2 Samuel 14:11

14:11 She replied, “In that case, ¹  let the king invoke the name of ²  the Lord your God so that the avenger of blood may not kill! Then they will not destroy my son!” He replied, “As surely as the Lord lives, not a single hair of your son’s head ³  will fall to the ground.”

2 Samuel 19:23

19:23 The king said to Shimei, “You won’t die.” The king vowed an oath ⁴  concerning this.

Jeremiah 40:9-10

40:9 Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan, took an oath so as to give them and their troops some assurance of safety. ⁵  “Do not be afraid to submit to the Babylonians. ⁶  Settle down in the land and submit to the king of Babylon. Then things will go well for you. 40:10 I for my part will stay at Mizpah to represent you before the Babylonians ⁷  whenever they come to us. You for your part go ahead and harvest the wine, the dates, the figs, ⁸  and the olive oil, and store them in jars. Go ahead and settle down in the towns that you have taken over.” ⁹ 

Ezekiel 33:24-29

33:24 “Son of man, the ones living in these ruins in the land of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land, but we are many; surely the land has been given to us for a possession.’ ¹⁰  33:25 Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: You eat the meat with the blood still in it, ¹¹  pray to ¹²  your idols, and shed blood. Do you really think you will possess ¹³  the land? 33:26 You rely ¹⁴  on your swords and commit abominable deeds; each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife. Will you possess the land?’

33:27 “This is what you must say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: As surely as I live, those living in the ruins will die ¹⁵  by the sword, those in the open field I will give to the wild beasts for food, and those who are in the strongholds and caves will die of disease. 33:28 I will turn the land into a desolate ruin; her confident pride will come to an end. The mountains of Israel will be so desolate no one will pass through them. 33:29 Then they will know that I am the Lord when I turn the land into a desolate ruin because of all the abominable deeds they have committed.’ ¹⁶ 

¹ tn The words “in that case” are not in the Hebrew text, but may be inferred from the context. They are supplied in the translation for the sake of clarification.

² tn Heb “let the king remember.”

³ tn Heb “of your son.”

⁴ tn Heb “swore to him.”

⁵ tn The words “so as to give them some assurance of safety” are not in the text but are generally understood by all commentators. This would be a case of substitution of cause for effect, the oath, put for the effect, the assurance of safety (NJPS translates directly “reassured them”).

⁶ tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

⁷ tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

⁸ tn Heb “summer fruit.” “Summer fruit” is meaningless to most modern readers; dates and figs are what is involved.

⁹ tn This plus “Things will go well with you” is in essence the substance of the oath. The pronouns are emphatic, “And I, behold I will stay…and you, you may gather.” The imperatives in the second half of the verse are more a form of permission than of command or advice (cf. NJPS, REB, TEV and compare the usage in 40:4 and the references in the translator’s note there).

¹⁰ sn Outside of its seven occurrences in Ezekiel the term translated “possession” appears only in Exod 6:8 and Deut 33:4.

¹¹ sn This practice was a violation of Levitical law (see Lev 19:26).

¹² tn Heb “lift up your eyes.”

¹³ tn Heb “Will you possess?”

¹⁴ tn Heb “stand.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “fall.”

¹⁶ sn The judgments of vv. 27-29 echo the judgments of Lev 26:22, 25.