Curses
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CursesAn appeal to some supernatural power to inflict harm or death on someone or some group. |
II Kings 2:23-24 From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys cameout of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out of here, baldy!” He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys.
Matthew 21:18 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May younever bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.
Numbers 12:10-12 As the cloud lifted from above the Tent, suddenly Miriam became leprous, white as snow. Aaron turned toward her, saw that she was leprous, and said to Moses, “My lord, please do not hold against us this sin we have so foolishly committed. Please do not let her be like a stillborn infant whose flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”
2 kings 1:9-12 Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him, and behold, he was sitting on the top of the hill. And he said to him, “O man of God, the king says, ‘Come down.’” Elijah replied to the captain of fifty, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.” Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.
So he again sent to him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he said to him, “O man of God, thus says the king, ‘Come down quickly.’” Elijah replied to them, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.” Then the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.
Numbers 5:19-28 Then the priest shall put the woman under oath and say to her, “If no other man has had sexual relations with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you. But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man other than your husband”— here the priest is to put the woman under this curse—“may the Lord cause you to become a curse among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. May this water thatbrings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.”
“‘Then the woman is to say, “Amen. So be it.”
“‘The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water. He shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water that brings a curse and causes bittersuffering will enter her. The priest is to take from her hands the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the Lord and bring it to the altar. The priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial offering and burn it on the altar; after that, he is to have the woman drink the water. If she has made herself impureand been unfaithful to her husband, this will be the result: When she is made to drink the water that brings acurse and causes bitter suffering, it will enter her, her abdomen will swell and her womb will miscarry, and she will become a curse. If, however, the woman has not made herself impure, but is clean, she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to have children.
Numbers 16:28-35 Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that the LORD has sent me to do all thesethings, for it was not my own doing: If these men die a natural death, or if they suffer the fate of all men, then the LORD has not sent me. But if the LORD brings about something unprecedented, and the earth opens itsmouth and swallows them and all that belongs to them so that they go down alive into Sheol, then you will know that these men have treated the LORD with contempt.”
As soon as Moses had finished saying all this, the ground beneath them split open, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households—all Korah’s men and all their possessions. They wentdown alive into Sheol with all they owned. The earth closed over them, and they vanished from the assembly.
At their cries, all the people of Israel who were around them fled, saying, “The earth may swallow us too!” And fire came forth from the LORD and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.
Acts 5:1-10 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. Withhis wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.
Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit andhave kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it wassold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”
When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.
Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him. About threehours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.
Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?” “Yes,” she said, “that is the price.”
Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men whoburied your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”
At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carriedher out and buried her beside her husband.
Acts 13:8-11 But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith.
Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun.”
Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand.
