TR: qelalah → katara (Curse)

The Chain

Hebrew OT              LXX (Greek OT)           Greek NT
───────────            ───────────────           ────────
קְלָלָה (qelalah)   →  κατάρα (katara)        →  κατάρα (katara)
H7045, 33x in OT       LXX co-occ: 26x          5x in NT
"vilification, curse"   PMI score: 29.93          "imprecation, curse"

OT Usage (Hebrew)

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
H7045	קְלָלָה (qelalah)	33	vilification, curse, execration

Root: H7043 קָלַל (qalal) — to be light, make light of, curse. The noun qelalah is the formal result — a pronounced curse, especially in covenant contexts.

Key OT passages: - Deut 11:26 — "Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse" — the foundational Deuteronomic formula pairing berakah and qelalah as covenant alternatives - Deut 28:15 — "But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God... all these curses shall come upon thee" — the curse list that Gal 3:10 references - Gen 27:12 — "I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing" — earliest occurrence; Jacob fears the curse of deception

KJV Translation Distribution: | Translation | Verses | |-------------|--------| | a curse / and a curse | 14 | | the curse | 5 | | curse | 2 | | curses / cursings | 4 | | Other | 8 |

Library entry: H7045-qlalah.md

LXX Bridge

Hebrew	Greek Translation	Co-occurrence	PMI Score	Notes
qelalah (H7045)	κατάρα (G2671)	26x	29.93	Primary equivalent — 79% of all LXX renderings
qelalah (H7045)	εὐλογία (G2129)	10x	16.23	Appears in antithetic pairs ("blessing and cursing")
qelalah (H7045)	ἀρά (G685)	3x	8.67	Simple imprecation synonym
qelalah (H7045)	καταράομαι (G2672)	3x	7.56	Verb form used where Hebrew has noun

Semantic continuity: The LXX translators chose katara as the near-exclusive rendering of qelalah, maintaining the formal, juridical sense of the Hebrew. The kata- prefix in Greek intensifies the root ara just as the Hebrew noun form intensifies the root qalal. The bridge is remarkably tight — 79% fidelity with a PMI of 29.93.

Reverse lookup (what Hebrew words map to katara in LXX): | Hebrew | Strong's | Co-occurrence | PMI Score | |--------|----------|--------------|-----------| | קְלָלָה (qelalah) | H7045 | 26x | 29.93 | | בְּרָכָה (berakah) | H1293 | 11x | 17.11 | | אָלָה (alah) | H423 | 3x | 8.39 |

The berakah mapping comes from blessing-curse paired passages where both words appear in the same verse and both are translated.

NT Usage (Greek)

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
G2671	κατάρα (katara)	5 unique verses	imprecation, execration, curse
G2672	καταράομαι (kataraomai)	4 unique verses	to execrate, to doom
G1944	ἐπικατάρατος (epikataratos)	3 unique verses	accursed, under a curse

Key NT passages: - Gal 3:10 — "as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse" — directly quoting Deut 27:26 (LXX) - Gal 3:13 — "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us" — quoting Deut 21:23 (LXX) - Jas 3:10 — "Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing" — echoes the Deuteronomic blessing/curse pair

Library entry: G2671-katara.md

Direct OT→NT Quotations

NT Verse	Quotes OT	Shared Word	Significance
Gal 3:10	Deut 27:26	qelalah → katara	"Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law" — Paul quotes the covenant curse formula verbatim through LXX
Gal 3:13	Deut 21:23	qelalah → katara	"Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree" — the specific Deuteronomic curse applied to crucifixion

Both NT quotations go through the LXX bridge. Paul's argument in Galatians 3 depends on the Deuteronomic framework: the curse is a covenant penalty for failure to keep the whole law, and redemption from it comes through Christ bearing the specific Deuteronomic curse of Deut 21:23.

Continuity and Shifts

What stays the same across testaments: - The formal, juridical character of the curse — a pronounced sentence, not a personal insult - The Deuteronomic blessing/curse framework (Deut 11:26-28, 28:1-68, 30:1, 19) carries directly into NT usage - The pairing of katara with eulogia (blessing) as antithetical alternatives appears in both testaments (Deut 11:26 → Jas 3:10)

What shifts: - OT usage is predominantly corporate and national (Israel's covenant blessings and curses); NT usage applies the covenant curse to individual standing before God (Gal 3:10) and to Christ's substitutionary bearing of it (Gal 3:13) - The OT land-curse imagery (barrenness, thorns) reappears in Heb 6:8 but as spiritual metaphor rather than literal agricultural warning - 2 Pet 2:14 uses katara as a character descriptor ("children of a curse"), extending beyond the Deuteronomic formula into ethical characterization

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Generated from: gather_trace_data.py, search_strongs.py (--lxx-map, --hebrew-source, --lookup, --lexicon) Last updated: 2026-05-03