שְׁבוּעָה (šĕbûʿāh) is a Hebrew noun for an oath, a sworn assurance that puts the truthfulness of speech and the seriousness of an undertaking before God. Genesis 26:3 uses it for the oath God swore to Abraham and confirms to Isaac.
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Full entry for שְׁבוּעָה (H7621) · Open the biblical lexicon
שְׁבוּעָה (šĕbûʿāh) is a Hebrew noun for an oath, a sworn assurance that puts the truthfulness of speech and the seriousness of an undertaking before God. Genesis 26:3 uses it for the oath God swore to Abraham and confirms to Isaac.
The BSB source-word alignment has 30 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the oath (7), an oath (3), and the oath He swore (2), oath (2), your oath (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 24:8. Its strongest book concentrations include Numbers (5), Joshua (3), Ecclesiastes (2), Genesis (2).
שְׁבוּעָה (šĕbûʿāh) is a Hebrew noun for an oath, a sworn assurance that puts the truthfulness of speech and the seriousness of an undertaking before God. Genesis 26:3 uses it for the oath God swore to Abraham and confirms to Isaac. Exodus 22:11 places an oath before the Lord within a particular dispute over entrusted animals. These passages share solemn assurance, while their speakers, obligations, and purposes differ. God's covenant faithfulness and a custodian's testimony are not interchangeable meanings of the noun.
An oath's seriousness does not make its contents righteous. Leviticus 5:4 identifies rash sworn speech as a matter requiring acknowledgment and atonement, and Zechariah 8:17 condemns false swearing alongside hostility toward one's neighbor. The word therefore opens questions of reliability, responsibility, and reverence rather than a technique for making words powerful. Teaching should distinguish God's trustworthy assurance from human attempts to borrow His name for credibility.
The selected uses move from God's covenant assurance to a regulated property dispute and the condemnation of rash or false sworn speech. Their different settings show why the content and speaker of an oath must be examined.
Stay in this land as a foreigner, and I will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.
God reassures Isaac during famine by confirming His sworn commitment to Abraham. The assurance belongs to this covenant narrative, rather than to every desired outcome a reader might attach to God's name.
An oath before the Lord shall be made between the parties to determine whether or not the man has taken his neighbor’s property. The owner must accept the oath and require no restitution.
The oath addresses responsibility for an animal entrusted to another person's care when no one witnessed its loss. This particular legal procedure cannot be generalized into immunity from investigating present allegations.
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.
Rash swearing is treated as culpable speech once its seriousness is recognized. The following confession and offering address the guilt; the verse does not celebrate recklessness as a binding spiritual achievement.
Do not plot evil in your hearts against your neighbor, and do not love to swear falsely, for I hate all these things,” declares the Lord.
False sworn speech is paired with planning evil against a neighbor in instructions for restored Jerusalem. The surrounding command to speak truth joins reverence for God to truthful community dealings.
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. Oath as a binding verbal act that invokes divine witness to enforce covenant commitment or legal obligation
Oath as a binding verbal act that invokes divine witness to enforce covenant commitment or legal obligation
properly, something sworn, i.e. an oath BDB: oath Usage: curse, oath, × sworn.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
שְׁבוּעָה 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.
Isaac receives an assurance whose strength rests in the Lord who gives it. Famine has brought him to Gerar, and the direction to remain in the land comes with God's presence, promised blessing, and confirmation of the oath to Abraham. The passage does not ask Isaac to secure God's reliability through stronger language of his own. It locates the promise in God's continuing covenant purpose.
That contrast matters when teaching human oaths. Solemnity cannot substitute for honesty, and a religious formula cannot transform deception into faithfulness. Exodus protects a particular entrusted-property relationship; Zechariah calls a restored people to truthful judgments and speech. Hebrews 6:13-20 later grounds encouragement in God's unchanging purpose and the hope secured through Jesus. That New Testament argument supplies the Christian hope, rather than an enlarged dictionary definition of the Hebrew noun.
Gen.26.3
The noun identifies an oath; it does not identify its speaker's moral quality. Its occurrence beside God's sworn assurance in Genesis and false swearing in Zechariah makes the surrounding clause decisive for evaluating the particular undertaking.
Genesis records a sworn covenant assurance to Abraham confirmed to Isaac. Hebrews 6:13-20 explicitly discusses God's oath to Abraham and draws encouragement from the impossibility of God lying, leading to hope in Jesus. Matthew 5:33-37 separately governs disciples' speech. These are warranted canonical comparisons, not additional direct occurrences of H7621.