Webster Dictionary:

1. Imprecate verb to call down by prayer, as something hurtful or calamitous
2. Imprecate verb to invoke evil upon; to curse; to swear at

Revelation 6:10

YLT ¹⁰ and they were crying with a great voice, saying, `Till when, O Master, the Holy and the True, dost Thou not judge and take vengeance of our blood from those dwelling upon the land?’

Revelation 6:10 is the most curse-like prayer I can find post-cross. It is a group-prayer spoken during the transition period between covenants. The old covenant hold-outs had yet to be dealt with. The one and only (almost) imprecatory prayer in the new covenant concerned the end judgement of the old covenant of works. It was predetermined by God that mercy and forgiveness would come to an end for the old covenant hold-outs after 490 years. The martyrs weren’t really calling down that final curse. They were asking when the stubbornly condemned ones would finally meet their end. God was being gracious and patient with the end of the old covenant while still providing a way out. The martyrs were asking about the timing of God’s final vengeance on the land. When would those who continued to refuse mercy and forgiveness see their justice under law? Those who clung to the curse of the law got to keep the law after all. Actually the law was kept on them. They paid the price for breaking the law they claimed to be keeping. The martyrs were waiting for God’s patience to end.

Matthew 18:21-22

YLT ²¹ Then Peter having come near to him, said, `Sir, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him—till seven times?’ <sup>22</sup>Jesus saith to him, `I do not say to thee till seven times, but till seventy times seven.

There was about to be a spirit-realm (heaven) and earth-realm (land) reformation. The Lord was being long-suffering to the old covenant Hebrews before bringing their old world to a complete end. Give up your works mode. The old covenant couldn’t be kept. It was aging out at 1000 while the new was aging in at the telos of 1000. The old died dead while the new consummated in the never-ending life of the messiah.

2 Peter 3:7-9

YLT ⁷ and the present heavens and the earth, by the same word are treasured, for fire being kept to a day of judgment and destruction of the impious men. ⁸ And this one thing let not be unobserved by you, beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day; ⁹ the Lord is not slow in regard to the promise, as certain count slowness, but is long-suffering to us, not counseling any to be lost but all to pass on to reformation,

Of course Peter was still writing to the same diaspora Hebrews in his second letter. Judgement was coming upon the irreverent humanity who rejected the new covenant grace. “Impious humanity” is like an oxymoron. The humans/Adams were image-of-God bearers. The impious were pious in outward appearance only. They weren’t about to be misjudged by man but rightly judged by God who can see the heart. The true image came to be inward and real.

2 Peter 3:1-2

YLT ¹ This, now, beloved, a second letter to you I write, in both which I stir up your pure mind in reminding you, ² to be mindful of the sayings said before by the holy prophets, and of the command of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour, 

Jacob (James) also wrote to the 12 tribes in diaspora, telling them to not grumble against each other since the Lords presence was approaching.

James 5:8-9

ECB ⁸ You also, be patient; establish your hearts: because the parousia of Adonay approaches. ⁹ Sigh not against one another, brothers, lest you be condemned: behold, the judge stands at the portal.

Peter told the diaspora Hebrews in his first letter that they were called to bless rather than imprecate people.

1 Peter 3:9

CLV ⁹ not rendering evil for evil, or reviling for reviling, but, on the contrary, blessing, seeing that you were called for this, that you should be enjoying the allotment of blessing,

Daniel’s people were the 12 tribes too.

Daniel 9:24-27

CLV ²⁴ Seventy sevens are segregated for your people and for your holy city: To detain transgression, to cause sin to end, to make a propitiatory shelter for depravity; to bring the righteousness of the eons, to seal the vision and the prophet, to anoint the holy of holies.” ²⁵ And you shall know and be intelligent: From the faring forth of the word to cause a return and to rebuild Jerusalem–from then till Messiah the Governor is seven sevens, and sixty-two sevens. It will return and will be rebuilt, square and salient, even in eras of constraint.” ²⁶ After the sixty-two sevens, Messiah will be cut off, and there is no adjudication for Him. The city and the holy place shall be laid in ruins with the other governor’s coming; then its end is by an overflow, and till the end of the war desolations will be decided.” ²⁷ Then he will be master of a covenant with many for one seven: At half of the seven, he will cause to cease the sacrifice and the approach present; on a wing of the sanctuary shall be desolating abominations. Till the conclusion of the era the decided conclusion will be poured forth on the desolation.”

Isaiah 10:20-23

CLV ²⁰ And it comes in that day, not continue further will the remnant of Israel, and the delivered of the house of Jacob, to lean on their smiter. Yet they will lean on Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.” ²¹ A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob, to El, the Master.” ²² For, should the people of Israel come to be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved among them. The conclusion decided shall be overflowing with righteousness, ²³ for a conclusive and decisive accounting will my Lord Yahweh of hosts make within the entire land.

If Jesus was cut off in the middle of the last seven in AD 30 then the last seven should have been complete in AD 33. That may explain why the martyrs were getting impatient. There was a pause in old covenant counting while the Jews took the gospel of the final sacrifice to the 12 tribes and then to the nations. That diaspora had been pre-evangelizing for hundreds of years. It wasn’t unplanned and it didn’t lead to a two thousand years and still counting delay. the martyrs under the alter would be real impatient by now. The grace period was within one generation. It also concluded the 70 years of Adam’s humanity who was seeded into the nations at the tower of Babel diaspora. Adam’s age had been put on hold at 930 years. But he was waiting in Sheol not heaven. He too was waiting for Jesus to restart his old covenant count. The heart of old covenant Jerusalem was put on hold in the death of AD 33. Those in the resurrection left the place of the dead ones before it was destroyed in AD 70.

The grace period: There were two covenant breaks mid-week. The first was Jesus’ crucifixion on the 4th day, which is the middle of the 7 day week. It was also after 3 1/2 years of Jesus’ ministry. Killing God in the flesh was a covenant breaker for Jerusalem. It put them on hold to graciously avoid their immediate annihilation. The old covenant went into sleep mode and quit counting. The next old covenant break was when Jerusalem rebelled again and broke covenant with Rome in AD 67. This rebellion re-initiated their destruction. It was by the pure grace of God that they weren’t destroyed already. It was a final curse completed when they were destroyed by the final worldly kingdom holders. The interim years were the final years of the old covenant grace period extended to the stubborn ones.

Sacrifices may have continued but they were not being accepted in heaven from the hands of the Jesus rejecters. The last sacrifice had already ascended to the true temple in heaven 40 days post-resurrection. Jesus left the old covenant from Hades and entered the eternal promised land 40 days later. Unlike the law man Moses, the fulfillment Joshua entered the promised land to prepare it for His people. His people would join Him after they completed the 40 year journey of the second exodus. Jerusalem was also called out of the land of slavery (‘Egypt’) in the first century. Even the promised land in heaven had enemies that had to be cast out and destroyed by the fulfilment Joshua. The old covenant grace period may have ended in AD 67, when the destruction the martyrs were waiting for started. If so, Jesus had protected His bride in the wilderness for 3 1/2 years prior to AD 67.

Jesus started HIs ministry to Jerusalem around AD 27. So, AD 67 is about 70 years from His birth and 40 years from the start of His ministry. That makes AD 67 the consummation of the beginning, which was the telos of eternal life. AD 70 was then the completion of the old land of works judgement. Judgement began in 67, after the 1000 years were ruled in. The 1000 years represents the first resurrection which was of course by grace. Those not in the book of life are then judged by works. The false prophet and Satan suffer day and night in the lake of fire throughout this judgement period on unbelievers. It is after the 1000 years leading into the ages of the ages. The judgement of old covenant works is represented by 3 1/2 years of land destruction. Books were opened and individuals were judged in real time.

Luke 18:7-8

LITV ⁷ and will God not at all execute the avenging of His elect, those crying to Him day and night, also having been long-suffering over them? ⁸ I say to you that He will carry out the avenging of them speedily. But the Son of man coming then, will He find faith on the earth?

The word earth above is the same word as land. It would only make sense to find no believers in the land when He returned. But then again maybe some believers did stupidly stay. He told anyone who believed Him to get out when they saw the Roman armies surrounding the land. He also said some of his followers would still be alive when he returned. But if they remained in Jerusalem they probably wouldn’t be alive for much longer. God’s wrath on the land in AD 70 destroyed it and most everyone caught up in it.

The 3 1/2 years of Jesus ministry to His resurrection was added to the 3 1/2 years the church was protected in the wilderness, to confirm and consummate the new covenant with the believing Jews and their proselytes. 3 1/2 years of destruction then came on the old land hold-outs who tried to ‘flood-proof’ their land by making a covenant with the 4th but not final kingdom prophesied by Daniel. So Rome came into the land like a flood. That 3 1/2 years of destruction confirmed the new covenant too; to the new covenant rejectors. Sacrifice was unacceptable in heaven even after the first 3 1/2 years of Jesus ministry. Sacrifice ceased even on land after the 3 1/2 years of final judgement.

John 3:36

YLT ³⁶ he who is believing in the Son, hath life age-during; and he who is not believing the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God doth remain upon him.’ 

In John 3:36 the Jewish messiah is addressing the Jews in the land about their final destiny. There is no cursing coming from Jesus. The curse was predetermined by the law itself. Those law breakers who didn’t accept the forgiveness of the messiah remained under the curse of the law. The curse of the law brought the wrath of God on His murderous people.

John 1:17

YLT ¹⁷ for the law through Moses was given, the grace and the truth through Jesus Christ did come;

The typical marriage proposal was accepted by the typical people, but the law written on stone was not able to save anyone; holy as it was. The law of Christ would be written on Hebrew hearts in the new covenant rebirth of the nation. The Jews were celebrating the Exodus 20 event when they received the Holy Spirit sent down by their messiah. Pentecost was the second exodus proposal and acceptance. Unlike the first covenant made with Yahweh, their second covenant contained no covenant-death curses. He promised the fulfillment and annihilation of the old covenant blessings and curses spoken by Moses. He promised the grace given blessings of the new covenant for His Hebrew followers and the curses of the law to end the old.

Exodus 19:5-8

CLV ⁵ Now, if you shall hearken, yea hearken to My voice and observe My covenant then you will become Mine, a special possession, above all the peoples, for Mine is all the earth. ⁶ As for you, you shall become Mine, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the sons of Israel. ⁷ So Moses came and called for the elders of the people and placed before them all these words which Yahweh had instructed him. ⁸ Now all the people responded together and said: All that Yahweh speaks we shall do. When Moses brought back the words of the people to Yahweh

Galatians 3:13

YLT ¹³ Christ did redeem us from the curse of the law, having become for us a curse, for it hath been written, `Cursed is every one who is hanging on a tree,’

‘Us” in Galatians 3:13 is new covenant humanity. Old covenant humanity was necessarily redeemed before the old covenant ended. Nobody today is cursed by Yahweh for not following old covenant law. The old covenant people were judged to second death because they murdered the messiah and tried to murder His bride. They were the ultimate lawbreakers. They were already cursed by God for breaking covenant. They were living under Gentile rule. The kingdom was taken from them and given to Babylon, Medes and Persians, Greece and finally Rome. The new covenant is not under that curse. The time of the Gentiles ruling over God’s people ended when the flesh and blood covenant ended in AD 70. We do not war with flesh and blood to maintain old covenant land. Taking new covenant land was a spiritual battle. The era of the Gentiles was a curse leading up to the final curse on flesh and blood which was annihilation. But the flesh and blood mode experienced hell on the land before being thrown into the Gehenna fire. The new covenant human soul became immortal. Then the old covenant human soul was destroyed.

The soul they had to lose in order to keep the soul of humanity was the soul of the military covenant. Conquest of enemies was no longer a flesh and blood battle. A flesh and blood people of Yahweh defending dirt was ending. The battle for the soul of humanity became spiritual. Rome was going to end the old humanity of flesh and blood with their military might. It was the final old covenant curse. What the unbelievers prayed to come upon others was coming upon them. Jesus told anyone who believed His message to get out of typical Jerusalem and avoid that answer to the imprecatory prayer of the believing Hebrews under the alter. New covenant Jerusalem is in the spirit realm extending from heaven. Unbelieving enemies cannot enter it or corrupt it. The new living soul of humanity has the indwelling Holy Spirit. The old soul had the Spirit of God in the garden and in the temple. The new soul is the temple. The temple contains the image of God initiated into Adam. Let us make humanity in our image was and is fulfilled in the new covenant creation.

Even Titus didn’t want Jerusalem to end that way. Titus called on God to absolve himself of this curse that was coming upon old covenant Jerusalem. Most generals would pray an imprecatory prayer to their god/God before surrounding a rebellious city with armies. Even when Titus saw the hell on the land he wanted none of it.

“Now the seditious [Jews warring against Rome] at first gave orders that the dead should be buried out of the public treasury, as not enduring the stench of their dead bodies. But afterwords, when they could not do that, they had them cast down from the walls into the valleys beneath. However, when Titus [the Roman general besieging Jerusalem], in going his rounds along those valleys, saw them full of dead bodies, and the thick putrefaction running about them, he gave a groan; and, spreading out his hands to heaven, called God to witness that this was not his doing; and such was the sad case of the city itself.” (War of the Jews V 12.3-4)

Jerusalem was Hell on Land/Earth Before Annihilation

“While the Temple was ablaze, the attackers plundered it, and countless people who were caught by them were slaughtered. There was no pity for age and no regard was accorded rank; children and old men, laymen and priests, alike were butchered; every class was pursued and crushed in the grip of war, whether they cried out for mercy or offered resistance.

Through the roar of the flames streaming far and wide, the groans of the falling victims were heard; such was the height of the hill and the magnitude of the blazing pile that the entire city seemed to be ablaze; and the noise – nothing more deafening and frightening could be imagined.

Dante’s Inferno (Hell) may be more frightening to most then actually being in Jerusalem in AD 70. But Dante’s Inferno is not describing an historical event. It is known as an allegory, describing one’s journey through temptation, realization and suffering en route to heaven, as is ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’. The original 1472 edition was called ‘Comedy’. The 1555 edition was renamed ‘Divine Comedy’. ‘Dante’s Inferno’ is merely the first part of Dante’s poem. Inferno is Italian for ‘Hell’. Comedies of that era were satirical tragedies that had happy endings. There was no happy ending for those in Jerusalem.

Inferno – in·fer·no/inˈfərnō

1. 1. a large fire that is dangerously out of control.”the inferno had swept through the city”
2. 2. hell (with reference to Dante’s Divine Comedy ).

There were the war cries of the Roman legions as they swept onwards en masse, the yells of the rebels encircled by fire and sword, the panic of the people who, cut off above, fled into the arms of the enemy, and their shrieks as they met their fate. The cries on the hill blended with those of the multitudes in the city below; and now many people who were exhausted and tongue-tied as a result of hunger, when they beheld the Temple on fire, found strength once more to lament and wail.

The Temple Mount, everywhere enveloped in flames, seemed to be boiling over from its base; yet the blood seemed more abundant than the flames and the numbers of the slain greater than those of the slayers. The soldiers climbed over heaps of bodies as they chased the fugitives.” (Josephus’ account appears in: Cornfield, Gaalya ed., Josephus, The Jewish War (1982); Duruy, Victor, History of Rome vol. V (1883).)

From the Time Rome Began to Confront Jerusalem to the End Took 3 1/2 Years

“Manneus, the son of Lazarus, came running to Titus at this very time, and told him that there had been carried out through that one gate, which was entrusted to his care, no fewer than a hundred and fifteen thousand eight hundred and eighty dead bodies, in the interval between the fourteenth day of the month Xanthieus, when the Romans pitched their camp by the city, and the first day of the month Panemus. This was itself a prodigious multitude; and though this man was not himself set as a governor at that gate, yet was he appointed to pay the public stipend for carrying these bodies out, and so was obliged of necessity to number them, while the rest were buried by their relations; though all their burial was but this, to bring them away, and cast them out of the city. After this man there ran away to Titus many of the eminent citizens, and told him the entire number of the poor that were dead, and that no fewer than six hundred thousand were thrown out at the gates, though still the number of the rest could not be discovered; ” (War of the Jews, V 13,7)

John the baptizer brought a good report, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand”. Like Caleb, John said the people could indeed inherit the kingdom by faith. That first century Jewish generation even saw the miracles Jesus (Joshua) had faith to perform. The fearful Jews were represented by the status quo leadership. They feared the armies of Rome even more than the God of the miracles. In the end they got what they feared most. The Romans came and took away their place as well as their nation.

John 11:45-48

CLV ⁴⁵ Many of the Jews, then, who come to Mary and gaze at what Jesus does, believe in Him.” ⁴⁶ Yet some of them came away to the Pharisees, and told them how much Jesus does.” ⁴⁷ The chief priests and the Pharisees, then, gathered a Sanhedrin and said, “What are we doing, seeing that this man is doing many signs? ⁴⁸ If we should be leaving him thus, all will be believing in him, and the Romans will come and take away our place as well as our nation.”

In chiastic Hebrew format, these cowardly unbelievers would receive the final wrath of God after the believers received the kingdom. They would die in the typical land they unfaithfully clung to. The Jewish establishment feared the effects of the faithful Jews, especially the one faithful Jew named Jesus (Joshua). They tried to stop him and his followers any way they could. The followers formed a new body anyway, by spiritual rather than biological re-generation; making it the same generation of people rather than the next generation who entered the promised land. In the first exodus all the original generation died before entering the promised land. In the second exodus the two faithful witnesses died first and entered the spiritual promised land as martyrs. Jesus had such faithfulness that he was brought back to life into the land so all could see that his faith even conquers their fear of death. He was then seen ascending to the the heavens 40 days later – alive. It was the second biggest faith booster in history. The biggest faith booster is being born from above. The indwelling Holy Spirit has the faith of the messiah.

Moses told the Hebrews that Hell on earth would eventually come to them under law. AD 70 was the second time the nation endured such a death. The antitypical Moses warned the Jews to be out of typical Jerusalem before it’s second death. That generation was indeed the worst generation that ever was or will be. They were also the last generation to be under the law of Moses. God’s people are now under the law of Christ. He fulfilled the law. There is no old covenant law left to be fulfilled. There is only the new covenant law. Why would God eliminate covenant death for his people and then bring it back to His people. Jesus overcame their old covenant death for them. He took their old covenant death in the old covenant itself. He can’t go back and do that again. Pre-evangelized Gentiles were adopted in to their new covenant. Luke 21 is addressing Jews in the first century land of Jerusalem. The ones who believed their messiah left their typical covenant and avoided God’s wrath. They did endure the wrath that came upon their unbelieving relatives.

Luke 21:12-22

LITV ¹² But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you, and will persecute you, delivering you into the synagogues and prisons, being led away before kings and governors on account of My name. ¹³But it will return to you for a testimony. ¹⁴ Then put into your hearts not to premeditate to make a defense. ¹⁵ For I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all those opposing you will not be able to withstand or contradict. ¹⁶ But you will be betrayed also by parents, and brothers, and relatives, and friends. And they will put some of you to death. ¹⁷ And you will be hated by all because of My name. ¹⁸ And a hair of your head shall in no way perish. ¹⁹ By your patience you will gain your souls. ²⁰ And when you see Jerusalem being encircled by armies, then recognize that its destruction has come near. ²¹ Then let those in Judea flee into the mountains; and those in its midst, let them go out. And those in the open spaces, let them not go into her. ²² For these are days of vengeance when all things that have been written are to be fulfilled.

Revelation 19:2

KJV ² For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.

Deuteronomy 28:47-58

CLV ⁴⁷ Inasmuch as you would not serve Yahweh your Elohim with rejoicing and with goodness of heart over the abundance of everything,⁴⁸ then you will serve your enemies whom Yahweh shall send forth against you, in famine and in thirst, in nakedness and in lack of everything. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has exterminated you. ⁴⁹ Yahweh shall lift up against you a nation from afar, from the end of the earth, just as the vulture swoops down, a nation whose tongue you have not heard, ⁵⁰ a nation strong of face who neither lifts the face of the old one with partiality nor is gracious to the youth. ⁵¹ It will devour the fruit of your beast and the fruit of your ground until you are exterminated, a nation who shall not let grain, grape juice or clarified oil, the calving of your domestic animals or the lambing of your flock remain for you, until it destroys you. ⁵² It will lay siege against you in all your gates until your lofty and defended walls in which you will be trusting come down in all your land; and he will lay siege against you in all your gates in all your land that Yahweh your Elohim will have given to you. ⁵³ Then you will eat the fruit of your own belly, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom Yahweh your Elohim will have given to you, in the siege and in the constraint with which your enemy shall constrain you. ⁵⁴ The tender-hearted man among you and the one very fastidious, his eye shall be evil toward his brother and toward the wife of his bosom and toward the rest of his sons whom he shall have left, ⁵⁵ so as to keep from giving to one of them the flesh of his sons that he is eating because nothing at all remains for him in the siege and in the constraint with which your enemy shall constrain you in all your gates. ⁵⁶ The tender-hearted woman among you, and the fastidious one, who would not try to put the sole of her foot on the earth because of fastidiousness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom and toward her son and toward her daughter, ⁵⁷ even for her afterbirth coming forth from between her feet, even for her sons whom she is bearing, for she shall eat them for lack of everything, in concealment during the siege and during the constraint with which your enemy shall constrain you in your gates. ⁵⁸ Should you not observe to obey all the words of this law, the ones written in this scroll, to fear the name of this glorified and fear-inspiring One, Yahweh your Elohim,

Hosea 1:9

ECB ⁹ Then he says, Call his name Lo Ammi/Not My People: for you are not my people, and I am not yours.

Hosea 2:23

ECB ²³ and I seed her to me in the earth; and I have Mercy/Ruchamah on Not Mercied/Lo Ruchamah; and to Not My People/Lo Ammi, I say My People/Ammi; and they say, My Elohim.

God called the Hebrews “not my people” and he divorced them. He then had pity on his remnant back in the land and put the old husbandman to death so He could re-marry them in the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven by the new ‘law’ man. He became the first-born of the new covenant, first seeded in the old covenant land of Judah. The disobeying ones refused God’s mercy and forgiveness. The believing pilgrims of the new world had better behavior among the Gentiles then the unbelieving Jews who remained in the land.

Luke 12:49-52

ECB ⁴⁹
YAH SHUA ON UNITY VS DIVISION 
I come to cast fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already lit? ⁵⁰But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am held until it is completed/shalamed! ⁵¹ Think you that I come to give shalom on earth? I word to you, Indeed not; but rather division: ⁵² for from henceforth five in one house divide – three against two and two against three

The new family of God was spiritually united. The new covenant Jews called other believers their children. However, flesh and blood families were divided. Jesus and John confirmed that John was the Elijah to come but not the typical Elijah. John was the fulfillment Elijah, who prepared Jewish families for the Lord. Spiritual fathers were spiritually united to their children in the new covenant, before old covenant humanity was utterly destroyed.

Malachi 4:5-6

YLT ⁵ Lo, I am sending to you Elijah the prophet, Before the coming of the day of Jehovah, The great and the fearful. ⁶ And he hath turned back the heart of fathers to sons, And the heart of sons to their fathers, Before I come and have utterly smitten the land! 

1 Peter 1:1

ECB ¹
SALUTATION 
Petros, an apostle of Yah Shua Messiah: To the pilgrim diaspora throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Biyournia,

1 Peter 2:6-12

LITV ⁶ Because of this, it is also contained in the Scripture: “Behold,” I lay in Zion” an elect, “precious Stone,” “a Corner-foundation;” “and the one believing in Him shall never in any way be ashamed.” Isa. 28:16 ⁷ Then to you who believe belongs the preciousness. But to disobeying ones, He is the “Stone which those building rejected; this One became the Head-of-the-corner,” Psa. 118:22 ⁸ and a Stone-of-stumbling, and a Rock-of-offense” to those disobeying, stumbling at the word, to which they were also appointed. Isa. 8:14 ⁹ But you are “an elect race,” “a royal priesthood,” “a holy nation,” “a people for possession,” so that “you may openly speak of the virtues” of the One who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; LXX-Ex. 23:22; MT-Ex. 19:5, 6 ¹⁰ you who then were “not a people, but now are the people” of God; “the one not pitied then but now pitied.” Hos. 1:6, 9 2:1, 23 ¹¹ Beloved, I exhort you as temporary residents and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul; ¹² having your behavior good among the nations, in that which they speak against you as evildoers; by observing your good works, they may glorify God in a day of visitation.

Peter, the one who cut off the soldier’s ear to defend Jesus, tells the believing Hebrews to use gentleness and respect.

1 Peter 3:8-15

CLV ⁸ Now the finish; Be all of a like disposition, sympathetic, fond of the brethren, tenderly compassionate, of a humble disposition, ⁹ not rendering evil for evil, or reviling for reviling, but, on the contrary, blessing, seeing that you were called for this, that you should be enjoying the allotment of blessing, ¹⁰ for He who is wanting to love life and be acquainted with good days, Let his tongue cease from evil And his lips speak no guile.” ¹¹ Now let him avoid evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it, ¹² For the eyes of the Lord are on the just And His ears are for their petition, Yet the face of the Lord is on evil doers.”¹³ And is there anyone who will be illtreating you, if you should become zealous of good? ¹⁴ Yet if you may be suffering also because of righteousness, happy are you. Now you may not be afraid with their fear, nor yet be disturbed, ¹⁵ yet hallow the Lord Christ in your hearts, ever ready with a defense for everyone who is demanding from you an account concerning the expectation in you, but with meekness and fear,

1 Peter 4:16-17

CLV ¹⁶ yet if as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, yet let him be glorifying God in this name, ¹⁷ seeing that it is the era for the judgment to begin from the house of God. Now if first from us, what is the consummation of those who are stubborn as to God’s evangel?

Imprecatory Prayers of David were flesh and blood style. David’s land battle was not for a spiritual promised land. The martyrs under the alter were praying for the new covenant people to be vindicated. They prayed for vengeance on their old covenant persecutors. Jesus said to bless those who persecute you. Stop cursing. But the martyrs knew that the 490 years for forgiving their Jewish brethren was ending or had already ended. People from all nations had become God’s people. Even believers from the last tribe in the land left their flesh and blood family behind.

Psalm of David 79:6-7

CLV ⁶ Pour out Your fury on the nations that do not know You, And on kingdoms that do not call on Your Name.” ⁷ For they have devoured Jacob, And they have desolated his homestead.”

1 Timothy 2:1-2

ECB ¹
PETITIONS, PRAYERS, INTERCESSIONS, AND EUCHARISTS 
So first of all, I beseech that petitions, prayers, intercessions and eucharists be made for all humanity; ² for sovereigns and for all being in supremacy: so that we pass through a tranquil and quiet existence in all reverence and veneration.

Matthew 5:43-44

LITV ⁴³ You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor” and hate your enemy; Lev. 19:18 ⁴⁴ but I say to you, Love your enemies; bless those cursing you, do well to those hating you; and pray for those abusing and persecuting you,

Luke 13:33-35

CLV ³³ Moreover, I must be going today and tomorrow and the coming one, for it is not credible that a prophet perish outside of Jerusalem.” ³⁴ Jerusalem! Jerusalem! killing the prophets and pelting with stones those who have been dispatched to her! How many times do I want to assemble your children in the manner a hen does her brood under her wings, and you will not!” ³⁵ Lo! left to you is your house. Yet I am saying to you that by no means may you be perceiving Me till the time will be arriving when you should be saying, ‘Blessed is He Who is coming in the name of the Lord!'”

Romans 12:14-21

LITV ¹⁴ Bless those persecuting you; bless, and do not curse. ¹⁵ Rejoice with rejoicing ones, and weep with weeping ones; ¹⁶ minding the same thing toward one another, not minding high things, but yielding to the lowly. Do not become wise within yourselves. ¹⁷ Repay no one evil for evil, having provided right things before all men. Prov. 3:4 ¹⁸ If possible, as far as is in you, seeking peace with all men; ¹⁹ not avenging yourselves, beloved, but giving place to wrath, for it has been written, “Vengeance is Mine,” “I will repay,” says the Lord. Deut. 32:35 ²⁰ Then “if your enemy hungers, feed him; if he thirsts, give him drink; for doing this you will heap coals of fire on his head.” Prov. 25:21, 22 ²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome the evil with good.

Deuteronomy 31:29-30

KJV ²⁹ For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands. ³⁰ And Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song, until they were ended.

Deuteronomy 32

CLV ¹ Give ear, O heavens, and let me speak, and hear O earth, the sayings of my mouth. ² My monition shall trickle as rain, and my saying shall distill as night mist: As drizzle on verdure, and as the showers on herbage. ³ For the name of Yahweh am I proclaiming: Grant greatness to our Elohim! ⁴ The Rock–flawless is His contrivance, for all His ways are righteous judgment. The El of faithfulness and without iniquity; just and upright is He. ⁵ They have become corrupt before Him; no longer are they His sons because of their blemish: A generation perverse and twisted. ⁶ Is this what you requite to Yahweh, you decadent and unwise people? Is not He your Father Who acquired you? He Himself made you and established you. ⁷ Remember the days of the eon; understand the years of generation after generation. Ask your father, and he shall tell you, your elders, and they shall say to you.⁸ When the Supreme gave the nations allotments, when He parted the sons of Adam, He stationed the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of El. ⁹ For the portion of Yahweh is His people; Jacob is the line of His allotment. ¹⁰ He found him in a wilderness country, and in a chaos, a howling desolation. He surrounded him; He made him understand; He preserved him as the pupil of His eye. ¹¹ As a vulture rouses up its nest, hovers over its fledglings, spreads its wings, takes it, bears it on its pinions, ¹² thus Yahweh alone guided him, and with him was no foreign el;” ¹³ He made him ride on fane heights of the land and made him eat produce of the field; He made him suckle honey from the crag and oil from the flinty rock, ¹⁴ clotted cream of the herd and milk of the flock, with fat of butting rams and rams of Bashan-breed and he-goats, with the fat of the wheat germ. And from the blood of the grape you drank turbid wine. ¹⁵ When Yeshurun grew stout and kicked (you will be stout, thick and burly), then he abandoned Eloah Who had made him and disgraced the Rock of his salvation. ¹⁶ They made Him jealous with alien gods, with abhorrences they provoked Him to vexation. ¹⁷ They sacrificed to demons, not Eloah, to elohim–they had not known them before–to new ones that came from nearby; your fathers were not horrified by them. ¹⁸ The Rock Who generated you, you were oblivious of Him, and you forgot the El travailing with you. ¹⁹ Yahweh saw and spurned them because of the vexation caused by His sons and His daughters. ²⁰ And he said: Let Me conceal My face from them; I shall examine what their latter days are to be. For they are a wayward generation, sons with no faithfulness in them. ²¹ As for them, they make Me jealous with a non-el. They provoke Me to vexation with their idols of vanity. As for Me, I shall make them jealous with a non-people; with a decadent nation shall I cause them vexation. ²² For a fire will be kindled by My anger, and it shall glow unto the unseen beneath; it shall devour the earth and its crop, and it shall set aflame the foundations of the mountains. ²³ I shall cause evils to sweep up over them; I shall exhaust My arrows among them ²⁴ who are gaunt with famine, fought by pestilence and bitter sting:Even the tooth of beasts shall I send among them along with the venom of skulkers of the soil.²⁵ From the outside, the sword shall bereave, and from the chambers, the dread of war, even for the man in his prime, even for the virgin, the suckling along with the grey-haired man. ²⁶ I would say:I might blow them away, I might eradicate their remembrance from mortals, ²⁷unless I shrank away from the vexation of the enemy; lest their foes misconstrue, lest they say:Our hand is high, and it was not Yahweh Who contrived all this. ²⁸ For they are a nation whose counsel is destructive, and there is no understanding in them. ²⁹ O that they were wise; they would proceed intelligently in this; they would understand about their latter days! ³⁰ How could one pursue a thousand or two put a myriad to flight, if it were not that their Rock had sold them, and Yahweh had surrounded them? ³¹ For their rock is not like our Rock; even our enemies are umpires. ³² For their vine is from the vine of Sodom and from the terraces of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of poison, and the clusters are bitterness to them;” ³³ their wine is as the fury of snakes and the poison of cobras, as cruel. ³⁴ Is it not amassed with Me, sealed among My treasure. ³⁵ for the day of vengeance and repayment, for the season when their foot shall slip? For the day of their calamity is near, and impending doom hurries upon them. ³⁶ For Yahweh shall adjudicate His people and show Himself merciful over His servants when He sees that the power of their hand has departed and has become nil for both the restrained and the ones set free. ³⁷Then Yahweh will ask:Where are their elohim, the rock in whom they took refuge, ³⁸ who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their libations? Let them rise up and help you; let them become a concealment over you. ³⁹ See now that I, I am He, and there is no other elohim besides Me. I Myself put to death, and I keep alive; I have transfixed, and I Myself shall heal, and there is no one who could reclaim from My hand!” ⁴⁰ For I lift My hand to the heavens and declare:As I am the Life for the eon, ⁴¹ when I whet My flashing sword and My hand lays hold on judgment, I shall return vengeance to My foes, and to My haters shall I make repayment. ⁴² I shall make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh, the blood of the one mortally wounded and the captive, from the head of the enemy commanders. ⁴³ Jubilate, O heavens, together with Him, and worship Him, all the messengers of Elohim! Jubilate, O nations, with His people! For the blood of His servants shall He avenge, vengeance to His foes shall He return, and a propitiatory shelter shall He make for the ground of His people. ⁴⁴ Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Hosea son of Nun. ⁴⁵ When Moses concluded speaking all these words to all Israel, ⁴⁶ he said to them:Set your heart on all the words which I am testifying among you today, so that you may enjoin them on your sons to observe to obey all the words of this law. ⁴⁷ For it is not an empty word for you; it means your life, and by this word you may prolong your days on the ground where you are crossing over the Jordan to tenant it. ⁴⁸ Yahweh spoke to Moses on this very day, saying. ⁴⁹ Go up to this mount of the Abarim range (Mount Nebo which is in the country of Moab that is overlooking Jericho), and see the land of Canaan that I am giving to the sons of Israel for a holding;” ⁵⁰ and die on the mount where you are going up, and be gathered to your people, just as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, ⁵¹ because both of you offended Me in the midst of the sons of Israel at the waters of Meribah at Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, because neither of you hallowed Me in the midst of the sons of Israel. ⁵² For from a distance shall you see the land, yet you shall not enter there into the land that I am giving to the sons of Israel.

While Jesus quoted portions from imprecatory psalms, it was usually the part where injustice came upon Him.

John 15:25

LITV ²⁵ But that may be fulfilled the Word that has been written in their Law, “They hated Me without a cause.” Psa. 69:4

Ephesians 6:12

CLV ¹² for it is not ours to wrestle with blood and flesh, but with the sovereignties, with the authorities, with the world-mights of this darkness, with the spiritual forces of wickedness among the celestials.”

The spiritual battle was most evident in Jerusalem.

Luke 9:1

CLV ¹ Now calling together the twelve apostles, He gives them power and authority over all the demons and to be curing diseases.”

The bottom line is that the imprecatory psalms indicated a deep yearning for vengeance on others. First century unbelievers who were blood relations were oppressing God’s people. God’s people had the promise of divine vengeance. Gentiles destroyed God’s nation when His people disobeyed.

“Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly”

God’s new covenant Jews formed a spiritual nation without regard to location. The last flesh and blood imprecatory prayer was vindication for the Holy Spirit born people of God who were murdered by their own relatives. It was a petition made from under the alter in heaven. The answer that was given to the martyrs was just a little while longer. Jerusalem would be held responsible for yet more martyrs before it was finally destroyed by all the Gentile nations gathered together. That ended the times of the Gentile rule over the flesh and blood people of God. God’s kingdom went spiritual.

Revelation 6:10-11

YLT ¹⁰ and they were crying with a great voice, saying, `Till when, O Master, the Holy and the True, dost Thou not judge and take vengeance of our blood from those dwelling upon the land?’ ¹¹ and there was given to each one white robes, and it was said to them that they may rest themselves yet a little time, till may be fulfilled also their fellow-servants and their brethren, who are about to be killed—even as they.

The temple in Jerusalem became very personal. The Holy spirit was sent to Jerusalem to live in the Jews themselves rather than in their old covenant temple. The temple was “raised up” up on First-fruits. 50 days later the Jews joined Jesus in the new covenant temple project. Once again it was personally spiritual rather than written on stone or housed in a building.

John 2:18-19

KJV ¹⁸ Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? ¹⁹ Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

Luke 12:49

JMNT ⁴⁹“I came to throw Fire upon the earth (or: I come to cast a fire upon the Land) – and what am I now wishing?, since it is already ignited (or: and what do I intend, if it is already kindled?).