Leviticus 19:12

19:12 You must not swear falsely ¹  in my name, so that you do not profane ²  the name of your God. I am the Lord.

Leviticus 24:11-16

24:11 The Israelite woman’s son misused the Name and cursed, ³  so they brought him to Moses. (Now his mother’s name was Shelomith daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.) 24:12 So they placed him in custody until they were able ⁴  to make a clear legal decision for themselves based on words from the mouth of the Lord. ⁵ 

24:13 Then the Lord spoke to Moses: 24:14 “Bring the one who cursed outside the camp, and all who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the whole congregation is to stone him to death. ⁶  24:15 Moreover, ⁷  you are to tell the Israelites, ‘If any man curses his God ⁸  he will bear responsibility for his sin, 24:16 and one who misuses ⁹  the name of the Lord must surely be put to death. The whole congregation must surely stone him, whether he is a foreigner or a native citizen; when he misuses the Name he must be put to death.

Deuteronomy 5:11

5:11 You must not make use of the name of the Lord your God for worthless purposes, ¹⁰  for the Lord will not exonerate anyone who abuses his name that way. ¹¹ 

Psalms 50:14-16

50:14 Present to God a thank-offering!

Repay your vows to the sovereign One! ¹² 

50:15 Pray to me when you are in trouble! ¹³ 

I will deliver you, and you will honor me!” ¹⁴ 

50:16 God says this to the evildoer: ¹⁵ 

“How can you declare my commands,

and talk about my covenant? ¹⁶ 

Proverbs 30:9

30:9 lest I become satisfied and act deceptively ¹⁷ 

and say, “Who is the Lord?”

Or lest I become poor and steal

and demean ¹⁸  the name of my God.

Jeremiah 4:2

4:2 You must be truthful, honest and upright

when you take an oath saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives!’ ¹⁹ 

If you do, ²⁰  the nations will pray to be as blessed by him as you are

and will make him the object of their boasting.” ²¹ 

Matthew 5:33-37

Oaths

5:33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to an older generation, ²²  ‘Do not break an oath, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ ²³  5:34 But I say to you, do not take oaths at all – not by heaven, because it is the throne of God, 5:35 not by earth, because it is his footstool, and not by Jerusalem, ²⁴  because it is the city of the great King. 5:36 Do not take an oath by your head, because you are not able to make one hair white or black. 5:37 Let your word be ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no.’ More than this is from the evil one. ²⁵ 

Matthew 23:16-22

23:16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple is bound by nothing. ²⁶  But whoever swears by the gold of the temple is bound by the oath.’ 23:17 Blind fools! Which is greater, the gold or the temple that makes the gold sacred? 23:18 And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar is bound by nothing. ²⁷  But if anyone swears by the gift on it he is bound by the oath.’ 23:19 You are blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 23:20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 23:21 And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and the one who dwells in it. 23:22 And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and the one who sits on it.

Matthew 26:63-64

26:63 But Jesus was silent. The ²⁸  high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, ²⁹  the Son of God.” 26:64 Jesus said to him, “You have said it yourself. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand ³⁰  of the Power ³¹  and coming on the clouds of heaven.” ³² 

Matthew 26:2

26:2 “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be handed over ³³  to be crucified.” ³⁴ 

Colossians 1:23

1:23 if indeed you remain in the faith, established and firm, ³⁵  without shifting ³⁶  from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has also been preached in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become its servant.

Hebrews 6:16-17

6:16 For people ³⁷  swear by something greater than themselves, ³⁸  and the oath serves as a confirmation to end all dispute. ³⁹  6:17 In the same way ⁴⁰  God wanted to demonstrate more clearly to the heirs of the promise that his purpose was unchangeable, ⁴¹  and so he intervened with an oath,

James 5:12

5:12 And above all, my brothers and sisters, ⁴²  do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath. But let your “Yes” be yes and your “No” be no, so that you may not fall into judgment.

[19:12]  ¹ tn Heb “And you shall not swear to the falsehood.”

[19:12]  ² tn Heb “and you shall not profane”; NAB “thus profaning.”

[24:11]  ³ tn The verb rendered “misused” means literally “to bore through, to pierce” (HALOT 719 s.v. נקב qal); it is from נָקַב (naqav), not קָבַב (qavav; see the participial form in v. 16a). Its exact meaning here is uncertain. The two verbs together may form a hendiadys, “he pronounced by cursing blasphemously” (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 166), the idea being one of the following: (1) he pronounced the name “Yahweh” in a way or with words that amounted to “some sort of verbal aggression against Yahweh himself” (E. S. Gerstenberger, Leviticus [OTL], 362), (2) he pronounced a curse against the man using the name “Yahweh” (N. H. Snaith, Leviticus and Numbers [NCBC], 110; G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 311), or (3) he pronounced the name “Yahweh” and thereby blasphemed, since the “Name” was never to be pronounced (a standard Jewish explanation). In one way or another, the offense surely violated Exod 20:7, one of the ten commandments, and the same verb for cursing is used explicitly in Exod 22:28 (27 HT) prohibition against “cursing” God. For a full discussion of these and related options for interpreting this verse see P. J. Budd, Leviticus (NCBC), 335-36; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 408-9; and Levine, 166.

[24:12]  ⁴ tn The words “until they were able” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.

[24:12]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew here is awkward. A literal reading would be something like the following: “And they placed him in custody to give a clear decision [HALOT 976 s.v. פרשׁ qal] for themselves on the mouth of the Lord.” In any case, they were apparently waiting for a direct word from the Lord regarding this matter (see vv. 13ff).

[24:14]  ⁶ tn The words “to death” are supplied in the translation as a clarification; they are clearly implied from v. 16.

[24:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “And.”

[24:15]  ⁸ sn See the note on v. 11 above and esp. Exod 22:28 [27 HT].

[24:16]  ⁹ sn See the note on v. 11 above.

[5:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “take up the name of the Lord your God to emptiness”; KJV “take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” The idea here is not cursing or profanity in the modern sense of these terms but rather the use of the divine Name for unholy, mundane purposes, that is, for meaningless (the Hebrew term is שָׁוְא) and empty ends. In ancient Israel this would include using the Lord’s name as a witness in vows one did not intend to keep.

[5:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “who takes up his name to emptiness.”

[50:14]  ¹² tn Heb “Most High.” This divine title (עֶלְיוֹן, ’elyon) pictures God as the exalted ruler of the universe who vindicates the innocent and judges the wicked. See especially Pss 7:17; 9:2; 18:13; 21:7; 47:2.

[50:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “call [to] me in a day of trouble.”

[50:15]  ¹⁴ sn In vv. 7-15 the Lord makes it clear that he was not rebuking Israel because they had failed to offer sacrifices (v. 8a). On the contrary, they had been faithful in doing so (v. 8b). However, their understanding of the essence of their relationship with God was confused. Apparently they believed that he needed/desired such sacrifices and that offering them would ensure their prosperity. But the Lord owns all the animals of the world and did not need Israel’s meager sacrifices (vv. 9-13). Other aspects of the relationship were more important to the Lord. He desired Israel to be thankful for his blessings (v. 14a), to demonstrate gratitude for his intervention by repaying the vows they made to him (v. 14b), and to acknowledge their absolute dependence on him (v. 15a). Rather than viewing their sacrifices as somehow essential to God’s well-being, they needed to understand their dependence on him.

[50:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “evil [one].” The singular adjective is used here in a representative sense; it refers to those within the larger covenant community who have blatantly violated the Lord’s commandments. In the psalms the “wicked” (רְשָׁעִים, rÿsha’im) are typically proud, practical atheists (Ps 10:2, 4, 11) who hate God’s commands, commit sinful deeds, speak lies and slander, and cheat others (Ps 37:21).

[50:16]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “What to you to declare my commands and lift up my covenant upon your mouth?” The rhetorical question expresses sarcastic amazement. The Lord is shocked that such evildoers would give lip-service to his covenantal demands, for their lifestyle is completely opposed to his standards (see vv. 18-20).

[30:9]  ¹⁷ tn The verb כָּחַשׁ (kakhash) means “to be disappointing; to deceive; to fail; to grow lean.” In the Piel stem it means “to deceive; to act deceptively; to cringe; to disappoint.” The idea of acting deceptively is illustrated in Hos 9:2 where it has the connotation of “disowning” or “refusing to acknowledge” (a meaning very close to its meaning here).

[30:9]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew verb literally means “to take hold of; to seize”; this produces the idea of doing violence to the reputation of God.

[4:2]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ tn Heb “bless themselves in him and make their boasts in him.”

[5:33]  ²² tn Grk “the ancient ones.”

[5:33]  ²³ sn A quotation from Lev 19:12.

[5:35]  ²⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[5:37]  ²⁵ tn The term πονηροῦ (ponhrou) may be understood as specific and personified, referring to the devil, or possibly as a general reference to evil. It is most likely personified, however, since it is articular (τοῦ πονηροῦ, tou ponhrou). Cf. also “the evildoer” in v. 39, which is the same construction.

[23:16]  ²⁶ tn Grk “Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing.”

[23:18]  ²⁷ tn Grk “Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing.”

[26:63]  ²⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[26:63]  ²⁹ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[26:64]  ³⁰ sn An allusion to Ps 110:1. This is a claim that Jesus shares authority with God in heaven. Those present may have thought they were his judges, but, in fact, the reverse was true.

[26:64]  ³¹ sn The expression the right hand of the Power is a circumlocution for referring to God. Such indirect references to God were common in 1st century Judaism out of reverence for the divine name.

[26:64]  ³² sn An allusion to Dan 7:13 (see also Matt 24:30).

[26:2]  ³³ tn Or “will be delivered up.”

[26:2]  ³⁴ sn See the note on crucified in 20:19.

[1:23]  ³⁵ tn BDAG 276 s.v. ἑδραῖος suggests “firm, steadfast.”

[1:23]  ³⁶ tn BDAG 639 s.v. μετακινέω suggests “without shifting from the hope” here.

[6:16]  ³⁷ tn The plural Greek term ἄνθρωποι (anqrwpoi) is used here in a generic sense, referring to both men and women, and is thus translated “people.”

[6:16]  ³⁸ tn Grk “by something greater”; the rest of the comparison (“than themselves”) is implied.

[6:16]  ³⁹ tn Grk “the oath for confirmation is an end of all dispute.”

[6:17]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “in which.”

[6:17]  ⁴¹ tn Or “immutable” (here and in v. 18); Grk “the unchangeableness of his purpose.”

[5:12]  ⁴² tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.