We are in chapter twenty-one of Exodus with our word for today. קָלַל be small, insignificant, be slight, swift, be fast, declare cursed, invoke harm, invoke divine harm or evil on someone or something. It is used 82 times in the Old Testament. Our word is used in the sense to make easy. We have seen this used when Jethro advises Moses to help him with the heavy load of leading (Exodus 18:22) and when the people asked to pay less taxes (1 Kings 12:4). Our word is also used in the sense to be or become of little substance or significance. We see this in David’s reply to becoming the king’s son in law (1 Samuel 18:23) and later his reply to his wife (2 Samuel 6:22). And when Job responds to God’s questioning him (Job 40:4). Now if we take these two ideas of lighten and make light of it helps us understand this idea of cursing. Because we are taking something that should be held in high esteem and making light of it. So when we curse we are not valuing people the way God does. The sense of our word to curse in order to invoke harm is how our word is used the most in the Old Testament. We see this with the command not to curse God and Balak’s hiring of Balaam (Joshua 24:9). Exodus 22:28 Do not תְקַלֵּ֑ל blaspheme God or תָאֹֽר curse the ruler of your people. This is how our word is used in our chapter. Exodus 21:17 וּמְקַלֵּ֥ל Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death. If we look earlier to the ten commandments, we are to honor our father and mother so cursing them would be the opposite. And instead of the promise of living in the land a long time if parents are honored there is not a promise but a punishment if one curses their parents. That is death. This may seem harsh to us, but God has set up this and all his laws to protect people he loves. Parents cannot always defend themselves, especially as they get older, this was a great deterrent to children doing any kind of harm to parents. And in the west with our often-misguided faith in science at the cost of faith in God we fail to realize the power of the words that we speak. In ways we don’t always understand we create the future in the sense that we influence it with our words. So, cursing our parents with our words and actions wanting to invoke or speak harm into their lives is very dangerous. This command is repeated in Leviticus along with the same penalty (Leviticus 20:9). Again, God repeats this command with the same punishment in Proverbs. Proverbs 20:20 If מְ֭קַלֵּל someone curses their father or mother, their lamp will be snuffed out in pitch darkness. Proverbs 30:11-12, 17 There are those who יְקַלֵּ֑ל curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers; those who are pure in their own eyes and yet are not cleansed of their filth…The eye that mocks a father, that scorns an aged mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley, will be eaten by the vultures. Did you catch the reference to not being cleansed of their filth contrasted to those who are pure in their own eyes. God has a different standard than most people do with what is good and evil, right and wrong. This is why God’s punishments for sin seem way to strict to us because we make light of its danger. I’ll close with these two great passages that reminds us how valuable people are to God and should be to us as well. And how God can turn cursing into blessing. James 3:9-10 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Nehemiah 13:2 They had not met the Israelites with food and water but had hired Balaam to call a לְקַֽלְל֔וֹ curse down on them. (Our God, however, turned הַקְּלָלָ֖ה the curse into a blessing.)
