cursed

2 Samuel 16:5,6 And when king David came to Bahurim, behold, there came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei...

cast dust [heb] dusted him with dust

Acts 23:23 And he called to him two centurions, saying, Make ready two hundred soldiers to go to Caesarea, and horsemen three score and ten...

It was an ancient custom, in those warm and arid countries, to lay the dust before a person of distinction, by sprinkling the ground with water. Dr. Pococke and the consul were treated with this respect when they entered Cairo. The same custom is alluded to in the well-known fable of Phaedrus, in which a slave is represented going before Augustus and officiously lay the dust. To throw dust in the air while a person was passing was therefore an act of great disrespect; to do so before a sovereign prince, an indecent outrage. But it is probable that Shimei meant more than disrespect and outrage to his afflicted king. Sir John Chardin informs us, that in the East, in general, those who demand justice against a criminal throw dust upon him, signifying that he ought to be put in the grave: and hence the common imprecation among the Turks and Persians, `Be covered with earth,' or `Earth be upon thy head.'