Deuteronomy 6:13

6:13 You must revere the Lord your God, serve him, and take oaths using only his name.

Isaiah 19:18

19:18 At that time five cities ¹  in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord who commands armies. One will be called the City of the Sun. ² 

Isaiah 45:23

45:23 I solemnly make this oath ³  –

what I say is true and reliable: ⁴ 

‘Surely every knee will bow to me,

every tongue will solemnly affirm; ⁵ 

Isaiah 65:16

65:16 Whoever pronounces a blessing in the earth ⁶ 

will do so in the name of the faithful God; ⁷ 

whoever makes an oath in the earth

will do so in the name of the faithful God. ⁸ 

For past problems will be forgotten;

I will no longer think about them. ⁹ 

Zephaniah 1:5

1:5 I will remove ¹⁰  those who worship the stars in the sky from their rooftops, ¹¹ 

those who swear allegiance to the Lord ¹²  while taking oaths in the name of ¹³  their ‘king,’ ¹⁴ 

Hebrews 6:13

6:13 Now when God made his promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself,

¹ sn The significance of the number “five” in this context is uncertain. For a discussion of various proposals, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:376-77.

² tc The Hebrew text has עִיר הַהֶרֶס (’ir haheres, “City of Destruction”; cf. NASB, NIV) but this does not fit the positive emphasis of vv. 18-22. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a and some medieval Hebrew mss read עִיר הָחֶרֶס (’ir hakheres, “City of the Sun,” i.e., Heliopolis). This reading also finds support from Symmachus’ Greek version, the Targum, and the Vulgate. See HALOT 257 s.v. חֶרֶס and HALOT 355 s.v. II חֶרֶס.

³ tn Heb “I swear by myself”; KJV, NASB “have sworn.”

⁴ tn Heb “a word goes out from my mouth [in] truth and will not return.”

⁵ tn Heb “swear” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “confess allegiance.”

⁶ tn Or “in the land” (NIV, NCV, NRSV). The same phrase occurs again later in this verse, with the same options.

⁷ tn Heb “will pronounce a blessing by the God of truth.”

⁸ tn Heb “will take an oath by the God of truth.”

⁹ tn Heb “for the former distresses will be forgotten, and they will be hidden from my eyes.”

¹⁰ tn The words “I will remove” are repeated from v. 4b for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text vv. 4b-6 contain a long list of objects for the verb “I will remove” in v. 4b. In the present translation a new sentence was begun at the beginning of v. 5 in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English to use shorter sentences.

¹¹ tn Heb “those who worship on their roofs the host of heaven.” The “host of heaven” included the sun, moon, planets, and stars, all of which were deified in the ancient Near East.

¹² tc The MT reads, “those who worship, those who swear allegiance to the Lord.” The original form of the LXX omits the phrase “those who worship”; it may have been accidentally repeated from the preceding line. J. J. M. Roberts prefers to delete as secondary the phrase “those who swear allegiance” (J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah [OTL], 168).

¹³ tn Heb “those who swear by.”

¹⁴ tn The referent of “their king” is unclear. It may refer sarcastically to a pagan god (perhaps Baal) worshiped by the people. Some English versions (cf. NEB, NASB, NRSV) prefer to emend the text to “Milcom,” the name of an Ammonite god (following some LXX mss, Syriac, and Vulgate) or “Molech,” a god to whom the Israelites offered their children (cf. NIV, NLT). For a discussion of the options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 75-77.