kelala · curse

What it means

kelala (קְלָלָה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “curse”.

Words calling down evil on someone; the opposite of a blessing.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. Words that wish evil, the opposite of blessing.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• curse ×29
• curses ×2
• cursing ×2

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Genesis×2
• Deuteronomy×11
• Joshua×1
• Judges×1
• 2 Samuel×1
• 1 Kings×1
• 2 Kings×1
• Nehemiah×1
• Psalms×2
• Proverbs×2
• Jeremiah×9
• Zechariah×1

• Genesis 27:12

  Perhaps my father will feel me, and I will be in his eyes like a mocker, and I will bring on myself a curse and not a blessing.”

• Genesis 27:13

  His mother said to him, “On me be your curse, my son; only listen to my voice, and go, get them for me.”

• Deuteronomy 11:26

  See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:

• Deuteronomy 11:28

  and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of YHWH your Elohim and turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.

• Deuteronomy 11:29

  And when YHWH your Elohim brings you into the land into which you are going to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

• Deuteronomy 21:23

  his corpse shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on that day, for one who is hanged is a curse of Elohim; and you shall not make unclean your ground that YHWH your Elohim is giving you as an inheritance.

• Deuteronomy 23:5

  But YHWH your Elohim was not willing to listen to Balaam, and YHWH your Elohim turned for you the curse into a blessing, because YHWH your Elohim loves you.

• Deuteronomy 27:13

  And these shall stand for the curse on Mount Ebal: Reuben, Gad, and Asher and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.

• Deuteronomy 28:15

  But it shall be, if you do not listen to the voice of YHWH your Elohim, taking care to do all his commandments and his statutes that I am commanding you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.

• Deuteronomy 28:45

  And all these curses will come upon you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not listen to the voice of YHWH your Elohim, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you.

• Deuteronomy 29:27

  So the anger of YHWH burned against that land, to bring on it all the curse written in this book.

• Deuteronomy 30:1

  And it shall be, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse that I have set before you, and you take them back to your heart among all the nations where YHWH your Elohim has banished you,

• Deuteronomy 30:19

  I call the heavens and the earth to witness against you today: life and death I have set before you, the blessing and the curse. And you shall choose life, so that you may live, you and your offspring,

• Joshua 8:34

  And afterward he read all the words of the instruction, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the instruction.

• Judges 9:57

  and all the evil of the men of Shechem Elohim brought back on their heads, and there came upon them the curse of Jotham son of Jerubbaal.

• 2 Samuel 16:12

  Perhaps YHWH will look on my eye, and YHWH will repay me good in place of his curse this day.”

• 1 Kings 2:8

  And there is with you Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse on the day I went to Mahanaim; but he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by YHWH, saying, ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’

• 2 Kings 22:19

  because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before YHWH when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and you tore your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard, declares YHWH.

• Nehemiah 13:2

  because they did not meet the sons of Israel with bread and with water, and he hired against him Balaam to curse him; but our Elohim turned the curse into a blessing.

• Psalms 109:17

  And he loved cursing, and it came on him; and he did not delight in blessing, and it was far from him.

• Psalms 109:18

  And he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment, and it entered like water into his inner being, and like oil into his bones.

• Proverbs 26:2

  Like a sparrow in its wandering, like a swallow in its flying, so a curse without cause does not arrive.

• Proverbs 27:14

  Whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice in the morning, rising early, it will be counted to him as a curse.

• Jeremiah 24:9

  And I will make them a dread, an evil, to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all the places where I will drive them.

• Jeremiah 25:18

  Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, and its kings, its princes, to make them a ruin, a horror, a hissing and a curse, as it is this day;

• Jeremiah 26:6

  then I will make this house like Shiloh, and this city I will make a curse for all the nations of the earth.’”

• Jeremiah 29:22

  And from them a curse will be taken up by all the exiles of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, ‘May YHWH make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire,’

• Jeremiah 42:18

  For thus says YHWH Tsevaot, the Elohim of Israel: As my anger and my fury were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my fury will be poured out on you when you go to Egypt, and you will become an imprecation and a horror and a curse and a reproach, and you will not see this place again.

• Jeremiah 44:8

  provoking me to anger with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you have come to reside as aliens there, so that you cut yourselves off and so that you become a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?

• Jeremiah 44:12

  And I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to go to the land of Egypt to reside as aliens there, and they will all come to an end; in the land of Egypt they will fall; by the sword and by famine they will come to an end; from the small to the great, by the sword and by famine they will die; and they will become an imprecation, a horror, and a curse and a reproach.

• Jeremiah 44:22

  And YHWH could no longer bear it because of the evil of your deeds, because of the abominations that you committed; so your land has become a ruin and a horror and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day.

• Jeremiah 49:13

  For by myself I have sworn, declares YHWH, that Bozrah will become a horror, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all her cities will become eternal ruins.

• Zechariah 8:13

  And it will happen that as you were a curse among the nations, house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you, and you will be a blessing. Do not fear; let your hands be strong.