8381. taalah

Lexical Summary

taalah: Channel, conduit, watercourse

Original Word: תַּאֲלָה
Part of Speech: Noun Feminine
Transliteration: ta'alah
Pronunciation: tah-ah-LAH
Phonetic Spelling: (tah-al-aw')
KJV: curse
NASB: curse
Word Origin: [from H422 (אָלָה - take)]

1. an imprecation

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance

curse

From 'alah; an imprecation -- curse.

see HEBREW 'alah

NAS Exhaustive Concordance

Word Origin
from alah
Definition
a curse
NASB Translation
curse (1).

Brown-Driver-Briggs

תַּאֲלָה suffix תַּאֲלָֽתְךָ, noun feminine curse Lamentations 3:65.

Topical Lexicon

Overview

תַּאֲלָה appears a single time in Scripture and denotes an invoked curse—an appeal that God actively impose judgment. It belongs to the vocabulary of covenant sanctions, where blessing accompanies obedience and cursing accompanies persistent rebellion.

Occurrence in Lamentations 3:65

Jeremiah prays, “You will give them a stubborn heart; may Your curse be upon them!” (Lamentations 3:65). Spoken in the wake of Jerusalem’s fall, the petition does not arise from personal vengeance but from zeal for God’s righteousness. The prophet asks the Lord to ratify the covenant penalties announced long before (Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28).

Covenantal Background

1. Origin of curses: The first explicit curse in Scripture falls on the serpent (Genesis 3:14). Subsequent curses protect God’s holiness by opposing those who corrupt His creation or oppress His people (Genesis 12:3; Numbers 24:9).
2. Legal form: In Deuteronomy 27–29 Israel publicly assented to both blessings and curses. תַּאֲלָה fits that judicial framework; it is not magical malediction but a lawful appeal to the Judge of all the earth (Genesis 18:25).
3. Prophetic enforcement: Prophets repeatedly warned that unrepentant sin would activate the covenant curse (Isaiah 24:6; Jeremiah 11:3; Daniel 9:11). Lamentations shows the fulfillment of those warnings.

Historical Setting

After years of idolatry and injustice, Judah experienced siege, famine, and exile under Babylon (586 B.C.). Jeremiah, eyewitness to the catastrophe, composed Lamentations as a liturgy of grief. His call for a curse functions as courtroom language, asking God to render a verdict against the hostile nations and apostate leaders who intensified Judah’s misery (Lamentations 3:52–66).

Theology of Imprecation

• God’s honor: Imprecatory language defends divine glory by petitioning Him to manifest justice (Psalm 69:24–28).
• Pastoral dimension: Suffering saints receive vocabulary for honest lament without taking vengeance into their own hands (Romans 12:19).
• Moral safeguard: Knowing that curses are real restrains evil (Ecclesiastes 8:11).
• Christological fulfillment: At the cross, the covenant curse fell on the sinless Substitute—“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). Imprecatory prayers are ultimately answered either in the sinner’s repentance at Calvary or in final judgment (Revelation 6:10; 20:11–15).

Ministry Significance

1. Preaching: Lamentations 3:65 underscores both God’s intolerance of sin and His willingness to hear honest prayer. Balanced proclamation will pair warning with the offer of grace (Acts 20:27).
2. Counseling: Victims of injustice may entrust their cause to God using biblical lament, preventing bitterness and vigilantism (Psalm 73; 1 Peter 2:23).
3. Corporate worship: Liturgical use of imprecatory passages reminds the congregation that divine justice is a legitimate aspect of praise (Psalm 149:6–9).
4. Missions: Awareness of the curse motif intensifies urgency for evangelism; every person outside of Christ remains “under wrath” (John 3:36).

Practical Applications

• Examine life in light of covenant warnings; unrepentant sin invites judgment (Hebrews 10:26–31).
• Intercede for persecuted believers, asking God both to save enemies and to restrain them when they refuse (2 Thessalonians 1:6–10).
• Rejoice that in Christ the curse gives way to blessing (Ephesians 1:3), anticipating the day when “no longer will there be any curse” (Revelation 22:3).

תַּאֲלָה thus serves as a sobering reminder of divine justice and a gateway to understanding the gospel’s promise of deliverance from judgment into everlasting blessing.

Forms and Transliterations

תַּאֲלָֽתְךָ֖ תאלתך ta’ălāṯəḵā ta·’ă·lā·ṯə·ḵā taalateCha

Englishman's Concordance

Lamentations 3:65
HEB: מְגִנַּת־ לֵ֔ב תַּאֲלָֽתְךָ֖ לָהֶֽם׃
NAS: of heart, Your curse will be on them.
KJV: of heart, thy curse unto them.
INT: hardness of heart your curse You

1 Occurrence

Strong's Hebrew 8381
1 Occurrence

ta·’ă·lā·ṯə·ḵā — 1 Occ.