Opposites
Certain Hebrew words seem to get translated into pairs of opposites. It is quite likely that this phenomenon is based on doctrinally dictated hermeneutics and exegesis rather than any philological or etymological evidence.
Nevertheless, it is etymologically possible for a word to take on opposite meanings, especially over long time periods. This is common enough that it has its own name; the resulting words are called contranyms. An oft-cited example of this is “cleave” which can refer to both splitting something apart and to uniting two things.
Regardless of how they may have occurred, such words can obviously cause problems during translation and require great care to ensure the correct meaning is used.
Examples
One example of this phenomenon is with so-called blessings and curses. These two opposite concepts are implemented under a single word which is used interchangeably in the original Hebrew. 
- explore this further.
Click the Backlinks button for other relevant pages