Extended Strong's Greek Lexicon (Abbott-Smith based)
curse
Usage: ἀρά, -ᾶς, ἡ [in LXX chiefly for אָלָה ]; __1. a prayer (MM, see word). __2. (as in Homer) a curse, malediction: Rom.3:14 (LXX),† (AS)
Ara means “curse” — full meaning, definition, and every linked Bible usage across the indexed canon.
Same number, other testament: Strong's H685 — etsadah (“bracelet”) in the Hebrew Bible.
Strong's G685 ἀρά (ara) is a Greek Strong's word-study entry. ara (ar-ah') n. 1. (properly) a prayer (as lifted to Heaven) 2. (commonly, by implication) a curse It has 30 linked Bible usages across 15 books. Visible English usage signals include curse, lord, thee, oath, and god. Indexed coverage on this page includes New Testament, Septuagint / Greek Old Testament, and Deuterocanonical / Apocrypha.
ara (ar-ah') n. 1. (properly) a prayer (as lifted to Heaven) 2. (commonly, by implication) a curse [probably from G142] KJV: curse Root(s): G142 Compare: G4335
How independent scholarly lexicons define Strong's G685. Each definition is shown with its source so you can compare and cite the original reference works.
curse
Usage: ἀρά, -ᾶς, ἡ [in LXX chiefly for אָלָה ]; __1. a prayer (MM, see word). __2. (as in Homer) a curse, malediction: Rom.3:14 (LXX),† (AS)
Frequent English words from the visible usage excerpts. These are not a replacement for the original-language definition, but they make the usage pattern easier to scan.
Indexed coverage includes Septuagint / Greek Old Testament, Deuterocanonical / Apocrypha, and New Testament. Each section below keeps corpus counts and sample passages visible so readers can compare the word across contexts instead of reading one flat concordance list.
Strong's G685 (ἀρά) appears 30 times in the Greek Septuagint — the Old Testament the New Testament authors quoted.
Sample Septuagint occurrences:
Indexed usage grouped by testament and extended corpus so readers can compare this word across the Bible, Septuagint, deuterocanonical books, and 1 Enoch where present.
1 indexed usage in New Testament.
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
27 indexed usages in Septuagint / Greek Old Testament.
Then shalt thou be clear from my curse, for whensoever thou shalt have come to my tribe, and they shall not give her to thee, then shalt thou be clear from my oath.
And they said, We have surely seen that the Lord was with thee, and we said, Let there be an oath between us and thee, and we will make a covenant with thee,
then the priest shall adjure the woman by the oaths of this curse, and the priest shall say to the woman, The Lord bring thee into a curse and under an oath in the midst of thy people, in that the Lord should cause thy thigh to rot and thy belly to swell;
2 indexed usages in Deuterocanonical / Apocrypha.
Wherefore the evils clove unto us, and the curse, which the Lord appointed by Moses his servant at the time that he brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt, to give us a land that floweth with milk and honey, like as it is to see this day.
Behold, we are yet this day in our captivity, where thou hast scattered us, for a reproach and a curse, and to be subject to payments, according to all the iniquities of our fathers, which departed from the Lord our God.
First 30 linked usage excerpts for Strong's G685.
Then shalt thou be clear from my curse, for whensoever thou shalt have come to my tribe, and they shall not give her to thee, then shalt thou be clear from my oath.
And they said, We have surely seen that the Lord was with thee, and we said, Let there be an oath between us and thee, and we will make a covenant with thee,
then the priest shall adjure the woman by the oaths of this curse, and the priest shall say to the woman, The Lord bring thee into a curse and under an oath in the midst of thy people, in that the Lord should cause thy thigh to rot and thy belly to swell;
And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and shall blot them out with the water of the conviction that brings the curse.
And it shall come to pass, if she be defiled, and have altogether escaped the notice of her husband, then the water of the conviction that brings the curse shall enter into her; and she shall swell in her belly, and her thigh shall rot, and the woman shall be for a curse in the midst of her people.
your wives, and your children, and the stranger who is in the midst of your camp, from your hewer of wood even to your drawer of water,
that he may appoint thee to himself for a people, and he shall be thy God, as he said to thee, and as he swore to thy fathers, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob.
Lest there be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart has turned aside from the Lord your God, having gone to serve the gods of these nations; lest there be in you a root springing up with gall and bitterness.
And it shall be if one shall hear the words of this curse, and shall flatter himself in his heart, saying, Let good happen to me, for I will walk in the error of my heart, lest the sinner destroy the guiltless with him:
God shall by no means be willing to pardon him, but then the wrath of the Lord and his jealousy shall flame out against that man; and all the curses of this covenant shall attach themselves to him, which are written in this book, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven.
And the Lord thy God will put these curses upon thine enemies, and upon those that hate thee, who have persecuted thee.
Whatsoever trespasses anyone shall commit against his neighbor—and if he shall take upon him an oath so that he should swear, and he shall come and make confession before thine altar in this house,
If a man sin against his neighbor, and he bring an oath upon him so as to make him swear, and he come and swear before the altar in this house;
And that we would not give our daughters unto the people of the land, not take their daughters for our sons:
Whose mouth is full of cursing, and bitterness, and fraud: Under his tongue are trouble and pain.
They are all gone out of the way, they are together become good for nothing, There is none that does good, no not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher; With their tongues they have used deceit; The poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways; And the way of peace they have not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.
For the sin of their mouth, and the word of their lips, Let them be even taken in their pride.
But the heart of fools shall meet with curses.
Therefore a curse shall consume the earth, because the inhabitants thereof have sinned: therefore the dwellers in the earth shall be poor, and few men shall be left.
A curse shall devour this counsel, for this is their counsel for the sake of covetousness.
For thus saith the Lord; As my wrath has dropped upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall my wrath drop upon you, when ye have entered into Egypt: and ye shall be a desolation, and under the power of others, and a curse and a reproach: and ye shall no more see this place.
And the Lord could no longer bear you, because of the wickedness of your doings, and because of your abominations which ye wrought; and so your land became a desolation and a waste, and a curse, as at this day;
And he shall take of the seed royal, and shall make a covenant with him, and shall bind him with an oath: and he shall take the princes of the land:
As I live, saith the Lord, verily in the same place where the king is that made him king, who dishonored my oath, and who broke my covenant, shall he die with him in the midst of Babylon.
Cursing, and lying, and murder, and theft, and adultery abound in the land, and they mingle blood with blood.
And he said to me, This is the curse that goes forth over the face of the whole earth: for every thief shall be punished with death on this side, and every false swearer shall be punished on that side.
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
Wherefore the evils clove unto us, and the curse, which the Lord appointed by Moses his servant at the time that he brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt, to give us a land that floweth with milk and honey, like as it is to see this day.
Behold, we are yet this day in our captivity, where thou hast scattered us, for a reproach and a curse, and to be subject to payments, according to all the iniquities of our fathers, which departed from the Lord our God.
Every indexed verse link for Strong's G685, grouped by book.
Ara (Strong's G685) is a Greek word most simply glossed "curse". ara (ar-ah') n. 1. (properly) a prayer (as lifted to Heaven) 2. (commonly, by implication) a curse
This page currently indexes 30 linked usages for Strong's G685 across 15 books.
Use the linked verse references on this page to study Strong's G685 in context. The indexed coverage includes New Testament, Septuagint / Greek Old Testament, and Deuterocanonical / Apocrypha.
The visible usage excerpts most often surface English words such as curse, lord, thee, oath, god, and upon. These are scanning signals from the displayed verses, not replacements for the original-language definition.
Yes. The current local index includes 27 in Septuagint / Greek Old Testament and 2 in Deuterocanonical / Apocrypha for Strong's G685, with linked reader references where each row is available.