing the curse would pour water from that bowl on the cursed person or on their property. Presumably the worst curse would involve seven bowls or the pouring of water seven times.

Hebrew verbs that are transliterated "curse" include 'âlâh, ’arar, and qâlal. These are also found in variant forms in Akkadian, Ugaritic, Assyrian, and Arabic.

According to Strong's #423, 'âlâh (אָלָה) refers to the execution of an oath. As a noun, 'âlâh refers to the oath itself.

According to Strong's #779, 'ârar (אָרַר) means "to curse" and is found in Genesis 3:14 and Genesis 3:17. In Genesis 3:14, the serpent is cursed. In Genesis 3:17, the ground is cursed. These two curses parallel two blessings. The Seed of the Woman will crush the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15), and the Promised Land which the people would enter by faith is described as flowing with milk and honey.

Qâlal (קָלַל) appears the first time in Genesis 8:8 in reference to the diminishing flood waters. According to Strong's #7043, qâlal carries the sense of being diminished or belittled. The word appears in Genesis 24:41 in reference to release from the oath sworn to Abraham by his servant.

In Genesis 3, the ground is cursed as a consequence of human disobedience. This appears to refer a reduction in the land's productivity. This is not difficult to understand, given how humans pollute and abuse the earth by deforestation, slash and burn techniques, depletion of the soil, and over grazing. Paul links the redemption of humans to the restoration of Paradise in Romans 8:19-23.

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

In Genesis 4:12, Cain is cursed and banished from the land where Abel's blood was shed. There is a tendency to forget that Cain was shown mercy and granted blessing. He went on to be a ruler who built a city which he named for his son Enoch. His descendants intermarried with the clan of Shem (see diagram) and are included in the ancestry of Jesus Messiah. This means that Cain's line was not wiped out in the flood.

A great deal of divine grace was shown to Cain the murderer, just as it was to the murderers Moses and David. Cain murdered his brother and tried to hide his crime from God. He deserved death, yet God showed him mercy by sparing his life. Cain was sent away and marked by God with a protecting sign.

St. John Chrysostom commented on the unfathomable grace expressed in the story of the Lamech the Elder (Genesis 4). He wrote: “By confessing his sins to his wives, Lamech brings to light what Cain tried to hide from God and by comparing what he has done to the crimes committed by Cain he limited the punishment coming to Him.” (St. John Chrysostom’s Homilies on Genesis, Vol. 74, p.39. The Catholic University Press of America, 1999.)

Reflecting on this great mercy shown to his ancestor Cain, Lamech challenges God to show him greater mercy (Genesis 4:24). If grace was shown to Cain (7), then Lamech by confessing his sin, claims a double measure of grace (77). He claims to be avenged by God "seventy and sevenfold." His grandson Lamech the Younger is assigned a triple measure of grace because he is said to have lived 777 years (Genesis 5:31). By tracing the increase from the number 7 assigned to Cain to the number 777 assigned to Lamech the Younger, we see a pattern of blessing. This pattern speaks of God's mercy shown to sinners.

Likewise, though a belittling curse is spoken by Noah against his son Ham, Ham's descendants are counted in the ancestry of Jesus Messiah. As this diagram reveals, the lines of Ham and Shem intermarried.

Related reading: Cain as Ruler; The Mark of Cain; The Seven Bowls of Revelation 16; The Lamech Segment Analysis; The Cousin Bride's Naming Prerogative

Seven Planets, Seven Bowls

Alice C. Linsley

The Milky Way seen through the pillars of the Temple at Karnak.

           

For many ancient populations of the Fertile Crescent, the Sun was the symbol of the High God, and it was venerated much as Christians venerate the Cross of Jesus Christ. Priests and rulers concerned themselves with the movement of the Sun, the Moon and the planets because it was their responsibility to fix the dates for feasts and fasts and because they believed that the pattern for right living on earth was found in the God-established pattern found in the heavens. [1]

This makes sense when you consider that the Sun is the single entity visible in creation that speaks adequately of the Creator's divine nature, eternal power, faithfulness, and omnipresence. The apparent disappearance and return of the Sun's brilliance during a solar eclipse speaks of the conquest of Light over Darkness. A solar eclipse begins with light and ends with light. Between, there is darkness, and the darkness is overcome by the Light.

By watching the heavens ancient man was able to better understand his place on earth since the stars and the planets move relative to one another in a fixed and stable pattern. There are seven visible planets and stars, although all were called "stars" by the ancients. These were perceived as urns or bowls from which God poured forth both blessings and curses. In Revelation 16, the angels are instructed to go and pour out the seven bowls of the indignation of God.

According to Heraklitus of Ephesus [2] these bowls carried the stars and other celestial bodies. Heraklitus explained the diurnal motion of the fixed stars as they revolved around a point above the north pole, and the apparent motions of the sun, the moon and planets. 

In the temple dedicated to the Sun in Upper Egypt, at the ruins of Babian, there were seven urns. These represented the seven visible planets. The urns caught blessings from heaven in the form of rain. The six urns at the wedding in Cana, where Jesus Christ turned water to wine, speak of what is to be fulfilled in Jesus at the Cross and Empty Tomb. He who went down also ascended to the heights, taking captives and giving gifts to mankind (Ephesians 4:9,10). [3] Perhaps this is what Heraklitus meant when we wrote that "the path up and down is one and the same."

This Afro-Asiatic perception of the seven bowls of heavenly blessings is evident in the Hindu wedding ceremony during which the new bride takes seven steps around the altar. The Agharias marriage ceremony (Orissa, India) begins with the bride’s father delivering a bracelet (as did Abraham's servant to Rebekah) and seven small earthen bowls to the bride. The bride is seated in the open, and seven women hold the bowls over her head one above the other. Water is then poured from one bowl into the other, each being filled in turn and the whole finally falling on the bride's head. The bowls represent the blessing of fecundity on the bride’s womb. Pouring the water from above represents the heavenly blessing by which God overcame the demonic forces that withheld water inhibiting life on earth. The bride is then bathed and carried in a basket seven times round the marriage-post, after which she is seated in a chair and seven women place their heads together round her while a male relative winds a thread seven times round the heads of the women.

Though many churches baptize by immersion, use of a bowl to baptize in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit is consistent with this ancient practice of blessing.

In Jewish weddings the seven marriage blessings (Sheva Brachot) are recited under the huppah and the wedding feast lasts seven days. Seven days was the duration of the wedding feast for Samson (Judges 14:12) and for Queen Vashti (Esther 1:5-11).

The significance of the number seven in reference to union or completion is seen in the first Genesis creation story which says that God rested from all His work on the seventh day. Seven in association with God at rest portrays the concept of a peaceful relationship between Master and Servant, between Heaven and Earth, between Creator and Creation, and between Husband and Bride. Seven in reference to the Sun's coming forth as a bridegroom speaks of the eighth day in which the Great Wedding Banquet is consummated.

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork...Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.  (Psalm 19:1-6)

Bowls in the Ancient World

Bowls were used both to bless and to curse.  In the ancient Afro-Asiatic world, both were done by priests because they alone knew the words of power. Blessing and cursing were seen as binary opposites. To be blessed was to be under divine protection and to be cursed was to be removed from divine protection.  This is the meaning of the twin mountains of Gerizim and Ebal. From Gerizim came declaration of divine protection for those who follow the path of righteousness. The opposite was declared from Ebal (Deut. 11:26-30).

Shown is a cursing bowl. The curse is inscribed inside the bowl and the one invoking the curse would pour water from that bowl on the cursed person or on their property.  Presumably the worst curse would involve seven bowls or the pouring of water seven times. This bowl dates to about 3000 B.C. and was found in Egypt.

In the use of bowls for opposite purposes, we again find an example of the binary worldview of Abraham's people. John H. Walton has noted, "Blessing and curse are common terms in Genesis from the initial blessing in Genesis 1 to the curses of Genesis 3, 4 and 9, and then to the juxtaposition of curse and blessing in Genesis 12:1-3."  This helps us to understand what is meant in Genesis 12:3, where God says to Abraham: "The one who curses you, I will curse", which is to say that God will remove from his protection and favor from the one who invokes words against Abraham's seed.


Daniel's rejection of the "new" cosmology

Antiochus IV (the "little horn" of Daniel 8) attempted to stamp out knowledge of the diurnal rotation of the earth by imposing geocentric corruptions and insertions in the Hebrew scriptures. Daniel presents him as the little horn reaching to the sky to cast down stars and trample on them. He sought to eliminate the "daily", which can refer only to the Sun (Dan. 8:10).

The Hebrew doesn't say daily sacrifice. The word sacrifice was added by later interpreters who missed the significance of this passage. Antiochus IV opposed the older solar cosmology of Abraham's people which emphasized God's daily oversight and promise of union. We gain a better understanding of the cosmological references in Scripture by looking at the larger Afro-Asiatic context of the Bible.


NOTES

1. Eupolemus in Eusebius ascribed the origin of astronomy to Enoch. Enoch is a royal and priestly title. 

2. Heraklitus, a pre-Socratic philosopher, understood binary opposites as being unified by the Logos. He stated that "all things come to be in accordance with this Logos." In this belief, he appears to have been influenced by the astronomy of the early Nilotic priests, who (according to Plato) had been keeping astronomical records for 10,000 years. Diogenes Laertius wrote of Heraklitus [ix, 9-10] He does not reveal the nature of the surrounding; it contains, however, bowls turned with their hollow side towards us, in which the bright exhalations are collected and form flames, which are the heavenly bodies. Brightest and hottest is the flame of the sun ... And sun and moon are eclipsed when the bowls turn upwards; and the monthly phases of the moon occur as a bowl is gradually turned. (See Plato's Debt to Ancient Egypt.)

3. This is suggested by the diurnal motion of the stars around the north and south celestial poles. Earth's Great Year begins when the north-south polar axis is exactly perpendicular to the equatorial axis. This happens about every 25-28,000 years. In other words, earth's New Year begins with the erect Cross, the sign of Jesus Christ.