Isaiah 45:23-24

45:23 I solemnly make this oath ¹  –

what I say is true and reliable: ² 

‘Surely every knee will bow to me,

every tongue will solemnly affirm; ³ 

45:24 they will say about me,

“Yes, the Lord is a powerful deliverer.”’” ⁴ 

All who are angry at him will cower before him. ⁵ 

Deuteronomy 10:20

10:20 Revere the Lord your God, serve him, be loyal to him and take oaths only in his name.

Nehemiah 10:29

10:29 hereby participate with their colleagues the town leaders ⁶  and enter into a curse and an oath ⁷  to adhere to ⁸  the law of God which was given through Moses the servant of God, and to obey ⁹  carefully all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, ¹⁰  along with his ordinances and his statutes.

Jeremiah 12:16

12:16 But they must make sure you learn to follow the religious practices of my people. ¹¹  Once they taught my people to swear their oaths using the name of the god Baal. ¹²  But then, they must swear oaths using my name, saying, “As surely as the Lord lives, I swear.” ¹³  If they do these things, ¹⁴  then they will be included among the people I call my own. ¹⁵ 

¹ tn Heb “I swear by myself”; KJV, NASB “have sworn.”

² tn Heb “a word goes out from my mouth [in] truth and will not return.”

³ tn Heb “swear” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “confess allegiance.”

⁴ tn Heb “‘Yes, in the Lord,’ one says about me, ‘is deliverance and strength.’”

⁵ tn Heb “will come to him and be ashamed.”

⁶ tn Heb “the nobles.”

⁷ tn The expression “a curse and an oath” may be a hendiadys, meaning “an oath with penalties.”

⁸ tn Heb “to walk in.”

⁹ tn Heb “keep.” See the note on the word “obey” in Neh 1:5.

¹⁰ tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

¹¹ tn Heb “the ways of my people.” For this nuance of the word “ways” compare 10:2 and the notes there.

¹² tn Heb “taught my people to swear by Baal.”

¹³ tn The words “I swear” are not in the text but are implicit to the oath formula. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹⁴ tn The words “If they do this” are not in the text. They are part of an attempt to break up a Hebrew sentence which is long and complex into equivalent shorter sentences consistent with contemporary English style. Verse 16 in Hebrew is all one sentence with a long complex conditional clause followed by a short consequence: “If they carefully learn the ways of my people to swear by name, ‘By the life of the Lord,’ as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be built up in the midst of my people.” The translation strives to create the same contingencies and modifications by breaking up the sentence into shorter sentences in accord with contemporary English style.

¹⁵ tn Heb “they will be built up among my people.” The expression “be built up among” is without parallel. However, what is involved here is conceptually parallel to the ideas expressed in Isa 19:23-25 and Zech 14:16-19. That is, these people will be allowed to live on their own land, to worship the Lord there, and to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the feasts. To translate literally would be meaningless or misleading for many readers.