Leviticus 5:4 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Leviticus 5:4
Or if a soul swear, pronouncing with his lips to do evil, or to do good, whatsoever it be that a man shall pronounce with an oath, and it be hid from him; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty in one of these.
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Judges 11:31 Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall…
Ecclesiastes 5:2-6 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: there…
Mark 6:23 And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom.
Acts 23:12 And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink t…
Numbers 30:8 But if her husband disallowed her on the day that he heard it; then he shall make her vow which she vowed, and that which she uttered with h…
1 Samuel 25:22 So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the w…
Leviticus 27:2-34 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the LORD by thy estimat…
Numbers 30:6 And if she had at all an husband, when she vowed, or uttered ought out of her lips, wherewith she bound her soul;
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Leviticus 5:1-6
I. The offences here supposed are, 1. A man's concealing the truth when he was sworn as a witness to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Judges among the Jews had power to adjure not only the witnesses, as with us, but the person suspected (contrary to a rule of our law, that no man is bound to accuse himself), as appears by the high priest adjuring our Saviour, who thereupon answered, though before he stood silent, Mat 26:63, Mat 26:64. Now (Lev 5:1), If a soul sin (that is, a person, for the soul is the man), if he hear the voice of swearing (that is, if he be adjured to testify what he knows, by an oath of the Lord upon him, Kg1 8:31), if in such a case, for fear…
FOR SWEARING. (Lev 5:4-19)
if a soul swear--a rash oath, without duly considering the nature and consequences of the oath, perhaps inconsiderately binding himself to do anything wrong, or neglecting to perform a vow to do something good. In all such cases a person might have transgressed one of the divine commandments unwittingly, and have been afterwards brought to a sense of his delinquency.
Adam Clarke on Leviticus 5:4
To do evil, or to do good - It is very likely that rash promises are here intended; for if a man vow to do an act that is evil, though it would be criminal to keep such an oath or vow, yet he is guilty because he made it, and therefore must offer the trespass-offering. If he neglect to do the good he has vowed, he is guilty, and must in both cases confess his iniquity, and bring his trespass-offering.
John Gill on Leviticus 5:4
Or if a soul swear,.... A rash or vain oath:
pronouncing with his lips; not in his heart, as Jarchi notes; not saying within himself that he would do this, or that, or the other thing, but expressing his oath plainly and distinctly, with an audible voice:
to do good, or to do evil; which was either impossible or unlawful for him to do; whether the good or evil he swears to do is to himself or to another; whether he swears to do good to himself, and evil to another, or, good to another, and evil to himself, see Psalm 15:4. The Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it,"whatsoever a man expresses, whether of anything present or future;''as if he swears he has done such and such a thing, whether good…
The Church Fathers
In relation to the text quoted above: Whoever makes an oath distinguishing with his lips doing evil or doing good, can one wonder what distinguishing (distinguuens) means, because this word appears many times in Scripture. Thus, for example: I will fulfill my vows, which distinguished my lips (Sal 65,13.14). In Ezekiel it is also said: If I say to the wicked: "You will die without remedy", and you did not distinguish or speak. (Ez 3,18) And in another place it says: If a woman, being in her father's house, made a vow, distinguishing with his lips against his soul (Nm 30,4). This distinction seems to be a definition by which one thing is separated from the others, which are not supported by the single word. Those words must be understood as if it had been said: The person who makes an oath, defining with his lips doing wrong or doing good according to all the things that man defines when he swears and does not realize -that is, if he swears do one thing without knowing what to do or do not have to do it-and know and commit one of these sins -or because he swore before he knew it or because he did what he swore and knew afterwards that it was not necessary to do it or had to swear - and confess the sin with which he sinned - that is, the sin he committed, since it is a phrase of Scripture. What is said next: against him, what does it mean but confessed the sin against himself, that is, confessing the sin he accused himself? And he will offer to the Lord for these sins that he made, for the sin he committed, a female, sheep of the sheep - use the usual expression female sheep, as if there could be a non-female sheep - or a goat of the goats. As a sheep sheep says, it also says a goat of the goats, as if there could be a sheep that was not of the sheep or a goat that was not of the goats. They raise a problem, a problem that is not even small, the words that the text repeats frequently: after this it warns and commits a crime, as if to say that sin is committed when it is known. Is it not rather that, if you do not know, you can not offer satisfaction? But the text does not say: after this he warns and repents. What does it mean, therefore, after this is warned by j delinque? Is it about you committing a crime after warning? So purification would be applied for crime if man had knowingly done what he should not have done. But he did not say this before. And so…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Atonement, Under The Law · Offered for: Persons swearing rashly — Offered for: Persons swearing rashly
Defilement · .Touching — .Touching
Ignorance · SINS OF — SINS OF
Oaths · The Jews: Forbidden to take rash, or unholy — The Jews: Forbidden to take rash, or unholy
Trespass Offering · To be offered: For rash swearing — To be offered: For rash swearing
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Leviticus 5:1-13
1. And if a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity.
1. Quum autem anima peccaverit audiendo vocem juramenti, et ipsc sit testis, quod aut videtit, aut sciverit: nisi renuntitaverit, feret poenam iniquitatis suae.
2. Or if a soul touch any unclean thing, whether it be a carcase of an unclean beast, or a carcase of unclean cattle, or the carcase of unclean creeping things, and if it be hidden from him; he also shall be unclean, and guilty.
2. Aut si anima tetigerit aliquam remimmundam, sive cadaver ferae immundae, sive cadaver animalis immundi, sive cadaver rep…
There follow here three special examples of sin on the part of the common Israelite, all sins of omission and rashness of a lighter kind than the cases mentioned in Lev 4:27.; in which, therefore, if the person for whom expiation was to be made was in needy circumstances, instead of a goat or ewe-sheep, a pair of doves could be received as a sacrificial gift, or, in cases of still greater poverty, the tenth of an ephah of fine flour. The following were the cases. The first (Lev 5:1), when any one had heard the voice of an oath (an oath spoken aloud) and was a witness, i.e., was in a condition to give evidence, whether he had seen what took place or had learned it, that is to say, had come to…
Oaths could be taken in the name of the Lord. However, a foolish vow, one thoughtlessly made, was a blasphemous misuse of the Lord’s name (Exod 20:7). Accordingly, vows must be fulfilled (see Num 30:2; Deut 23:21-23; Eccl 5:4-6).
Rashi on Leviticus 5:4
בשפתים [OR IF A SOUL SWEAR, PRONOUNCING] WITH HIS LIPS [FOR HARM, OR FOR GOOD] — with his lips but not merely in his heart (Sifra, Vayikra Dibbura d'Chovah, Section 9 2; Shevuot 26b).
להרע TO DO HARM to himself,
או להטיב OR TO DO GOOD to himself, — as for instance, if he swears: “I shall eat” (which is להטיב), or, “I shall not eat” (להרע), “I shall sleep” (להטיב) or, “I shall not sleep” (להרע) (cf. Shevuot 27a).
לכל אשר יבטא WHATSOEVER IT BE THAT A MAN PRONOUNCETH [WITH AN OATH] whatsoever it be: — this is intended to include the case where the oath refers to something that happened in the past (e.g., he swore, “I have eaten” etc. but he has not) (Sifra, Vayikra Dibbura d'Chovah, Section…
