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Fri 27 May, 2016 03:54 pm
Is it correct to say "whomever you bless is blessed"? I usually would use "whoever" in this context because "whoever" is the subject of "is", but it is also the object of "bless". Also, I know that in modern usage, you can't go wrong with "whoever", and whoever one hears misusing "whomever" may come across as both pretentious and ignorant. I found the phrase in question in Numbers 22:6 in the CEB translation and also in ISV. Other translations such as NIV2011 use "whoever", but that translation doesn't use "whom" or "whomever" at all (whereas NIV84 uses "whom" a number of times).
You should use whomever, because it is the object of the verb. "You bless whomever" is how you should read this.