The Oath - The Curse & alah

Over the last couple of years the Lord has really been emphasizing to me that we need to "pray and hit the mark."  There are many applications for it but in my personal bible study a few weeks ago I came across a very interesting definition in my Strongs Concordance reference the Hebrew word in the Old Testament 423. It is pronounced
'alah (aw-law') and it means an imprecation.  It is translated in 36 scriptures as  curse, cursing, execration, oath, or swearing.

Last week I wrote an article urging Christians to begin to pray the prayers of King David.  Some know these as imprecatory prayers (click here for It is Time to Pray the Prayers of David.)  This article was partially provoked by the persecution many of our brothers in the Lord are facing and a specific attack on team members in Pakistan that hospitalized three.

Yesterday I was sent a Youtube video by one of our church members that provides even more thought provoking illumination on this subject.  It gives me a whole new perspective of "praying to hit the mark."  Click here for this Youtube excerpt.

For more click here for Sid Roth's Interview with Walid Shoebat on this subject. Walid is a former Muslim from Bethlehem who was raised to hate Jews and was a forerunner terrorist in America. 

The alah is found in 36 scriptures in the bible.

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The Hebrew Word alah is found in 36 Scritures

Here are a few examples.  For context, remember what has occurred in the Islamic nations over the last 12 years and think of the characteristics of what we have seen displayed.

Psalm 10:2-9 
The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.  3 For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth.  4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.  5 His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.  6 He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.  7 His mouth is full of alah (cursing) and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.  8 He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.  9 He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net. KJV.

Isaiah 24:5-6 
The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.  6 Therefore hath the alah (curse) devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. KJV

Jeremiah 29:16-19
Know that thus saith the Lord of the king that sitteth upon the throne of David, and of all the people that dwelleth in this city, and of your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity; 17 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.  18 And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, alah (to be a curse), and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them: 19 Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the Lord, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but ye would not hear, saith the Lord. KJV

Jeremiah 44:12-13  
And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed, and fall in the land of Egypt; they shall even be consumed by the sword and by the famine: they shall die, from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword and by the famine: and they shall be alah (an execration), and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.  13 For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: KJV

Ezekiel 17:19 
Therefore thus saith the Lord God; As I live, surely mine alah (oath) that he hath despised, and my covenant (league) that he hath broken, even it will I recompense upon his own head. KJV

Daniel 9:11  
Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the alah (curse) is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.  KJV

This illustrates why we must learn God's word and  proclaim and declare His decrees from Mount Zion (24/7 prayer, praise and worship - Psalm 2, Psalm 110, Acts 15:16-17, Amos 9:11, Hebrews 4:12, Revelation 12:11).