Jesus Forbids Oaths

³³ “Again you have heard that ^(A)it was said to those of ^[a]old, ^(B)‘You shall not swear falsely, but ^(C)shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’

^21 (A)“When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it; for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin to you.

¹² And you shall not ^(A)swear by My name falsely, ^(B)nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.

⁶ Do not let your ^(D)mouth cause your flesh to sin, ^(E)nor say before the messenger of God that it was an error. Why should God be angry at your ^[a]excuse and destroy the work of your hands?

^23 (A)That which has gone from your lips you shall keep and perform, for you voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth.

^2 (A)If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or ^(B)swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word; he shall ^(C)do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

³ “Or if a woman makes a vow to the Lord, and binds herself by some agreement while in her father’s house in her youth, ⁴ and her father hears her vow and the agreement by which she has bound herself, and her father ^[a]holds his peace, then all her vows shall stand, and every agreement with which she has bound herself shall stand. ⁵ But if her father overrules her on the day that he hears, then none of her vows nor her agreements by which she has bound herself shall stand; and the Lord will release her, because her father overruled her.

⁶ “If indeed she takes a husband, while bound by her vows or by a rash utterance from her lips by which she bound herself, ⁷ and her husband hears it, and makes no response to her on the day that he hears, then her vows shall stand, and her agreements by which she bound herself shall stand. ⁸ But if her husband ^(D)overrules her on the day that he hears it, he shall make void her vow which she took and what she uttered with her lips, by which she bound herself, and the Lord will release her.

⁹ “Also any vow of a widow or a divorced woman, by which she has bound herself, shall stand against her.

¹⁰ “If she vowed in her husband’s house, or bound herself by an agreement with an oath, ¹¹ and her husband heard it, and made no response to her and did not overrule her, then all her vows shall stand, and every agreement by which she bound herself shall stand. ¹² But if her husband truly made them void on the day he heard them, then whatever proceeded from her lips concerning her vows or concerning the agreement binding her, it shall not stand; her husband has made them ^[b]void, and the Lord will release her. ¹³ Every vow and every binding oath to afflict her soul, her husband may confirm it, or her husband may make it void. ¹⁴ Now if her husband makes no response whatever to her from day to day, then he confirms all her vows or all the agreements that bind her; he confirms them, because he made no response to her on the day that he heard them. ¹⁵ But if he does make them void after he has heard them, then he shall bear her guilt.”

¹⁶ These are the statutes which the Lord commanded Moses, between a man and his wife, and between a father and his daughter in her youth in her father’s house.

¹⁶ “Woe to you, ^(A)blind guides, who say, ^(B)‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’ ¹⁷ Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold ^(C)or the temple that ^[a]sanctifies the gold? ¹⁸ And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’ ¹⁹ Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift ^(D)or the altar that sanctifies the gift? ²⁰ Therefore he who ^[b]swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. ²¹ He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by ^(E)Him who ^[c]dwells in it. ²² And he who swears by heaven, swears by ^(F)the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.