For I solemnly swear,” ¹  says the Lord, “that Bozrah ²  will become a pile of ruins. It will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example to be used in curses. ³  All the towns around it will lie in ruins forever.”

The one who curses ¹  his father and his mother, his lamp ²  will be extinguished in the blackest ³  darkness.

And people will settle there, and there will no longer be the threat of divine extermination – Jerusalem will dwell in security.

That is why the Lord’s anger erupted against this land, bringing on it all the curses ¹  written in this scroll.

Then ¹  Joshua read aloud all the words of the law, including the blessings and the curses, just as they are written in the law scroll.

Cursed be the day I was born! May that day not be blessed when my mother gave birth to me. ¹ 

A curse on anyone who is lax in doing the Lord’s work! A curse on anyone who keeps from carrying out his destruction! ¹ 

You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field.

Your basket and your mixing bowl will be cursed.

He said to his mother, “You know ¹  the eleven hundred pieces of silver which were stolen ²  from you, about which I heard you pronounce a curse? Look here, I have the silver. I stole ³  it, but now I am giving it back to you.” ⁴  His mother said, “May the Lord reward ⁵  you, my son!”

“Note well, you still have to contend with Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim, ¹  who tried to call down upon me a horrible judgment when I went to Mahanaim. ²  He came down and met me at the Jordan, and I solemnly promised ³  him by the Lord, ‘I will not strike you down ⁴  with the sword.’

“All Israel has broken ¹  your law and turned away by not obeying you. ²  Therefore you have poured out on us the judgment solemnly threatened ³  in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against you. ⁴ 

But this rabble ¹  who do not know the law are accursed!”

Today I invoke heaven and earth as a witness against you that I have set life and death, blessing and curse, before you. Therefore choose life so that you and your descendants may live!

‘You displayed a sensitive spirit ¹  and humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard how I intended to make this place and its residents into an appalling example of an accursed people. ²  You tore your clothes and wept before me, and I have heard you,’ says the Lord.

For ¹  the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ²  says, ‘If you go to Egypt, I will pour out my wrath on you just as I poured out my anger and wrath on the citizens of Jerusalem. ³  You will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example of those who have been cursed and that people use in pronouncing a curse. ⁴  You will never see this place again.’ ⁵ 

Finally the Lord could no longer endure your wicked deeds and the disgusting things you did. That is why your land has become the desolate, uninhabited ruin that it is today. That is why it has become a proverbial example used in curses. ¹ 

Whoever shares with a thief ¹  is his own enemy; ²  he hears the oath to testify, ³  but does not talk.

He says, ¹  “Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers. ²  Look, it now descends on Edom, ³  on the people I will annihilate in judgment.”

Cursed be the man who made my father very glad when he brought him the news that a baby boy had been born to him! ¹