Deuteronomy 6:13
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
13 (A)The Lord, your God, shall you fear; him shall you serve,[a] and by his name shall you swear.
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Deuteronomy 10:20
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
20 The Lord, your God, shall you fear, and him shall you serve; to him hold fast and by his name shall you swear.(A)
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Deuteronomy 18:20
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
20 But if a prophet presumes to speak a word in my name(A) that I have not commanded, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.
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Deuteronomy 23:21-23
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
21 From a foreigner you may demand interest, but you may not demand interest from your kindred, so that the Lord, your God, may bless you in all your undertakings on the land you are to enter and possess.
22 (A)When you make a vow to the Lord, your God, you shall not delay in fulfilling it; for the Lord, your God, will surely require it of you and you will be held guilty. 23 Should you refrain from making a vow, you will not be held guilty.
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Exodus 20:7
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
7 You shall not invoke the name of the Lord, your God, in vain.[a](A) For the Lord will not leave unpunished anyone who invokes his name in vain.
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- 20:7 In vain: i.e., to no good purpose, a general framing of the prohibition which includes swearing falsely, especially in the context of a legal proceeding, but also goes beyond it (cf. Lv 24:16; Prv 30:8–9).
Leviticus 19:12
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
12 You shall not swear falsely by my name, thus profaning the name of your God.(A) I am the Lord.
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Leviticus 24:10-23
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
10 A man born of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and in the camp a fight broke out between the son of the Israelite woman and an Israelite man. 11 The son of the Israelite woman uttered the Lord’s name in a curse and blasphemed. So he was brought to Moses—now his mother’s name was Shelomith, daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan— 12 and he was kept in custody till a decision from the Lord should settle the case for them.(A) 13 The Lord then said to Moses: 14 Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and when all who heard him have laid their hands[a] on his head,(B) let the whole community stone him. 15 Tell the Israelites: Anyone who blasphemes God shall bear the penalty; 16 whoever utters the name of the Lord in a curse shall be put to death.(C) The whole community shall stone that person; alien and native-born alike must be put to death for uttering the Lord’s name in a curse.
17 [b]Whoever takes the life of any human being shall be put to death;(D) 18 whoever takes the life of an animal shall make restitution of another animal, life for a life.(E) 19 [c]Anyone who inflicts a permanent injury on his or her neighbor shall receive the same in return: 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The same injury that one gives another shall be inflicted in return.(F) 21 Whoever takes the life of an animal shall make restitution, but whoever takes a human life shall be put to death. 22 You shall have but one rule, for alien and native-born alike.(G) I, the Lord, am your God.
23 When Moses told this to the Israelites, they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him;(H) they did just as the Lord commanded Moses.
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- 24:14 Laid their hands: see notes on 1:4 and 16:21. It may be that blasphemy generated a type of pollution which the hearers return to the culprit by this gesture.
- 24:17–22 A digression dealing with bodily injury follows the blasphemy rules. It may have been appended since the first case is another example of the death penalty. But the section develops according to its own logic. All legal traditions require death for homicide: Gn 9:5–6; Ex 21:12–14; Nm 35:9–34; Dt 19:1–13; cf. Ex 20:13 and Dt 5:17.
- 24:19–20 The phrase “life for a life” in v. 18 leads to introducing the law of talion in vv. 19–20. Some have interpreted the law here and the similar expressions in Ex 21:23–25 and Dt 19:21 to mean that monetary compensation equal to the injury is to be paid, though the wording of the law here and the context of Dt 19:21 indicate an injury is to be inflicted upon the injurer.
Psalm 24:4
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
4 [a]“The clean of hand and pure of heart,
who has not given his soul to useless things,
what is vain.
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- 24:4–5 Lit., “the one whose hands are clean.” The singular is used for the entire class of worshipers.
Jeremiah 29:23
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
23 because they have committed an outrage in Israel, committing adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and alleging in my name things I did not command. I know, I am witness—oracle of the Lord.(A)
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Matthew 5:33-37
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Teaching About Oaths. 33 [a](A)“Again you have heard that it was said to your ancestors, ‘Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow.’ 34 (B)But I say to you, do not swear at all;[b] not by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. 37 [c]Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.
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- 5:33 This is not an exact quotation of any Old Testament text, but see Ex 20:7; Dt 5:11; Lv 19:12. The purpose of an oath was to guarantee truthfulness by one’s calling on God as witness.
- 5:34–36 The use of these oath formularies that avoid the divine name is in fact equivalent to swearing by it, for all the things sworn by are related to God.
- 5:37 Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No’: literally, “let your speech be ‘Yes, yes,’ ‘No, no.’” Some have understood this as a milder form of oath, permitted by Jesus. In view of Mt 5:34, “Do not swear at all,” that is unlikely. From the evil one: i.e., from the devil. Oath-taking presupposes a sinful weakness of the human race, namely, the tendency to lie. Jesus demands of his disciples a truthfulness that makes oaths unnecessary.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.