⁴⁰ For lifting up my hand to heaven I say, By my unending life,

²² But Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have taken an oath to the Lord, the Most High God, maker of heaven and earth,

¹⁷ So that when it was God's desire to make it specially clear to those who by his word were to have the heritage, that his purpose was fixed, he made it more certain with an oath;

¹⁸ So that we, who have gone in flight from danger to the hope which has been put before us, may have a strong comfort in two unchanging things, in which it is not possible for God to be false;

⁸ And I will be your guide into the land which I made an oath to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you for your heritage: I am Yahweh.

²⁸ Say to them, By my life, says the Lord, as certainly as your words have come to my ears, so certainly will I do this to you:

²⁹ Your dead bodies will be stretched out in this waste land; and of all your number, all those of twenty years old and over who have been crying out against me,

³⁰ Not one will come into the land which I gave my word you would have for your resting-place, but only Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun.

² And you will take your oath, By the living Lord, in good faith and wisdom and righteousness; and the nations will make use of you as a blessing, and in you will they take a pride.

⁵ And the angel which I saw taking his position on the sea and on the earth, put up his right hand to heaven,

⁶ And took his oath by him who is living for ever and ever, who made the heaven and the things in it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea and the things in it, that there would be no more waiting: