Jeremiah 5:2

5:2 These people make promises in the name of the Lord. ¹ 

But the fact is, ²  what they swear to is really a lie.” ³ 

Deuteronomy 10:20

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

Isaiah 45:23

45:23 I solemnly make this oath ⁴  –

what I say is true and reliable: ⁵ 

‘Surely every knee will bow to me,

every tongue will solemnly affirm; ⁶ 

Isaiah 48:1-2

The Lord Appeals to the Exiles

48:1 Listen to this, O family of Jacob, ⁷ 

you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’

and are descended from Judah, ⁸ 

who take oaths in the name of the Lord,

and invoke ⁹  the God of Israel –

but not in an honest and just manner. ¹⁰ 

48:2 Indeed, they live in the holy city; ¹¹ 

they trust in ¹²  the God of Israel,

whose name is the Lord who commands armies.

Isaiah 65:16

65:16 Whoever pronounces a blessing in the earth ¹³ 

will do so in the name of the faithful God; ¹⁴ 

whoever makes an oath in the earth

will do so in the name of the faithful God. ¹⁵ 

For past problems will be forgotten;

I will no longer think about them. ¹⁶ 

[5:2]  ¹ tn Heb “Though they say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives.” The idea of “swear on oath” comes from the second line.

[5:2]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “they swear falsely.”

[45:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “I swear by myself”; KJV, NASB “have sworn.”

[45:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “a word goes out from my mouth [in] truth and will not return.”

[45:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “swear” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “confess allegiance.”

[48:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “house of Jacob”; TEV, CEV “people of Israel.”

[48:1]  ⁸ tc The Hebrew text reads literally “and from the waters of Judah came out.” מִמֵּי (mimme) could be a corruption of מִמְּעֵי (mimmÿ’e, “from the inner parts of”; cf. NASB, NIV, NLT, NRSV) as suggested in the above translation. Some translations (ESV, NKJV) retain the MT reading because the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a, which corrects a similar form to “from inner parts of” in 39:7, does not do it here.

[48:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “cause to remember”; KJV, ASV “make mention of.”

[48:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “not in truth and not in righteousness.”

[48:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “they call themselves [or “are called”] from the holy city.” The precise meaning of the statement is uncertain. The Niphal of קָרָא (qara’) is combined with the preposition מִן (min) only here. When the Qal of קָרָא is used with מִן, the preposition often indicates the place from which one is summoned (see 46:11). So one could translate, “from the holy city they are summoned,” meaning that they reside there.

[48:2]  ¹² tn Heb “lean on” (so NASB, NRSV); NAB, NIV “rely on.”

[65:16]  ¹³ tn Or “in the land” (NIV, NCV, NRSV). The same phrase occurs again later in this verse, with the same options.

[65:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “will pronounce a blessing by the God of truth.”

[65:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “will take an oath by the God of truth.”

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