The king said to him, “How many times must I make you solemnly promise in ¹  the name of the Lord to tell me only the truth?”

He despises a reprobate, ¹  but honors the Lord’s loyal followers. ²  He makes firm commitments and does not renege on his promise. ³ 

“Again, you have heard that it was said to an older generation, ¹  ‘Do not break an oath, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ ² 

But I say to you, do not take oaths at all – not by heaven, because it is the throne of God,

So I entered a complaint with them. I called down a curse on them, and I struck some of the men and pulled out their hair. I had them swear by God saying, “You will not marry off ¹  your daughters to their sons, and you will not take any of their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves!

The speaker went on to say, “This is a curse ¹  traveling across the whole earth. For example, according to the curse whoever steals ²  will be removed from the community; or on the other hand (according to the curse) whoever swears falsely will suffer the same fate.”

If a man ¹  makes a vow ²  to the Lord or takes an oath ³  of binding obligation on himself, ⁴  he must not break his word, but must do whatever he has promised. ⁵ 

Visit ¹  King David and say to him, ‘My master, O king, did you not solemnly promise ²  your servant, “Surely your son Solomon will be king after me; he will sit on my throne”? So why has Adonijah become king?’

As certainly as the Lord your God lives, my master has sent to every nation and kingdom in an effort to find you. When they say, ‘He’s not here,’ he makes them ¹  swear an oath that they could not find you.

The Lord confirms this oath ¹  by the arrogance of Jacob: ²  “I swear ³  I will never forget all you have done! ⁴ 

Samson said to them, “Because you did this, ¹  I will get revenge against you before I quit fighting.” ² 

The one whose deeds are blameless and whose motives are pure, ¹  who does not lie, ²  or make promises with no intention of keeping them. ³ 

For I solemnly swear,” ¹  says the Lord, “that Bozrah ²  will become a pile of ruins. It will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example to be used in curses. ³  All the towns around it will lie in ruins forever.”

So this is what the sovereign Lord says: I vow ¹  that the nations around you will endure insults as well.

They ¹  utter empty words, ²  taking ³  false oaths and making empty ⁴  agreements. Therefore legal disputes sprout up like poisonous weeds ⁵  in the furrows of a plowed field.

But ¹  listen to what the Lord has to say, all you people of Judah who are living in the land of Egypt. The Lord says, ‘I hereby swear by my own great name that none of the people of Judah who are living anywhere in Egypt will ever again invoke my name in their oaths! Never again will any of them use it in an oath saying, “As surely as the Lord God lives….” ² 

“‘For the Lord says concerning the palace of the king of Judah, “This place looks like a veritable forest of Gilead to me. It is like the wooded heights of Lebanon in my eyes. But I swear that I will make it like a wilderness whose towns have all been deserted. ¹ 

Everyone shares the same fate ¹  – the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, ²  the ceremonially clean and unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not. What happens to the good person, also happens to the sinner; ³  what happens to those who make vows, also happens to those who are afraid to make vows.

There were more than forty of them who formed this conspiracy. ¹ 

I will bring you to the land I swore to give ¹  to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob – and I will give it to you ²  as a possession. I am the Lord!’”