אָרַר
to curse
‘to curse’ is one of 4 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”).
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem.
- Hophal
- The passive counterpart of the Hiphil (“he was caused to…”).
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”).
Form
- Participle Passive
- A verbal adjective expressing action received (“written”).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Infinitive Absolute
- An unbound verbal noun, often intensifying or standing in for a finite verb.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Person
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H779 appears in the Book of 1 Samuel — 3 distinct verses. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
1 Samuel
- 1 Samuel 14:24 אָר֣וּר Qal ptcp.pass ms The men of Israel were distressed that day; for Saul had adjured the people, saying, Cursed be the man who eats any food until it be evening, and I be avenged on my enemies. So none of the people tasted food.
- 1 Samuel 14:28 אָר֥וּר Qal ptcp.pass ms Then answered one of the people, and said, Your father directly charged the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man who eats food this day. The people were faint.
- 1 Samuel 26:19 אֲרוּרִ֥ים Qal ptcp.pass mp Now therefore, please let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it be Yahweh that has stirred you up against me, let him accept an offering: but if it be the children of men, cursed be they before Yahweh: for they have driven me out this day that I shouldn't cling to Yahweh's inheritance, saying, Go, serve other gods.
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
ארר — transliterated ʼârar — is a Hebrew verb carrying the sense “to curse.” Translators differ — “cursed” in the King James Version, then “cursed is” (Berean Standard Bible), as the renderings breakdown shows. With 52 verses in 12 books, it is a moderately common word in the Hebrew Bible. Its uses concentrate in Deuteronomy (31% of all occurrences). Read the stem: it spans 3 stems, including Niphal and Piel. See the sense tree, 52-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H779 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 52
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 52 distinct verses.
- 12 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 12 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #611
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 611 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 52 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Deuteronomy 16 verses 31%
- Numbers 9 verses 17%
- Genesis 8 verses 15%
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 52 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 34 verses · 65%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 16 verses · 31%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 2 verses · 4%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Cursed 33×, Causeth the curse 6×, Curse 5×
- American Standard Version: Cursed 32×, Causeth the curse 6×, Curse 5×
- Berean Standard Bible: Cursed is 18×, Cursed 10×, Brings a curse 5×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Cursed 28×, Brings a curse 6×, Will be 6×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H779 across 63 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 19 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H779 across 63 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 18 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H779 across 62 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 13 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H779 across 76 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 15 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in the full BDB
Hebrew verbs can shift meaning by stem (binyan): Qal is the basic action, Niphal is often passive or reflexive, Piel often intensifies or makes it factitive, and Hiphil is typically causative. The senses below are grouped under the stem BDB assigns to each. This entry also uses Hophal (the passive of Hiphil).
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 3 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
Niphal
- Pt. נֵאָרִים cursed Mal 3:9. e.g. Malachi 3:9
Piel
- Pf. 3 ms. sf. אֵרֲרָהּ curse, lay under a curse Gn 5:29 (J); Pt. הַמַּיִם הַמְאָרְרִים the curse-bringing waters Nu 5:18–27 (P 6 times waters destroying the perjured adulteress drinking them). e.g. Genesis 5:29
Hophal
- Impf. יוּאָ֑ר be cursed Nu 22:6 (E). e.g. Numbers 22:6
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
vb. curse (Assyrian arâru ZimBP 68; on relation of meanings bind & curse in Assyrian v. DlPr 101)—Qal Pf. 1 s. וְאָרוֹתִ֫י, אָרוֹתִיהָ Mal 2:2; Impf. 2 ms. תָּאֹר Ex 22:27 Nu 22:6, 12; אָאֹר Gn 12:3; Imv. אָ֫רָה־ Nu 22:6; 23:7; אוֹרוּ, אֹרוּ & Inf. abs. אָרוֹר all Ju 5:23; Pt. אֹרְרֵי Jb 3:8; אֹרְרֶיךָ Gn 27:29 Nu 24:9; אָרוּר Gn 3:14 + 36 times etc.;—curse ‖ בֵּרֵךְ bless, chiefly in poetic & legal sources of JED & later imitations: Gn 12:3; 27:29 (J) Nu 22:6, 12; 23:7; 24:9 (E) Ex 22:27 (E) Mal 2:2; אֹרוּ אָרוֹר ישְׁבֶיהָ = curse for ever her inhabitants Ju 5:23; אֹרְרֵי יוֹם cursers of the day (magicians whose imprecations made days unlucky) Jb 3:8. Pt. pass. אָרוּר, chiefly as exclamation, ‖ בָּרוּךְ Gn 3:14, 17; 4:11; 9:25; 27:29; 49:7 Nu 24:9 (E, poet.) Dt 27:15–26 Ju 21:18 1 S 14:24, 28; 26:19 Je 11:3; 17:5; 20:14, 15; 48:10(×2) Mal 1:14; אֲרוּרִים הַשֹּׁגִים מִמִּצְוֹתֶיךָ cursed be those who wander from thy commands ψ 119:21 (𝔊 𝔖 Jer De Ri), הָאֲרוּרָה הַזֹּאת this cursed woman 2 K 9:34.
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: a primitive root
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
אָרַר
- 1. to dig, stab; v. אֲרָרָן.
- 2. to point out for execration, [or to set outside]; (cmp. חרם a. נקב, a. also ברך); to curse.—Part. pass. אָרוּר, f. אֲרוּרָה, pl. אֲרוּרִים &c. Shebu. 36ᵃ; a. fr.—*Y. Sot. II, 18ᵃ top מֵי יכול מראה מים ת"ל ארד (read אָרַר) you might infer from the word mé (Num. V, 18) that it must have the color of water, therefore the root arar is used in connection therewith (i.e. water in which the curse written with ink has been washed off and is recognizable in the mixture); אי ארד וכ׳ (read ארר) from arar again you might infer that the drink must have the color of ink, therefore we read mé, which means the color of water and the color of ink (a colored thin fluid); cmp. Bab. Sot. 16ᵇ (where the same argument is used with reference to blood).—Part. pass. f. אֲרוּרָה cacophem. for idol. Ab. Zar. 51ᵃ לא׳ זו מיבעיא Ms. M. (ed. לע"ז) so much the more for that cursed (idol). e.g. Numbers 5:18
- to curse. Gen. R. s. 36, end מְאָרֵר. Cant. R. to IV, 11 שאֵרְרָהּ וכ׳ which Joshuah had cursed. Pesik. R. s. 26 שאֵירְרוּ; a. fr.
- to be cursed. Num. R. s. 14 לא נֶאֶרְרוּ וכ׳ they were not cursed before seventy verses were completed (Gen. I, 1 to III, 14; Esth. III, 1 to VII, 10). Y. Sot. IX, 24ᵇ bot.; Tosef. ib. XV, 2 נִתְאָרְרוּ. e.g. Genesis 1:1
אֲרַר
- Targ. II Kings IX, 34 אֲרוּרְתָּא the cursed.—אֲרוּרַיָּיא, אֲרוּרֵי m. pl. Arurs, the Bible chapters containing the word arur (Lev. XXVI, 14—46; Deut. XXVIII, 15—69); [Hebr. תוכחות or קללות]. Y. Meg. III, 74ᵇ bot.—Meg. 31ᵇ קא מגמגם … בא׳ read the arurs in an undertone. Koh. R. to VIII, 3. e.g. Leviticus 26:14
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 38 distinct written forms H779 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that stem’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H779, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 51 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 52 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- Genesis 3:14
- Exodus 22:28
- Numbers 5:18
- Deuteronomy 27:15
- Joshua 6:26
- Judges 5:23
- 1 Samuel 14:24
- 2 Kings 9:34
- Job 3:8
- Jeremiah 11:3
- Malachi 1:14
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
