For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
Parallel translations
- WEB For men indeed swear by a greater one, and in every dispute of theirs the oath is final for confirmation.
- BSB Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and their oath serves as a confirmation to end all argument.
- NKJV For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute.
- NASB For people swear an oath by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath serving as confirmation is an end of every dispute.
- NLT Now when people take an oath, they call on someone greater than themselves to hold them to it. And without any question that oath is binding.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
People swear by someone greater than themselves, and an oath settles disputes with final confirmation. Human practice illustrates how an oath gives certainty.
Overview
The writer appeals to a common feature of human life: an oath invoking a higher authority ends argument and confirms a matter. This everyday principle prepares the argument that God's oath gives believers absolute assurance. It shows how God condescends to human ways of guaranteeing truth.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Exod 22:11Then shall an oath of the LORD be between them both, that he hath not put his hand unto his neighbour’s goods; and the owner of it shall accept thereof, and he shall not make it good.
- Heb 6:13For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,
- Gen 14:22And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth,
- Gen 21:30–31And he said, For these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well.
- Josh 9:15–20And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them, to let them live: and the princes of the congregation sware unto them.
- Ezek 17:16–20As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely in the place where the king dwelleth that made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he brake, even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die.
- Gen 31:53The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge betwixt us. And Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac.
- Gen 21:23Now therefore swear unto me here by God that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son’s son: but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned.
- 2 Sam 21:2And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.)
- Matt 23:20–22Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.
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Hebrews is sustained worship of Christ: better than angels, Moses, and the priests; the great High Priest after Melchizedek who by one sacrifice perfects forever those he saves.
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