praguejar

Someone once said Traduttore, traditore (translator, traitor) and that is the case when deliberate changes are done to the translation, but that is not so in the fragment I read in E ele escolheu os cravos, a translation from And he chose the nails. Here's what it says:

Destas mãos vieram os gafanhotos que praguejaram o Egito e o corvo que alimentou Elias. (My translation back into English: From these hands came the locusts that plagued Egypt and the raven that fed Elijah.)

But the problem is the word praguejar. I know that's the intended meaning is to plague because I know English, but Portuguese praguejar means, above all, to swear, as when you are mad. A similarity in form misled the translator, or, in other words, that's a false friend between Portuguese and English. If he had been more attentive, he would have chosen something like Destas mãos vieram os gafanhotos que assolaram/devastaram/atacaram o Egito e o corvo que alimentou Elias.