TR: ʼalah → ara (Oath-Curse / Imprecation)¶

The Chain¶

Hebrew OT            LXX (Greek OT)         Greek NT
───────────          ───────────────         ────────
אָלָה (ʼalah)    →   ἀρά (ara)           →   ἀρά (ara)
H423, 32x            21x as translation      1x in NT
"oath, curse,         of ʼalah               "cursing"
 imprecation"

OT Usage (Hebrew)¶

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
H423	אָלָה (ʼalah)	32	oath-imprecation, self-invoked curse
H422	אָלָה (ʼalah)	6	root verb: to adjure, imprecate
H421	אָלָה (ʼalah)	rare	related verb form

Key OT passages: - Deut 29:12 — "enter into covenant with the LORD thy God, and into his oath (ʼalah)" — the oath that seals the covenant - Eze 17:18-19 — "Seeing he despised the oath (ʼalah) by breaking the covenant… mine oath (ʼalah) that he hath despised" — God claims the covenant oath as his own - Psa 10:7 — "His mouth is full of cursing (ʼalah) and deceit and fraud" — imprecation as wicked speech

H423-alah.md

LXX Bridge¶

Hebrew	Greek Translation	Count	Notes
ʼalah (H423)	ἀρά (ara) G685	21×	Primary equivalent — highest PMI (9.15)
ʼalah (H423)	ὅρκος (horkos) G3727	4×	When oath-sense dominates over curse-sense
ʼalah (H423)	κατάρα (katara) G2671	3×	When curse-sense dominates over oath-sense
ʼalah (H423)	ἀτιμόω (atimoo) G821	4×	"To dishonor" — Ezekiel's "despised the oath"

Reverse: What Hebrew words does ἀρά (G685) translate?

Hebrew	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Notes
אָלָה (ʼalah)	H423	21×	Dominant source — accounts for most LXX ara usage
בְּרִית (beriyth)	H1285	6×	Covenant context where curse-oath is embedded
קְלָלָה (qelalah)	H7045	3×	Occasional overlap when qelalah carries oath-curse force
אָלָה (ʼalah verb)	H422	3×	Verb form of the same root

Semantic alignment in translation: The LXX translators recognized ʼalah's dual nature. When the context emphasized the oath dimension, they used ὅρκος (horkos); when it emphasized the curse dimension, κατάρα (katara). But their primary choice ἀρά (ara) — 21 out of ~32 instances — preserves both senses, since Greek ἀρά means "prayer-as-imprecation," a prayer that invokes harm. The oath-curse unity is largely maintained.

NT Usage (Greek)¶

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
G685	ἀρά (ara)	1	cursing, imprecation
G2671	κατάρα (katara)	6	curse (intensified form)
G3727	ὅρκος (horkos)	4	oath

Key NT passages: - Rom 3:14 — "Whose mouth is full of cursing (ara) and bitterness" — Paul's only NT use, quoting Psa 10:7

TODO(need G685 study)

Direct OT→NT Quotations¶

NT Verse	Quotes OT	Shared Word	Significance
Rom 3:14	Psa 10:7	ʼalah (H423) → ἀρά (G685)	"mouth full of cursing" — Paul cites LXX Psalm in his indictment of universal sinfulness

Continuity and Shifts¶

What stays the same across testaments: - The core sense of imprecation — words that invoke harm — carries through from Hebrew ʼalah to Greek ara to Paul's quotation in Romans - Both testaments associate ʼalah/ara with deceit and moral corruption (Psa 10:7 → Rom 3:14)

What shifts: - The OT covenant-oath dimension (ʼalah as the binding element in beriyth) has no direct NT continuation through ara — that function transfers to ὅρκος (horkos) and the covenant vocabulary around διαθήκη (diatheke) - ara appears only once in the NT, making it a near-hapax; the broader curse concept shifts to κατάρα (katara, 6×), which inherits more from qelalah/arar than from ʼalah - The dual oath-curse unity of Hebrew ʼalah fragments in the NT: oath language and curse language diverge into separate word groups