Verses of Curses
The book of Deuteronomy is a lot of fun. So much fun!… Next time you’re sitting around with friends on a Friday night, wondering what to do, just say, “Hey! I know! Let’s read the book of Deuteronomy together!”
Trust me, your friends will thank you...
Here’s what you can look forward to. In the book of Deuteronomy, early on, God gives Moses the Ten Commandments. And then, a chapter or two later, we get “The Great Commandment,” to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, body, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.
And then, after that, we have chapter after chapter of more detailed commandments - commandments which show how the Great Commandment and how the Ten Commandments are to be put into practice.
And after page after page of commandments, then we get a long list of curses that will come to those who disobey God’s commands. Verse after verse, page after page, curse after curse after curse!
Curses upon you; curses upon your city; curses upon your field, your basket and your kneading bowl; curses upon the fruit of your womb; curses upon the fruit of your ground; curses when you come in, and curses when you go out...disaster, panic, frustration, pestilence, fever, inflammation, blight and mildew...
See? Fun!
Let’s look at chapter 28. It’s a nice, long chapter - 68 verses long. And every verse is a curse.
Let’s look at one particular curse. In the middle of all those verses of curses, in verse 30, there is a curse that says:
“You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not harvest its fruit.”
You might think that sounds kinda tame, compared to some of the other curses. Annoying, perhaps, but not too bad.
But just wait until you find out what this particular curse really means.
(Dun dun dun…)
(Sargon & Sennacherib)
In the 8th, 7th, and 6th centuries BCE, a particular form of warfare was practiced called “siege warfare.”
Siege warfare was brutal. It was a source of great fear and apprehension. It wasn’t warfare that took place on a battlefield outside the city walls; it took place by attacking cities, or surrounding cities, cutting them off, draining them of resources, and eventually destroying them.
And the invading armies would haul off the people, remove them from their homes, and destroy all their crops so that there was nothing left for them to return to. In essence, they were wiping the city off the map.
This is what this particular curse refers to. “You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not harvest its fruit.”
A variation of this curse appears repeatedly in the Bible. It appears not only in Deuteronomy, but also in Amos, and Zephaniah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and Isaiah.
And, according to UCLA scholar Jeremy Smoak, “In the context of siege warfare, the imagery of the curse came to symbolize the horrors associated with a successful siege.”
Archaeologists have found ancient writings that describe such curses actually being carried out. When the Assyrian king Sargon II laid siege to two fortified cities, he described his conquest of those cities like this:
Into Ulhu, the store-city of Ursa I entered triumphantly; to the palace, his royal abode, I marched victoriously. The mighty wall, which was made of stone from the lofty mountain; with iron axes and iron hoes I smashed like a pot and leveled it to the ground…. His great trees, the adornment of his palace, I cut down like millet… The trunks of all those trees which I had cut down I gathered together, heaped them in a pile and burned them with fire. Their abundant crops, which were immeasurable, I tore up by the root and did not leave an ear to remember the destruction.
I sent up large numbers of troops against their cities and they carried off large quantities of their property, their goods. Their strong walls, together with 87 cities of their neighborhood, I destroyed, I leveled to the ground. I set fire to the houses with them, and made the beams of their roofs like flame. Their heaped up granaries I opened, and let my army devour unmeasured quantities of barley. Their orchards I cut down, their forests I felled; all their tree trunks I gathered together and set them on fire
Needless to say, the people of those cities could no longer live in the houses they built, or harvest the fruit of the vineyards they had planted.
In addition to descriptions like this, there are carved images which have survived through the centuries. And these images show Assyrian soldiers chopping down trees, orchards, and other vegetation surrounding an enemy city.
Archaeologists have found artwork in the ancient palaces of Sennacharib, the king of Assyria, who built the city of Ninevah; and this artwork shows soldiers burning the city, deporting the city’s population, and cutting down date palms/destroying crops, making the houses inhabitable, and leaving the fields desolate.
These are acts of war, acts of terror, designed to wipe cities and peoples off the face of the earth. Just the threat of such an act committed against a city brought great fear. And these images in Sennacharib’s palaces show that the curse became an unfortunate reality for many.
So you see what a terrible curse this is, to build a house but not live in it, and to plant a vineyard but not harvest it.
Who Gets Cursed?
So why, and how, does this awful curse get used in the Bible?
Usually, when the Bible uses this curse, it is directed at the wealthy elite, who have oppressed the poor. In Amos, for example, it’s directed at the king and his advisors & administrators...
Amos 5:11 says: “Therefore, because you levy a straw tax on the poor and exact a grain tax from him, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you will not live in them. You have planted lush vineyards, but you will not drink their wine.”
Here, the curse is placed upon a king who oppresses the poor. Because that king oppresses the poor, God will lay siege upon the king’s realm, removing the king & his advisors from their houses, and not allowing them to drink the wine of the vineyards they have planted.
It’s because of God’s concern for the poor that this curse is made.
In Zephaniah, the curse appears under similar circumstances. Zephaniah 1:13: ”And their wealth will be for plunder and their houses for desolation. Though they build houses, they will not live in them; though they plant vineyards, they will not drink their wine.” … Here, to once again quote Jeremy Smoak, “the curse becomes a threat aimed at the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah who became wealthy by cooperation with the pro-Assyrian policies of Manasseh.”
In other words, the curse is directed against those who collude with a foreign power for their own personal gain at the expense of the nation…
Yes, you heard that right. In Zephaniah, the curse is directed against those who collude with a foreign power for their own personal gain at the expense of the nation…
And in Amos, the curse is directed against rulers who enact policies that favor the wealthy elite, but which place a heavy burden on the backs of the poor.
Now. We live in a country in which the executive branch of the government has been caught - and even admitted to - doing exactly what Zephaniah curses. And we live in a country in which economic policy allows the wealthy to easily accumulate more wealth, while placing obstacles and unfair burdens in the path of the poor - exactly what Amos curses.
And everytime a big corporation does well, the CEO gets a big, fat bonus and pay raise, but the majority of workers whose labor made that success possible do not. One could say that the predatory wolves are getting fat, and the innocent lambs are being led to slaughter.
And the economic indicators are up, showing a good economy overall, but the poor are increasingly being left out when it comes to benefitting from the economy.
And unemployment figures show that fewer people are without a job; yet the jobs they have are not paying enough for them to meet the basic needs of living. In response to news reports describing how many jobs are being created, I’ve heard people say, “Yeah, I’ve got three of those jobs myself, and I still can’t pay my rent.”
This is exactly the situation that the curse is directed against in the Bible. The curse is directed against nations and leaders who do not follow God’s commands to love one’s neighbor, to care for the poor, to show compassion to the immigrant, to lift up the lowly, and give power to the oppressed.
Because these are signs of terrible injustice, and they go against God’s vision for the world God created. And because they go against God’s vision, God curses them.
God’s Vision
What is God’s vision?
God’s vision is what Isaiah describes in the second reading we heard.
Look! I’m creating a new heaven and a new earth...
Be glad and rejoice forever
in what I’m creating,
because I’m creating Jerusalem as a joy
and her people as a source of gladness.
I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad about my people.
No one will ever hear the sound of weeping or crying in it again.
No more will babies live only a few days,
or the old fail to live out their days...
They will build houses and live in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
They won’t build for others to live in,
nor plant for others to eat...
They won’t labor in vain,
nor bear children to a world of horrors,
because they will be people blessed by the Lord,
they along with their descendants.
Before they call, I will answer;
while they are still speaking, I will hear.
Wolf and lamb will graze together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
but the snake—its food will be dust.
They won’t hurt or destroy at any place on my holy mountain,
says the Lord.
Curse Reversed
This is God's vision for the world. It is repeated throughout scripture. It’s Isaiah’s vision of a new heaven and a new earth. It’s Jesus’s vision of a new kingdom. It is a world where the wolves no longer prey on the lambs. It is a world where people can live in the houses they built and harvest the crops they planted, without fear that all they know will be destroyed.
It is a world where the blind see and the deaf hear. It is good news for the poor. It is release to the captives. It is the first becoming last and the last becoming first. It is Herod grieving in his palace of power and wealth, while the people rejoice in the wilderness where a few scraps of food become a feast for thousands.
It is a world in which the curse is reversed.
And as Christians, we already have one foot in that new world. We see the miracles and the blessings of that new world all around us, every day.
But we also still have one foot in that old world, the world of injustice and corruption. We still have one foot in the world where the poor suffer, where school children are shot at, and where politicians ignore the cries of the people.
To that old world, we proclaim God’s new vision. We present Christ’s kingdom and live as citizens of that kingdom, showing the world that a new society based on love and kindness is not only possible, but it is promised by God.
And because it is promised by God it will come. The universe is bending toward justice. Peace is on its way. The outcome is inevitable.
We don’t have to sit and wait. We can live now as people who believe the promises of God. We can live now in a world in which the curse is reversed, and made into blessing.
