It is Time for Imprecatory Prayers!

Sin Necessitates Imprecatory Prayer.

As shown in the Introduction, the assurance of the wrath and punishment upon the wicked by the LORD is the foundation for imprecatory prayers.

The LORD Hates Sin and the Sinner

Contrary to modern “religious opinion”, the LORD hates both sin and the sinner and holds him in active contempt. The unrepentant sinner faces unconditional wrath at the end of this age—and possibly well before that time in this life!

Deu 27.11-26
Moses also charged the people on that day, saying, “When you cross the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. For the curse, these shall stand on Mount Ebal: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. The Levites shall then answer and say to all the men of Israel with a loud voice,
¹⁵ ‘Cursed is the man who …
¹⁶ ‘Cursed is he who …
¹⁷ ‘Cursed is he who
¹⁸ ‘Cursed is he who …
¹⁹ ‘Cursed is he who …
²⁰ ‘Cursed is he who …
²¹ ‘Cursed is he who …
²² ‘Cursed is he who …
²³ ‘Cursed is he who …
²⁴ ‘Cursed is he who …
²⁵ ‘Cursed is he who …
²⁶ ‘Cursed is he who …

Deu 28.16-19
¹⁶ “Cursed shall …
¹⁷ “Cursed shall …
¹⁸ “Cursed shall …
¹⁹ “Cursed shall …

Psa 2.4-6
He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them.
Then He will speak to them in His anger
And terrify them in His fury, saying,
“But as for Me, I have installed My King
Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”

Psa 5.5-6
The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity.
You destroy those who speak falsehood; the LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.

Psa 73.16-20
When I pondered to understand this,
It was troublesome in my sight
Until I came into the sanctuary of God;
Then I perceived their end.
Surely You set them in slippery places;
You cast them down to destruction.
How they are destroyed in a moment!
They are utterly swept away by sudden terrors!
Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when aroused, You will despise their form.

Hos 9.15
All their evil is at Gilgal;
Indeed, I came to hate them there!
Because of the wickedness of their deeds
I will drive them out of My house!
I will love them no more;
All their princes are rebels.

Mal 1.2-3
“I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have You loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob; but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness.”

1 Cor 16.22
If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed.
[There is no pleasant future for the sinner who does not repent. The only thing that he can look forward to is wrath and everlasting hopelessness.]

Heb 10.26-31
For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

[cf., Gen 12.1-3 Psa 37.12-13 Psa 59.7-8 Psa 119.21 Rom 11.7-8

Deuteronomy 27 and 28 are very powerful examples, with curses pronounced against any and all who would choose to disobey the LORD’s precepts.]

There are many other examples of curses pronounced against the wicked throughout the pages of the Bible!

The simple statement that the wicked experience the LORD’s judgment.

As I mentioned in the Introduction, there are several in-depth articles on this site which deal with the fact the LORD punishes sin. Below is an abbreviated verse summary (primarily from the Psalms).

[Please note how many of these were penned by King David, the “man after God’s own heart”. (Psa 89.20; Act 7.46) Note also how many are the direct expressions of the LORD.]

Deu 32.39-42
‘See now that I, I am He,
And there is no god besides Me;
It is I who put to death and give life.
I have wounded and it is I who heal,
And there is no one who can deliver from My hand.
‘Indeed, I lift up My hand to heaven,
And say, as I live forever,
If I sharpen My flashing sword,
And My hand takes hold on justice,
I will render vengeance on My adversaries,
And I will repay those who hate Me.
‘I will make My arrows drunk with blood,
And My sword will devour flesh,
With the blood of the slain and the captives,
From the long-haired leaders of the enemy.’

Psa 1.4-6
The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Psa 2.8-9
'Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your possession.
'You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.'"

Psa 7.12-13
If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword; He has bent His bow and made it ready.
He has also prepared for Himself deadly weapons; He makes His arrows fiery shafts.
His mischief will return upon his own head, and his violence will descend upon his own pate.
You have rebuked the nations, You have destroyed the wicked; You have blotted out their name forever and ever.
The enemy has come to an end in perpetual ruins, and You have uprooted the cities; the very memory of them has perished.

Psa 11.5-6
The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence His soul hates.
Upon the wicked He will rain snares; fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup.

Psa 21.8-12
Your hand will find out all your enemies; Your right hand will find out those who hate you.
You will make them as a fiery oven in the time of your anger; the LORD will swallow them up in His wrath, and fire will devour them.
Their offspring You will destroy from the earth, and their descendants from among the sons of men.
Though they intended evil against You and devised a plot, they will not succeed.
For You will make them turn their back; You will aim with Your bowstrings at their faces.

Psa 37.20
But the wicked will perish; and the enemies of the LORD will be like the glory of the pastures, they vanish--like smoke they vanish away.

Psa 37.28
For the LORD loves justice and does not forsake His godly ones; they are preserved forever, but the descendants of the wicked will be cut off.

Psa 45.5
Your arrows are sharp; the peoples fall under You; Your arrows are in the heart of the King's enemies.

Psa 49.12-14
But man in his pomp will not endure; he is like the beasts that perish.
This is the way of those who are foolish, and of those after them who approve their words. Selah.
As sheep they are appointed for Sheol; death shall be their shepherd; and the upright shall rule over them in the morning, and their form shall be for Sheol to consume so that they have no habitation.

Psa 50.3
May our God come and not keep silence; fire devours before Him, and it is very tempestuous around Him.

Psa 50.22
Now consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you in pieces, and there will be none to deliver.

Psa 73.16-20
When I pondered to understand this,
It was troublesome in my sight
Until I came into the sanctuary of God;
Then I perceived their end.
Surely You set them in slippery places;
You cast them down to destruction.
How they are destroyed in a moment!
They are utterly swept away by sudden terrors!
Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when aroused, You will despise their form.

Psa 75.8
For a cup is in the hand of the LORD, and the wine foams; it is well mixed, and He pours out of this; surely all the wicked of the earth must drain and drink down its dregs.

Psa 91.7-8
A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not approach you.
You will only look on with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.

Psa 97.2-3
Clouds and thick darkness surround Him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.
Fire goes before Him and burns up His adversaries round about.

Psa 110.5-6
The Lord is at Your right hand; He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath.
He will judge among the nations, He will fill them with corpses, He will shatter the chief men over a broad country.

Isa 2.12
For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning
Against everyone who is proud and lofty
And against everyone who is lifted up,
That he may be abased.

Mat 6.9-13
“Pray, then, in this way:
‘Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
‘Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
‘Give us this day our daily bread.
‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

[Consider what the statement “Your kingdom come…” entails: it in nothing less than the closing of the current age, the global tribulation, the return of the Lord Christ to judge and rule the world during the Millennium, ultimately followed by the Great White Throne Judgment and the casting of death and hades into the Lake of Fire.

For a detailed article on this topic, please see The Day of the LORD on this site.]

1 The 1.6-10
For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed—for our testimony to you was believed.

[cf., Psa 2.4-6; Psa 9.8,16-17; Psa 18.13-14; Psa 18.40-42; Psa 28.5; Psa 34.16; Psa 34.21; Psa 37.9,32-34; Psa 37.38; Psa 44.2-3; Psa 49.20; Psa 52.5; Psa 64.7-8; Psa 68.21-23; Psa 78.43-55; Psa 89.10,23; Psa 92.9; Psa 94.23; Psa 105.28-36; Psa 119.21; Psa 135:8-12; Psa 136:10; Psa 136.15,17-21; Mat 23.37-38.

The imprecatory prayers of Jeremiah are detailed in a later chapter.]