They linger on and on...

The freedom to utter maledictions was open to all human beings. Ordinary people could curse, people such as Jotham, Job, and Enkidu. And certainly it was not a liberty restricted to ritual specialists such as Baalam or the cultic priesthood. But the efficaciousness of curses uttered by mortals was another matter. According to Judges 9, unregulated human maledictions lingered in a dormant state for an extended period of time, three years or beyond. Apparently, during that interval curses enjoyed a weak form of existence. They remained available to the divine world to strengthen should the deities ever wish to do so. In a polytheistic context, this type of situation is alarming. It means that any deity of high or low rank, benevolent or malevolent, could energize any such latent curse whenever the moment suited. This is what made all curses so dangerous.— Cursed Are You!, page 168

<idle musing>
This is the key section: "They remained available to the divine world to strengthen should the deities ever wish to do so. In a polytheistic context, this type of situation is alarming. It means that any deity of high or low rank, benevolent or malevolent, could energize any such latent curse whenever the moment suited."

Praise God that YHWH is the only one who can activate such things! And Praise God that he is benevolent! Otherwise we'd all be wearing good luck charms and checking the astrology charts and having our palms read and going through certain rituals that seemed to work the last time and...hmmm...doesn't that sound familiar? Or have I gone to meddling now?

Just an
</idle musing>