Vows

Passages on this topic

From Nave’s Topical Bible (1896), a historical reference index. The groupings are Nave’s; the verses are shown in the text used across this site.

Mosaic laws concerning

• Leviticus 23:37–38 These are the LORD’s appointed feasts, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for presenting food offerings to the LORD — burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its designated day. These offerings are in addition to the offerings for the LORD’s Sabbaths…
• Numbers 29:39 You are to present these offerings to the LORD at your appointed times, in addition to your vow and freewill offerings, whether burnt offerings, grain offerings, drink offerings, or peace offerings.”

Must be voluntary, see below

Must be performed, see below

Estimation of the redemption price of things offered in vows, to be made by the priest, according to age and sex of the person making the offering

• Leviticus 27:1–13 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them, ‘When someone makes a special vow to the LORD involving the value of persons, if the valuation concerns a male from twenty to sixty years of age, then your valuation shall be fifty shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary s…

The redemption price of the offering of real estate, to be valued by the priest

• Leviticus 27:14–15 Now if a man consecrates his house as holy to the LORD, then the priest shall value it either as good or bad. The price will stand just as the priest values it. But if he who consecrated his house redeems it, he must add a fifth to the assessed value, and it will belong to him.

Of a field

• Leviticus 27:16–25 If a man consecrates to the LORD a parcel of his land, then your valuation shall be proportional to the seed required for it — fifty shekels of silver for every homer of barley seed. If he consecrates his field during the Year of Jubilee, the price will stand according to your valuation. But if he…

Edible things offered in, to be eaten the same day they were offered

• Leviticus 7:16–18 If, however, the sacrifice he offers is a vow or a freewill offering, it shall be eaten on the day he presents his sacrifice, but the remainder may be eaten on the next day. But any meat of the sacrifice remaining until the third day must be burned up. If any of the meat from his peace offering is…

Things offered in, to be brought to the tabernacle or temple

• Deuteronomy 12:6 To that place you are to bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and heave offerings, your vow offerings and freewill offerings, as well as the firstborn of your herds and flocks.
• Deuteronomy 12:11 then the LORD your God will choose a dwelling for His Name. And there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice offerings you vow to the LORD.
• Deuteronomy 12:17–18 Within your gates you must not eat the tithe of your grain or new wine or oil, the firstborn of your herds or flocks, any of the offerings that you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts. Instead, you must eat them in the presence of the LORD your God at the place the LORD…
• Deuteronomy 12:26 But you are to take your holy things and your vow offerings and go to the place the LORD will choose.

Belonged to the priests

• Numbers 18:14 Every devoted thing in Israel belongs to you.

Rash

By Jephthah, in consecration of his daughter as a sacrafice, if his campaign against the Ammonites were successful

• Judges 11:29–40 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, then through Mizpah of Gilead. And from there he advanced against the Ammonites. Jephthah made this vow to the LORD: “If indeed You will deliver the Ammonites into my hand, then whatever comes out the door of…

The Israelites, to destroy the Benjamites

• Judges 21:5–6 The Israelites asked, “Who among all the tribes of Israel did not come to the assembly before the LORD?” For they had taken a solemn oath that anyone who failed to come up before the LORD at Mizpah would surely be put to death. And the Israelites grieved for their brothers, the Benjamites, and said…
• Judges 20:21 And the Benjamites came out of Gibeah and cut down 22,000 Israelites on the battlefield that day.

Things forbidden to be offered in: Receipts of the whore and the price of a "dog" (male prostitute of a pagan shrine)

• Deuteronomy 23:18 You must not bring the wages of a prostitute, whether female or male, into the house of the LORD your God to fulfill any vow, because both are detestable to the LORD your God.

A minor, of himself

• Mark 7:11–13 But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever you would have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God), he is no longer permitted to do anything for his father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by the tradition you have handed down. And you do so in…

Unclassified Scriptures Relating to

• Genesis 28:20–21 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey, and if He will provide me with food to eat and clothes to wear, so that I may return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God.
• Genesis 31:13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and made a solemn vow to Me. Now get up, leave this land at once, and return to your native land.’”
• Leviticus 5:4–13 Or if someone swears thoughtlessly with his lips to do anything good or evil— in whatever matter a man may rashly pronounce an oath— even if he is unaware of it, when he realizes it, he is guilty in the matter. If someone incurs guilt in one of these ways, he must confess the sin he has committed,
• Leviticus 22:18–25 “Speak to Aaron and his sons and all the Israelites and tell them, ‘Any man of the house of Israel or any foreign resident who presents a gift for a burnt offering to the LORD, whether to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering, must offer an unblemished male from the cattle, sheep, or goats in ord…
• Numbers 15:2–16 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: After you enter the land that I am giving you as a home and you present a food offering to the LORD from the herd or flock to produce a pleasing aroma to the LORD — either a burnt offering or a sacrifice, for a special vow or freewill offering or appointed fe…
• Numbers 30:1–16 Then Moses said to the heads of the tribes of Israel, “This is what the LORD has commanded: If a man makes a vow to the LORD or swears an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word; he must do everything he has promised. And if a woman in her father’s house during her youth ma…
• Deuteronomy 23:18 You must not bring the wages of a prostitute, whether female or male, into the house of the LORD your God to fulfill any vow, because both are detestable to the LORD your God.
• Deuteronomy 23:21–23 If you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not be slow to keep it, because He will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty of sin. Be careful to follow through on what comes from your lips, because you have freely vowed t…
• Job 22:27 You will pray to Him, and He will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows.
• Psalm 22:25 My praise for You resounds in the great assembly; I will fulfill my vows before those who fear You.

See Contract

See Covenant

Instances of

Of Jacob, see above

• Genesis 28:20–22 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey, and if He will provide me with food to eat and clothes to wear, so that I may return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God. And this stone I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and…

Of the mother of Micah, in the dedication of silver for the making of an idol

• Judges 17:2–3 said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse— I have the silver here with me; I took it.” Then his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the LORD!” And when he had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mothe…

Of Hannah, to consecrate to the Lord the child for which she prayed

• 1 Samuel 1:11 And she made a vow, saying, “O LORD of Hosts, if only You will look upon the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, not forgetting Your maidservant but giving her a son, then I will dedicate him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall ever touch his head.”
• 1 Samuel 1:27–28 I prayed for this boy, and since the LORD has granted me what I asked of Him, I now dedicate the boy to the LORD. For as long as he lives, he is dedicated to the LORD.” So they worshiped the LORD there.

Of Elkanah

• 1 Samuel 1:21 Then Elkanah and all his house went up to make the annual sacrifice to the LORD and to fulfill his vow,

Of Absalom

• 2 Samuel 15:7–8 After four years had passed, Absalom said to the king, “Please let me go to Hebron to fulfill a vow I have made to the LORD. For your servant made a vow while dwelling in Geshur of Aram, saying: ‘If indeed the LORD brings me back to Jerusalem, I will worship the LORD in Hebron.’”

Of Job, not to entertain thoughts of fornication

• Job 31:1 “I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze with desire at a virgin?

Of David

• Psalm 132:2 how he swore an oath to the LORD, and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob:

Of Ananias and Sapphira, in the dedication of the proceeds of the sale of their land

• Acts 5:1–11 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge, he kept back some of the proceeds for himself, but brought a portion and laid it at the apostles’ feet. Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has filled your heart to l…

Of the Jews, to kill Paul

• Acts 23:12–15 When daylight came, the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. More than forty of them were involved in this plot. They went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have bound ourselves with a solemn oath not to eat anything…

Of Jephthah, and of the Israelites

See RASH VOWS, above

See Nazarite