Ask God to bless (New English Bible “call down blessing on”) is literally “bless.” However, in the biblical context it is God who brings blessings on people, and so the translation of the Good News Translation seems nearer to the correct meaning. In some languages one may say literally “pray to God in order that he will bless,” “… cause good to come to,” or “… that he will favor.”

In rendering the verbal expression not to curse it is important that this be understood in the sense of “do not ask God to curse them” or “… to do harm to them.” It would be inappropriate if the sense were “ask God not to curse them.” One should not imply that God is going to curse them and that the Christian should pray that God would withhold his curse. Rather, the meaning is that the Christian himself refrain from asking God to curse those who persecute the believers.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .