To execrate
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The Hebrew verb arar describes pronouncing a curse or identifying someone, something, or an action as under curse. God curses the serpent and the ground in Genesis, covenant ceremonies name acts that violate worship and neighbor justice, Balak hires Balaam to curse Israel but God refuses because the people are blessed, and Saul imposes a rash oath that leaves his troops faint.
Reader summary
Full entry for אָרַר (H779) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew verb arar describes pronouncing a curse or identifying someone, something, or an action as under curse. God curses the serpent and the ground in Genesis, covenant ceremonies name acts that violate worship and neighbor justice, Balak hires Balaam to curse Israel but God refuses because the people are blessed, and Saul imposes a rash oath that.
The BSB source-word alignment has 63 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Cursed is (17), that brings a curse (5), will be cursed (4), cursed (3), Cursed be (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 3:14. Its strongest book concentrations include Deuteronomy (18), Numbers (13), Genesis (9), Jeremiah (6).
The Hebrew verb arar describes pronouncing a curse or identifying someone, something, or an action as under curse. God curses the serpent and the ground in Genesis, covenant ceremonies name acts that violate worship and neighbor justice, Balak hires Balaam to curse Israel but God refuses because the people are blessed, and Saul imposes a rash oath that leaves his troops faint.
Jeremiah can curse the day of his birth in anguished lament, while Jacob curses Simeon and Levi's violent anger rather than declaring their whole persons beyond hope. These contexts differ from casual insults, occult techniques, and emotional venting. The verb does not give modern believers a power formula for harming enemies, controlling relatives, or interpreting every hardship as a spoken curse.
Deuteronomy's sanctions belong to Israel's covenant ceremony and repeatedly protect vulnerable neighbors, including a blind person, foreigner, fatherless child, widow, and innocent person. Responsible teaching identifies the speaker, target, authority, covenant setting, and result, then rejects manipulative oaths, magical fear, dehumanizing speech, and private retaliation.
Arar denotes pronouncing or bearing a curse in divine speech, covenant sanction, human oath, prophetic lament, or attempted hostile ritual. Speaker, target, authority, and setting distinguish judgment, moral warning, rash coercion, grief, refused cursing, and blessed protection.
Now the men of Israel were in distress that day, for Saul had placed the troops under an oath, saying, “Cursed is the man who eats any food before evening, before I have taken vengeance on my enemies.” So none of the troops tasted any food.
Saul binds the troops under a curse against eating until evening as he pursues personal vengeance.
Then one of the soldiers told him, “Your father bound the troops with a solemn oath, saying, ‘Cursed is the man who eats food today.’ That is why the people are faint.”
A soldier explains that Saul's solemn oath has left the people physically faint.
‘Cursed is he who lets a blind man wander in the road.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
The covenant ceremony pronounces a curse on anyone who misleads a blind person on the road.
‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
The covenant ceremony condemns withholding justice from foreigners, fatherless children, and widows.
But God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them. You are not to curse this people, for they are blessed.”
God forbids Balaam to go and curse Israel because the people are blessed.
Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me never be blessed.
Jeremiah curses the day of his birth while voicing profound anguish over his prophetic life.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. To curse with intensity or bitterness; divine utterance that brings misfortune or separation from covenant blessing
To curse with intensity or bitterness; divine utterance that brings misfortune or separation from covenant blessing
to execrate BDB: curse Usage: × bitterly curse.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 63 lexical occurrence verses.
אָרַר is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Arar requires authority and context, not superstition. First Samuel 14 shows Saul placing exhausted troops under an oath tied to his vengeance. The curse produces faintness, endangers Jonathan, and contributes to disorder, exposing how a leader's intense words can transfer cost to followers. Deuteronomy 27 uses covenant curse formulas to make hidden wrongdoing publicly answerable.
Misleading a blind person and denying justice to foreigners, fatherless children, and widows stand among the condemned acts, so curse language here protects neighbors rather than offering a weapon against them. Numbers 22 records a foreign king attempting to hire Balaam to curse Israel, yet God says the people are blessed. The narrative locates effective authority with God and undermines fear that paid speech controls His purpose.
Jeremiah 20 curses the day of the prophet's birth during severe distress. The lament is preserved in Scripture without presenting despair as a magical act that creates reality. Faithful application refuses manipulative vows, protects disabled and marginalized people, listens seriously to despair, seeks immediate help when self-harm risk is present, and trusts God's judgment instead of selling rituals or directing curses at enemies.
Num.22.12
Arar transliterates Hebrew אָרַר. The verb may take a person, action, object, day, or condition as its target; direct speech, passive forms, and covenant formulas identify who pronounces the curse and what authority the narrative grants the words.
The New Testament speaks of Christ bearing the covenant curse, commands blessing rather than cursing persecutors, and warns against destructive speech through distinct Greek vocabulary. Those texts shape Christian response without turning arar into a technique for identifying family misfortune or invisible spiritual attack.