A promise (to God); also (concretely) a thing promised
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נֶדֶר (neder) is a vow — a solemn, voluntary promise made to God in a specific context, typically under duress or in gratitude, committing the vow-maker to a particular action if God acts in a particular way. A neder is not prayer; it is a binding agreement initiated by the human partner and addressed to the divine.
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Full entry for נֶדֶר (H5088) · Open the biblical lexicon
נֶדֶר (neder) is a vow — a solemn, voluntary promise made to God in a specific context, typically under duress or in gratitude, committing the vow-maker to a particular action if God acts in a particular way. A neder is not prayer; it is a binding agreement initiated by the human partner and addressed to the divine.
The BSB source-word alignment has 60 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include a vow (11), my vows (7), vow (6), your vows (5), the vows (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 28:20. Its strongest book concentrations include Numbers (20), Psalms (9), Deuteronomy (6), Leviticus (6).
נֶדֶר (neder) is a vow — a solemn, voluntary promise made to God in a specific context, typically under duress or in gratitude, committing the vow-maker to a particular action if God acts in a particular way. A neder is not prayer; it is a binding agreement initiated by the human partner and addressed to the divine. The OT treats vows with great seriousness: 'When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and delay would be sin in you.
But if you refrain from vowing, that will not be sin in you. You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips' (Deut 23:21-23). The neder appears at key theological junctures: Jacob vows at Bethel that if God keeps him safe, he will give a tenth (Gen 28:20-22); Hannah vows that if God gives her a son she will give the child to the Lord (1 Sam 1:11); Jonah, in the belly of the fish, declares 'what I have vowed I will pay' (Jon 2:9).
In each case, the neder marks the moment where crisis-prayer moves toward commitment — where the cry for help generates a binding response to God's anticipated act. The theology of neder is relational and covenantal: it is not magic or bargaining, but the human person making a public, binding covenant-act within the existing covenant relationship. Ecclesiastes 5:4-5 warns that an unfulfilled neder is worse than never vowing: 'When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it...
It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it.' The neder creates an obligation; the seriousness is proportionate to the character of the One to whom it is made.
נֶדֶר occurs about 60 times in the local OT index. Major concentrations appear in the Torah (laws governing vows), Numbers (vows in warfare), the narrative books (Jacob, Jephthah, Hannah), the Psalms (paying vows as public worship), and in Jonah 2:9. The verb to vow (nādar, H5087) is the companion form. Together they describe one of the most serious forms of human speech in the covenant relationship.
But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation belongs to Yahweh (the Lord)!"
Jonah's belly-prayer climaxes in a vow-declaration: 'what I have vowed I will pay.' The neder is not specified in content, but its placement at the end of the prayer — after the movement from ṣārāh through cry to divine hearing to trust — makes it the capstone of restored covenant relationship. The final line, 'salvation belongs to the Lord,' is both theological confession and the ground of the neder: because salvation is God's, the vow to him is worth making and worth keeping.
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,
The first named neder in Scripture: Jacob at Bethel vows conditionally, committing to a tenth if God keeps his promise. The neder is responsive to a theophany — Jacob does not vow into the void but in response to the divine word received in the dream. The tenth (tithe) that becomes the neder-payment anticipates the later Levitical tithe and shows that the neder is integrated into the larger pattern of covenant worship.
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.”
Hannah's neder is among the most consequential in Scripture: the child she vows to give to the Lord is Samuel, the last judge and first kingmaker. The neder is made in acute ṣārāh (childlessness, Peninnah's provocation), addressed to YHWH Sabaoth (the Lord of Armies), and fulfilled completely when Samuel is weaned. Hannah's keeping of the neder — bringing the child she prayed for back to the temple — is presented as an act of worship rather than loss.
I will enter Your house with burnt offerings; I will fulfill my vows to You—
The Psalm explicitly connects the neder to ṣārāh (distress): 'the vows which my lips uttered and my mouth spoke when I was in distress.' This is the exact pattern of Jonah 2 — vow made in ṣārāh, paid in the community of worship. The paying of vows is a public act (v.16: 'come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul'); the private crisis-prayer becomes communal testimony.
When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it, because He takes no pleasure in fools. Fulfill your vow.
The wisdom tradition's assessment of the neder: the most important thing is not making the vow but keeping it. The delay or non-fulfillment of a neder is treated as foolishness — implying a disregard for the character of the God to whom it was made. Jonah's declaration 'I will pay what I have vowed' (Jon 2:9) reads against this wisdom background: he is committing to the seriousness that Ecclesiastes demands.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. A binding personal commitment to God, typically involving a promised gift or action upon fulfillment of a condition
A binding personal commitment to God, typically involving a promised gift or action upon fulfillment of a condition
a promise (to God); also (concretely) a thing promised BDB: vow Usage: vow(-ed).
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 60 lexical occurrence verses.
נֶדֶר is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
The neder theology in the OT reveals how covenant relationship is structured by speech that commits. Prayer is asking; praise is responding; the neder is binding — a word spoken to God that creates an obligation the speaker is expected to honor. The Psalms treat vow-paying as a form of worship (Ps 50:14; 66:13; 116:14), which means the public fulfillment of what was promised in private crisis is itself a theological act: testimony that God heard, acted, and can be trusted.
Jonah's belly-prayer ends with neder because the movement from crisis to encounter to commitment is the full arc of covenant prayer. The fish experience is not complete when Jonah cries out or when God hears; it is complete when Jonah commits his will to God's purpose — which is why the vow comes just before the fish releases him (Jon 2:10). The homiletical question is not whether contemporary believers should make formal vows (the NT's guidance is to let your yes be yes) but whether their prayers move from petition to encounter to commitment, or whether they remain only at the level of asking.
Jon.2.9
נֶדֶר is the noun form; the corresponding verb is nādar (H5087, to vow). The pair neder-nādar appears formulaically in the phrase 'to vow a vow' (nādar neder, as in Gen 28:20; 1 Sam 1:11; Jon 2:9), using the cognate object construction for emphasis. Unlike ʾālāh (an oath invoking curse) or šĕbûʿāh (an oath by God's name), the neder is primarily promissory rather than execratory — it commits to a future action rather than invoking consequences for failure.
The public dimension of neder is theologically important: the Psalms speak of paying vows 'before all his people' (Ps 116:14, 18) and 'in the assembly of the upright' (Ps 111:1). The neder moves the private prayer-encounter into the community's worship and memory.
The NT significantly reframes the vow tradition. Matthew 5:33-37 teaches not to swear at all but to let your yes be yes — Jesus addresses the casuistry that had grown around oath-taking, not the sincerity of vow-making per se. James 5:12 reiterates the same principle. The NT movement is from formal neder-making to the simpler but equally binding speech of honest commitment.
Paul's vow in Acts 18:18 (shaving his head at Cenchreae) shows that neder-making did not immediately disappear in the early church; it was practiced alongside the NT recalibration. The underlying theology of the neder is fully carried forward in the NT: the Eucharist is a form of communal covenant-renewal in which the community publicly declares its commitment to the Lord who has acted for them — paying, as it were, the vow of continued participation in the covenant community of the crucified and risen Christ.
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