Meroz

Meroz is the place singled out for curse in Deborah's victory song after the defeat of Sisera, condemned for failing to join the muster against Jabin's army.

The Curse in Deborah's Song

Within the catalogue of tribes who came and tribes who held back, the song turns to a separate, sharper word against this town: "Curse⁺ Meroz, said the angel of Yahweh. Curse⁺ bitterly its inhabitants, Because they didn't come to the help of Yahweh, To the help of Yahweh against the mighty" (Judg 5:23). The curse is spoken in the angel of Yahweh's voice and given in plural form (⁺), addressed to the wider hearers of the song. The reason is stated twice with the same phrasing: Meroz did not come "to the help of Yahweh," reframing the absent muster as a failure not merely toward Israel but toward Yahweh himself.