What does κατάρα (katára) mean in the Bible?
G2671 is the noun for a curse or for cursing. Six forms occur in five verses across Galatians, Hebrews, James, and 2 Peter.
Greek · G2671
κατάρα
Imprecation, execration
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κατάρα G2671
Pronunciation katára
What does κατάρα (katára) mean in the Bible?
G2671 is the noun for a curse or for cursing. Six forms occur in five verses across Galatians, Hebrews, James, and 2 Peter.
Reader summary
Full entry for κατάρα (G2671) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G2671?
The BSB source-word alignment has 6 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include a curse (2), [its] curse (1), [They are] accursed (1), curse (1), cursing (1).
Where does κατάρα (katára) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Galatians 3:10. Its strongest book concentrations include Galatians (3), 2 Peter (1), Hebrews (1), James (1).
What This Word Actually Means
G2671 is the noun for a curse or for cursing. Six forms occur in five verses across Galatians, Hebrews, James, and 2 Peter. Galatians 3 supplies three forms as Paul explains the curse attached to failure to continue in everything written in the law and then announces that Christ redeemed "us" from that curse by becoming a curse for us. Hebrews uses the noun in a severe land-and-thorns warning. James condemns blessing God and cursing people from the same mouth. Second Peter calls corrupt teachers children of a curse.
The word does not make every occurrence the same kind of speech or judgment. Galatians develops redemption within Paul's scriptural argument about law, faith, Abraham's blessing, and Christ. James addresses destructive human speech toward people made in God's likeness. Hebrews and 2 Peter use warning and judgment language. Teachers should not use the noun to validate superstition, retaliatory pronouncements, or the claim that every hardship reveals a spoken curse.
How the Bible Uses It
G2671 names curse or cursing in law-and-redemption, warning, speech ethics, and false-teacher judgment settings. The source, object, and function of the curse remain passage-defined.
- Gal.3.13
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
Paul locates redemption from the law's curse in Christ's representative curse-bearing.
- Heb.6.8
But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless, and its curse is imminent. In the end it will be burned.
The curse belongs to the passage's cultivated-land warning and should be taught together with the surrounding exhortation.
- Jas.3.10
Out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, this should not be!
James condemns the contradiction between worship and speech that harms people made in God's likeness.
Passage context
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It a curse 2× Galatians 3:10, Galatians 3:13
[its] curse 1× Hebrews 6:8
[They are] accursed 1× 2 Peter 2:14
curse 1× Galatians 3:13
cursing 1× James 3:10
Show sample aligned rows
Galatians 3:10 κατάραν to a curse Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Galatians 3:13 κατάρας to curse Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular Galatians 3:13 κατάρα to a curse Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular Hebrews 6:8 κατάρας to [its] curse Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular James 3:10 κατάρα to cursing Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular 2 Peter 2:14 κατάρας to [They are] accursed Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Galatians 3:10
Aligned rows 6
Books represented 4
Galatians 3 Hebrews 1 James 1 2 Peter 1
Source forms
κατάρας 3x kataras Galatians 3:13, Hebrews 6:8, 2 Peter 2:14
κατάρα 2x katara Galatians 3:13, James 3:10
κατάραν 1x kataran Galatians 3:10
Parsing patterns
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular 3x Galatians 3:13, Hebrews 6:8, 2 Peter 2:14
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular 2x Galatians 3:13, James 3:10
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 1x Galatians 3:10
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Bring fear of judgment to Christ's redeeming work rather than to superstition or private counter-curses.
- Let James examine speech toward people who bear God's likeness.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim every suffering circumstance proves an active curse.
- Do not claim Christians are authorized to curse opponents.
- Do not claim the six occurrences all describe the same kind of speech act.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. A curse as divine imprecation or human execration; opposite to blessing in relational contexts.
Strong's G2671
Lexical occurrences 6 verses Greek text appearances 6 times Word forms 3 forms 6 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link James 3:7–12 Source Gloss
imprecation, execration
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
6 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Galatians 3:10 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
κατάραν kataran
a curse, cursing
Read verse Galatians 3:13 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
κατάρας katarav
a curse, cursing
Read verse Galatians 3:13 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
κατάρα· katara
a curse, cursing
Read verse Hebrews 6:8 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
κατάρας katarav
a curse, cursing
Read verse James 3:10 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
κατάρα. katara
a curse, cursing
Read verse 2 Peter 2:14 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
κατάρας katarav
a curse, cursing
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 3 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Form patterns 3 Aligned forms 6 Case pattern Genitive (3) Number pattern Singular (6)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · Feminine Gal 3:13 · Jas 3:10 2×
Genitive · Singular · Feminine Gal 3:13 · Heb 6:8 · 2 Pet 2:14 3×
Accusative · Singular · Feminine Gal 3:10 1×
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Witnesses
curse
Showing 1 selected witness from 6 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
κατάρα is built from these roots:
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
G2671 should move preaching toward Christ, truthful warning, and transformed speech rather than superstition. Galatians 3 names a real curse within Paul's law-and-faith argument and locates redemption in Christ becoming a curse for us. Hebrews and 2 Peter preserve the gravity of divine judgment, while James refuses to let worship coexist comfortably with cursing other people.
The preacher must distinguish these settings. A warning text should not become a tool for threatening personal enemies, and Christ's curse-bearing should not be reduced to a formula for diagnosing every hardship. The pastoral center is sober confidence: judgment is not trivial, redemption is God's work in Christ, and redeemed speech should honor people made in God's likeness.
Anchor passage
Gal.3.13
Doctrinal connections
- Deut.27.26; Gal.3.10 - Paul cites the law's comprehensive demand within his argument about reliance on law.
- Deut.21.22-23; Gal.3.13 - the tree citation frames Christ becoming a curse for us.
- Gen.12.1-3; Gal.3.8-14 - redemption from curse serves the promised blessing reaching the nations.
- Heb.6.4-12 - the land warning is followed by pastoral confidence and diligence.
- Gen.1.26-27; Jas.3.8-12 - God's likeness makes cursing other people incompatible with blessing God.
- 2Pe.2.1-22 - curse language belongs to a sustained exposure of corrupt teachers.
The witness uses a feminine singular noun in the accusative once, the genitive three times, and the nominative twice. Galatians 3:13 contains two forms in one verse, one referring to the curse of the law and one to Christ becoming a curse. Case and syntax help track those relations but do not erase the distinct discourse settings elsewhere.
From Old to New Testament
Galatians explicitly cites Deuteronomy's curse texts and joins them to Abraham's blessing promise. Those citations govern the connection. Other Old Testament curse passages should not be imported as if every use shared the same covenantal setting or authorized believers to pronounce judgment.
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain