But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.
Parallel translations
- WEB But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No.’ Whatever is more than these is of the evil one.
- KJV But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
- BSB Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ Anything more comes from the evil one.
- NASB But make sure your statement is, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil origin.
- NLT Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one.
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
Let your 'Yes' be 'Yes' and your 'No' be 'No'; more than this is from the evil one. It calls for simple, reliable truthfulness.
Overview
Jesus sums up His teaching on oaths: a disciple's word should be so dependable that simple yes or no suffices. The need for embellishing oaths arises from a world of deceit, which is of the evil one. This reflects the integrity that befits children of the God of truth.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Jas 5:12But above all things, my brothers, don’t swear — not by heaven, or by the earth, or by any other oath; but let your “yes” be “yes”, and your “no”, “no”; so that you don’t fall into hypocrisy.
- Col 4:6Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.
- Col 3:9Don’t lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings,
- 2 Cor 1:17–20When I therefore was thus determined, did I show fickleness? Or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be the “Yes, yes” and the “No, no?”
- John 8:44You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and its father.
- Eph 4:25Therefore putting away falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbor. For we are members of one another.
- 2 Th 3:3But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you, and guard you from the evil one.
- Matt 13:19When anyone hears the word of the Kingdom, and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes, and snatches away that which has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown by the roadside.
- Matt 13:38the field is the world; and the good seed, these are the children of the Kingdom; and the darnel weeds are the children of the evil one.
- Matt 6:13Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.’
- 1 Jn 5:18We know that whoever is born of God doesn’t sin, but he who was born of God keeps himself, and the evil one doesn’t touch him.
- 1 Jn 2:13I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, little children, because you know the Father.
- 1 Jn 3:12unlike Cain, who was of the evil one, and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
- John 17:15I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one.
- Matt 15:19For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Matthew presents Jesus as the promised King — son of David, son of Abraham — the new Moses and true Israel in whom every prophecy reaches 'that it might be fulfilled.'
How Matthew 5:37 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.