Psalms 109:17

He loved to curse ¹  others, so those curses have come upon him. ²  He had no desire to bless anyone, so he has experienced no blessings. ³ 

He loved to pronounce a curse—may it come on him; he found no pleasure in blessing—may it be far from him.

He also loved cursing, so it came to him; And he did not delight in blessing, so it was far from him.

He loved to curse others; now you curse him. He never blessed others; now don’t you bless him.

Since he loved cursing so much, let curses rain down; Since he had no taste for blessing, let blessings flee far from him.

As he took pleasure in cursing, so let it come on him; and as he had no delight in blessing, let it be far from him.

He loved to curse; let curses come on him. He did not like blessing; may it be far from him.

As he loved cursing, so let it come to him; As he did not delight in blessing, so let it be far from him.

He loved to curse ¹  others, so those curses have come upon him. ²  He had no desire to bless anyone, so he has experienced no blessings. ³ 

¹ sn A curse in OT times consists of a formal appeal to God to bring judgment down upon another. Curses were sometimes justified (such as the one spoken by the psalmist here in vv. 6-19), but when they were not, the one pronouncing the curse was in danger of bringing the anticipated judgment down upon himself.

² tn Heb “and he loved a curse and it came [upon] him.” A reference to the evil man experiencing a curse seems premature here, for the psalmist is asking God to bring judgment on his enemies. For this reason some (cf. NIV, NRSV) prefer to repoint the vav (ו) on “it came” as conjunctive and translate the verb as a jussive of prayer (“may it come upon him!”). The prefixed form with vav consecutive in the next line is emended in the same way and translated, “may it be far from him.” However, the psalmist may be indicating that the evil man’s lifestyle has already begun to yield its destructive fruit.

³ tn Heb “and he did not delight in a blessing and it is far from him.”