OA

Toen zei David: God verdoeme mij ...

As English ‘goddam(n)’ or ‘goddamned’, the repelling Dutch curse ‘godverdomme’ has to be derived from a conditional self-imprecation: ‘God verdoeme mij, als ‘ (‘God damn me, if ... ’). Dutch Christians often regard the curse as a violation of the Third Commandment. However, in Old Testament Hebrew a similar formula is found: (‘God may do this to me and more than that, if ... ’). The biblical passages where the expression occurs do not display any resistance to the use of the formula, even though it was often pronounced inconsiderately.