Biblical blessings and curses have always been an issue for me - at least since I started to look at this stuff with a more critical eye.
So, what are they exactly? I know the traditional sense of the words. If you're blessed, good things happen to you. If you're cursed, bad things happen to you. That can't be by chance, so it's obviously by supernatural design. Some supernatural being is either making good things happen to you or bad things.
So, Noah curses Ham because Ham saw him naked and told his brothers. So, what happens now? God's supposed to make life rough for Ham because Noah said so? What if God likes Ham? Maybe he thinks it was Noah's fault for getting drunk and passing out naked in the first place. He bears no grudge against Ham. But Noah cursed him. So god MUST obey a man and make life rough for Ham. Is god beholden to do what men say now? What if somebody cursed Abraham and all of his offspring. Would god be like, "well, I wanted to make them my favorite nation, but dang it, I have to curse them because so-and-so said so".
Or what about Jacob and Esau? Esau was born first so Isaac is going to bless him. Isaac is old and can't see and is probably going to die soon. So other than passing on his wealth, there's no "blessing" Isaac is going to be doing for Esau. It's got to be something supernatural.
So Isaac is ready to give his blessing, but Jacob tricks him into thinking he is Esau and Isaac gives his blessing to him. Because apparently this guy can't tell the difference between goat fur and hairy people. So now god is supposed to "bless" Jacob. Even though he can supposedly read our hearts and KNOWS Isaac intended to bless Esau and thought he did.
This wouldn't hold up in modern times. A guy can't leave a will saying he leaves all of his belongings to his son John, but his son Jim comes in wearing John's T-shirt and cap and they give him all the money. But apparently god is easily tricked just like Isaac. God knows who's who.
Why doesn't God forget who was in the room and think, well, he meant to bless Esau, so forget about this Jacob stuff. And Jacob was a con-man anyway. Why would he bless Jacob and have this nation come through Jacob?
This whole blessing/curse thing seems like the height of stupidity. And it's not only some old-testament nonsense. You still hear people saying things like "have a blessed day" today.