¹¹ And she made an oath, and said, O Lord of armies, if you will truly take note of the sorrow of your servant, not turning away from me but keeping me in mind, and will give me a man-child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and his hair will never be cut.

⁵ For you are with child and will give birth to a son; his hair is never to be cut, for the child is to be separate to God from his birth; and he will take up the work of freeing Israel from the hands of the Philistines.

⁵ All the time he is under his oath let no blade come near his head; till the days while he is separate are ended he is holy and his hair may not be cut.

³² And Leah was with child, and gave birth to a son to whom she gave the name Reuben: for she said, The Lord has seen my sorrow; now my husband will have love for me.

²⁰ Then Jacob took an oath, and said, If God will be with me, and keep me safe on my journey, and give me food and clothing to put on,

¹⁹ And early in the morning they got up, and after worshipping before the Lord they went back to Ramah, to their house: and Elkanah had connection with his wife; and the Lord kept her in mind.

³⁰ And Jephthah took an oath to the Lord, and said, If you will give the children of Ammon into my hands,

²² Then God gave thought to Rachel, and hearing her prayer he made her fertile.

¹ And God kept Noah in mind, and all the living things and the cattle which were with him in the ark: and God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters went down.

⁴ It is better not to take an oath than to take an oath and not keep it.

¹ <A Song of the going up.> Lord, give thought to David, and to all his troubles;

² How he made an oath to the Lord, and gave his word to the great God of Jacob, saying,

¹⁸ Give thought to my grief and my pain; and take away all my sins.

¹² It may be that the Lord will take note of my wrongs, and give me back good in answer to his cursing of me today.

³ When a man takes an oath to the Lord, or gives an undertaking having the force of an oath, let him not go back from his word, but let him do whatever he has said he will do.

⁴ If a woman, being young and under the authority of her father, takes an oath to the Lord or gives an undertaking;

⁵ If her father, hearing of her oath or the undertaking she has given, says nothing to her, then all her oaths and every undertaking she has given will have force.

⁶ But if her father, hearing of it, makes her take back her word, then the oaths or the undertakings she has given will have no force; and she will have forgiveness from the Lord, because her oath was broken by her father.

⁷ And if she is married to a husband at the time when she is under an oath or an undertaking given without thought;

⁸ If her husband, hearing of it, says nothing to her at the time, then the oaths she made and the undertakings she gave will have force.

² Then Israel made an oath to the Lord, and said, If you will give up this people into my hands, then I will send complete destruction on all their towns.

¹¹ And the priest will give one for a sin-offering and the other for a burned offering to take away the sin which came on him on account of the dead, and he will make his head holy that same day.

⁸ All the time he is separate he is holy to the Lord.

³¹ And the people had faith in them; and hearing that the Lord had taken up the cause of the children of Israel and had seen their troubles, with bent heads they gave him worship.