StrongerBible

me'erah

מְאֵרָה

HebrewH3994“curse, cursing”

Appears 5 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Deu 28:20Pro 3:33Pro 28:27Mal 2:2Mal 3:9
Root family
Word studymeh-ay-RAHnoun

What me'erah means

a curse that takes effect: the blight that settles on someone's work, land, or household and drains it of any increase

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

Hebrew has several words for a curse, and this one names the outcome rather than the words. It is built from the verb meaning "to put under a curse" (אָרַר), and where that verb is the act, this noun is what is left once the act has landed: crops that never come in, work that comes to nothing, a house that never prospers.

All five appearances describe the same thing happening to something that should have produced:

  • everything a person sets his hand to falls apart (Deuteronomy 28:20)
  • the blessings the priests pronounce are turned inside out (Malachi 2:2)
  • a whole nation watches its harvest eaten away (Malachi 3:9)
  • a wicked man's household never comes to anything (Proverbs 3:33)
  • a man who refuses the poor collects one ruin after another (Proverbs 28:27)

In four of the five the LORD is plainly the one who sends it, and it is set directly against blessing. Malachi 2:2 has God cursing the very blessings the priests hand out, and Proverbs 3:33 puts this curse on the wicked man's house opposite the blessing on the righteous man's home. Only Proverbs 28:27 leaves the source unnamed.

That focus on effect is what separates it from the ordinary Hebrew word for a curse (קְלָלָה), which usually points at the words said or the shameful name a person is left with, and from the sworn curse of a broken oath (אָלָה), which is a penalty a person calls down on himself.

Nuances

1athe blight the LORD sends, so that work, harvest, and household yield nothing
Deu 28:20Pro 3:33Mal 2:2Mal 3:9
1bthe ruin a hard-hearted person piles up by turning away those in need
Pro 28:27

What scholars say about me'erah

The standard critical lexica (HALOT, BDB, DCH) treat מְאֵרָה as a noun of the root ארר glossed "curse," and none of them subdivides it, so the sense inventory is not in question. What the literature discusses is how curse language functions rather than what this noun denotes. Following H. C. Brichto's study of biblical curse vocabulary and J. Scharbert's treatment of ארר in TDOT, the root is understood to designate not a magical utterance operating by its own power but an authoritative pronouncement whose effect is attributed to God; the derived noun accordingly names the resulting condition of blight rather than the utterance. The distribution supports this reading: in Deuteronomy 28:20 it heads a triad of ruinous agents sent by YHWH against everything the addressee undertakes; in Malachi 2:2 and 3:9 it is precisely what turns priestly blessing and national harvest to nothing; and in Proverbs 3:33 it stands as the antithesis of divine blessing on a household. The plural at Proverbs 28:27 is the one instance without a named agent, and commentators (so Waltke, NICOT) read it as curses invoked by the neglected poor and ratified by God rather than as a separate lexical sense.

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. מְאֵרָהlexicon
  • BDB, s.v. מְאֵרָהlexicon
  • J. Scharbert, "ʾārar," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), 405-418theological-dictionary
  • H. C. Brichto, The Problem of "Curse" in the Hebrew Bible (SBL Monograph Series 13; Philadelphia: Society of Biblical Literature, 1963)monograph
  • B. K. Waltke, The Book of Proverbs: Chapters 15-31 (NICOT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005)commentary
  • A. E. Hill, Malachi: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (Anchor Bible 25D; New York: Doubleday, 1998)commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of מְאֵרָה

f s absolute

מְּאֵרָה

Deu 28:20, Mal 2:2, Mal 3:9

f p absolute

מְאֵרוֹת

Pro 28:27

f s construct

מְאֵרַת

Pro 3:33