Jeremiah 4:2

4:2 You must be truthful, honest and upright

when you take an oath saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives!’ ¹ 

If you do, ²  the nations will pray to be as blessed by him as you are

and will make him the object of their boasting.” ³ 

Jeremiah 5:2

5:2 These people make promises in the name of the Lord. ⁴ 

But the fact is, ⁵  what they swear to is really a lie.” ⁶ 

Deuteronomy 10:20-21

10:20 Revere the Lord your God, serve him, be loyal to him and take oaths only in his name. 10:21 He is the one you should praise; ⁷  he is your God, the one who has done these great and awesome things for you that you have seen.

The Song of Songs 1:8

The Lover to His Beloved:

1:8 If you do not know, O most beautiful of women,

simply follow the tracks of my flock,

and pasture your little lambs

beside the tents of the shepherds.

Isaiah 9:18-21

9:18 For ⁸  evil burned like a fire, ⁹ 

it consumed thorns and briers;

it burned up the thickets of the forest,

and they went up in smoke. ¹⁰ 

9:19 Because of the anger of the Lord who commands armies, the land was scorched, ¹¹ 

and the people became fuel for the fire. ¹² 

People had no compassion on one another. ¹³ 

9:20 They devoured ¹⁴  on the right, but were still hungry,

they ate on the left, but were not satisfied.

People even ate ¹⁵  the flesh of their own arm! ¹⁶ 

9:21 Manasseh fought against ¹⁷  Ephraim,

and Ephraim against Manasseh;

together they fought against Judah.

Despite all this, his anger does not subside,

and his hand is ready to strike again. ¹⁸ 

Isaiah 45:23

45:23 I solemnly make this oath ¹⁹  –

what I say is true and reliable: ²⁰ 

‘Surely every knee will bow to me,

every tongue will solemnly affirm; ²¹ 

Isaiah 65:16

65:16 Whoever pronounces a blessing in the earth ²² 

will do so in the name of the faithful God; ²³ 

whoever makes an oath in the earth

will do so in the name of the faithful God. ²⁴ 

For past problems will be forgotten;

I will no longer think about them. ²⁵ 

Romans 14:11

14:11 For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will give praise to God.” ²⁶ 

[4:2]  ¹ tn Heb “If you [= you must, see the translator’s note on the word “do” later in this verse] swear/take an oath, ‘As the Lord lives,’ in truth, justice, and righteousness…”

[4:2]  ² tn 4:1-2a consists of a number of “if” clauses, two of which are formally introduced by the Hebrew particle אִם (’im) while the others are introduced by the conjunction “and,” followed by a conjunction (“and” = “then”) with a perfect in 4:2b which introduces the consequence. The translation “You must…. If you do,” was chosen to avoid a long and complicated sentence.

[4:2]  ³ tn Heb “bless themselves in him and make their boasts in him.”

[5:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “Though they say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives.” The idea of “swear on oath” comes from the second line.

[5:2]  ⁵ tc The translation follows many Hebrew mss and the Syriac version in reading “surely” (אָכֵן, ’akhen) instead of “therefore” (לָכֵן, lakhen) in the MT.

[5:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “they swear falsely.”

[10:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “your praise.” The pronoun is subjective and the noun “praise” is used here metonymically for the object of their praise (the Lord).

[9:18]  ⁸ tn Or “Indeed” (cf. NIV “Surely”). The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[9:18]  ⁹ sn Evil was uncontrollable and destructive, and so can be compared to a forest fire.

[9:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and they swirled [with] the rising of the smoke” (cf. NRSV).

[9:19]  ¹¹ tn The precise meaning of the verb עְתַּם (’ÿtam), which occurs only here, is uncertain, though the context strongly suggests that it means “burn, scorch.”

[9:19]  ¹² sn The uncontrollable fire of the people’s wickedness (v. 18) is intensified by the fire of the Lord’s judgment (v. 19). God allows (or causes) their wickedness to become self-destructive as civil strife and civil war break out in the land.

[9:19]  ¹³ tn Heb “men were not showing compassion to their brothers.” The idiom “men to their brothers” is idiomatic for reciprocity. The prefixed verbal form is either a preterite without vav (ו) consecutive or an imperfect used in a customary sense, describing continual or repeated behavior in past time.

[9:20]  ¹⁴ tn Or “cut.” The verb גָּזַר (gazar) means “to cut.” If it is understood here, then one might paraphrase, “They slice off meat on the right.” However, HALOT 187 s.v. I גזר, proposes here a rare homonym meaning “to devour.”

[9:20]  ¹⁵ tn The prefixed verbal form is either a preterite without vav consecutive or an imperfect used in a customary sense, describing continual or repeated behavior in past time.

[9:20]  ¹⁶ tn Some suggest that זְרֹעוֹ (zÿro’o, “his arm”) be repointed זַרְעוֹ (zar’o, “his offspring”). In either case, the metaphor is that of a desperately hungry man who resorts to an almost unthinkable act to satisfy his appetite. He eats everything he can find to his right, but still being unsatisfied, then turns to his left and eats everything he can find there. Still being desperate for food, he then resorts to eating his own flesh (or offspring, as this phrase is metaphorically understood by some English versions, e.g., NIV, NCV, TEV, NLT). The reality behind the metaphor is the political turmoil of the period, as the next verse explains. There was civil strife within the northern kingdom; even the descendants of Joseph were at each other’s throats. Then the northern kingdom turned on their southern brother, Judah.

[9:21]  ¹⁷ tn The words “fought against” are supplied in the translation both here and later in this verse for stylistic reasons.

[9:21]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “in all this his anger is not turned, and still his hand is outstretched” (KJV and ASV both similar); NIV “his hand is still upraised.”

[45:23]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “I swear by myself”; KJV, NASB “have sworn.”

[45:23]  ²⁰ tn Heb “a word goes out from my mouth [in] truth and will not return.”

[45:23]  ²¹ tn Heb “swear” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “confess allegiance.”

[65:16]  ²² tn Or “in the land” (NIV, NCV, NRSV). The same phrase occurs again later in this verse, with the same options.

[65:16]  ²³ tn Heb “will pronounce a blessing by the God of truth.”

[65:16]  ²⁴ tn Heb “will take an oath by the God of truth.”

[65:16]  ²⁵ tn Heb “for the former distresses will be forgotten, and they will be hidden from my eyes.”

[14:11]  ²⁶ sn A quotation from Isa 45:23.