◄ Deuteronomy 23:23 ►
Be careful to follow through on what comes from your lips, because you have freely vowed to the LORD your God with your own mouth.
Study Bible
Be careful to follow through on what comes from your lips
This phrase emphasizes the importance of integrity and honesty in speech. In the ancient Near Eastern context, words held significant power and were considered binding. The Israelites were expected to uphold their promises, reflecting God's own faithfulness. This principle is echoed in the New Testament, where Jesus teaches in Matthew 5:37, "Let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No.'" The emphasis on careful speech underscores the broader biblical theme of accountability before God for one's words and actions.

because you have freely vowed
Vows in the biblical context were voluntary commitments made to God, often in response to His blessings or as part of a plea for divine intervention. Unlike other obligations, vows were not imposed by law but were personal and self-initiated. This voluntary nature highlights the sincerity and devotion expected in one's relationship with God. Ecclesiastes 5:4-5 warns against making vows lightly, reinforcing the seriousness with which they should be approached.

to the LORD your God
This phrase identifies the recipient of the vow as the LORD, the covenant God of Israel. The use of "LORD" (YHWH) signifies a personal and covenantal relationship, reminding the Israelites of their unique bond with God. This relationship is rooted in the covenant at Sinai, where God established Israel as His chosen people. The specificity of "your God" personalizes the commitment, emphasizing that vows are not just religious formalities but acts of worship and devotion to the one true God.

with your own mouth
The phrase underscores personal responsibility and accountability. In the ancient world, oral declarations were binding, and one's word was a reflection of character. This personal aspect of making vows is significant, as it indicates that the vow is a conscious and deliberate act. The emphasis on "your own mouth" suggests that individuals cannot blame others for their commitments; they are personally accountable to God for what they have promised. This aligns with the broader biblical teaching on personal responsibility, as seen in passages like James 3:5-6, which discusses the power of the tongue.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Moses
The author of Deuteronomy, delivering God's laws and instructions to the Israelites.

2. Israelites
The audience receiving the laws and commandments as they prepare to enter the Promised Land.

3. The LORD (Yahweh)
The covenant God of Israel, to whom vows and promises are made.

4. The Promised Land
The land of Canaan, which the Israelites are about to enter under God's guidance.

5. Vows and Promises
Commitments made by individuals to God, which are binding and must be fulfilled.
Teaching Points
The Seriousness of Vows
Vows made to God are not to be taken lightly. They are sacred commitments that require careful consideration and faithful execution.

Integrity in Speech
Our words reflect our character. As Christians, we are called to be people of integrity, ensuring that our promises and commitments are trustworthy.

The Heart of Worship
Making and keeping vows is an act of worship. It demonstrates our reverence for God and our desire to honor Him with our lives.

Dependence on God's Strength
Fulfilling vows requires reliance on God's strength and grace. We must seek His help to remain faithful to our commitments.

Reflecting God's Faithfulness
By keeping our promises, we mirror God's faithfulness to us. Our actions can serve as a testimony to His unchanging nature.
Bible Study Questions
1. What are some modern-day examples of vows or promises that Christians might make to God, and how can we ensure we fulfill them?

2. How does the concept of vow-keeping in Deuteronomy 23:23 relate to the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament about honesty and integrity?

3. In what ways can we cultivate a heart of integrity that aligns with the biblical call to be careful with our words and promises?

4. How can we rely on God's strength to fulfill our commitments, especially when circumstances make it challenging?

5. Reflect on a time when you made a promise to God or others. What steps did you take to ensure you kept that promise, and what did you learn from the experience?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Ecclesiastes 5:4-5
This passage emphasizes the importance of fulfilling vows made to God, warning against making vows lightly.

Numbers 30:2
This verse outlines the seriousness of vows and the necessity of keeping one's word to the LORD.

Matthew 5:33-37
Jesus teaches about the integrity of speech, encouraging His followers to let their "yes" be "yes" and their "no" be "no," reflecting the heart of vow-keeping.

James 5:12
Reinforces the teaching of Jesus on the importance of straightforward and honest communication, avoiding oaths that may lead to condemnation.
Sermons
Various PreceptsJ. Orr Deuteronomy 23:15-23
Money-Making Must be Above SuspicionR.M. Edgar Deuteronomy 23:17-25
The Place of VowsD. Davies Deuteronomy 23:21-23
People
Aram, Balaam, Beor, Moses
Places
Beth-baal-peor, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Pethor
Topics
Careful, Freely, Freewill, Freewill-offering, Free-will-offering, Goes, Hast, Lips, Mouth, Observe, Offering, Passed, Perform, Produce, Promised, Spoken, Sure, Utter, Uttered, Voluntarily, Voluntary-offering, Vow, Vowed, Whatever
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Deuteronomy 23:23

     5164   lips

Deuteronomy 23:21-23

     5468   promises, human

Library
Appendix v. Rabbinic Theology and Literature
1. The Traditional Law. - The brief account given in vol. i. p. 100, of the character and authority claimed for the traditional law may here be supplemented by a chronological arrangement of the Halakhoth in the order of their supposed introduction or promulgation. In the first class, or Halakhoth of Moses from Sinai,' tradition enumerates fifty-five, [6370] which may be thus designated: religio-agrarian, four; [6371] ritual, including questions about clean and unclean,' twenty-three; [6372] concerning …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

That the Employing Of, and Associating with the Malignant Party, According as is Contained in the Public Resolutions, is Sinful and Unlawful.
That The Employing Of, And Associating With The Malignant Party, According As Is Contained In The Public Resolutions, Is Sinful And Unlawful. If there be in the land a malignant party of power and policy, and the exceptions contained in the Act of Levy do comprehend but few of that party, then there need be no more difficulty to prove, that the present public resolutions and proceedings do import an association and conjunction with a malignant party, than to gather a conclusion from clear premises. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Here Then Shall These Persons in their Turn be in Another More Sublime Degree...
28. Here then shall these persons in their turn be in another more sublime degree of righteousness outdone, by them who shall so order themselves, that every day they shall betake them into the fields as unto pasture, and at what time they shall find it, pick up their meal, and having allayed their hunger, return. But plainly, on account of the keepers of the fields, how good were it, if the Lord should deign to bestow wings also, that the servants of God being found in other men's fields should …
St. Augustine—Of the Work of Monks.

Lessons for Worship and for Work
'Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. 2. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few. 3. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words. 4. When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for He hath …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Introductory Note to the Works of Origen.
[a.d. 185-230-254.] The reader will remember the rise and rapid development of the great Alexandrian school, and the predominance which was imparted to it by the genius of the illustrious Clement. [1865] But in Origen, his pupil, who succeeded him at the surprising age of eighteen, a new sun was to rise upon its noontide. Truly was Alexandria "the mother and mistress of churches" in the benign sense of a nurse and instructress of Christendom, not its arrogant and usurping imperatrix. The full details …
Origen—Origen De Principiis

Excursus on Usury.
The famous canonist Van Espen defines usury thus: "Usura definitur lucrum ex mutuo exactum aut speratum;" [96] and then goes on to defend the proposition that, "Usury is forbidden by natural, by divine, and by human law. The first is proved thus. Natural law, as far as its first principles are concerned, is contained in the decalogue; but usury is prohibited in the decalogue, inasmuch as theft is prohibited; and this is the opinion of the Master of the Sentences, of St. Bonaventura, of St. Thomas …
Philip Schaff—The Seven Ecumenical Councils

Jesus Defends Disciples who Pluck Grain on the Sabbath.
(Probably While on the Way from Jerusalem to Galilee.) ^A Matt. XII. 1-8; ^B Mark II. 23-28; ^C Luke VI. 1-5. ^b 23 And ^c 1 Now it came to pass ^a 1 At that season ^b that he ^a Jesus went { ^b was going} on the { ^c a} ^b sabbath day through the grainfields; ^a and his disciples were hungry and began ^b as they went, to pluck the ears. ^a and to eat, ^c and his disciples plucked the ears, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. [This lesson fits in chronological order with the last, if the Bethesda …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

That it is not Lawful for the Well Affected Subjects to Concur in Such an Engagement in War, and Associate with the Malignant Party.
That It Is Not Lawful For The Well Affected Subjects To Concur In Such An Engagement In War, And Associate With The Malignant Party. Some convinced of the unlawfulness of the public resolutions and proceedings, in reference to the employing of the malignant party, yet do not find such clearness and satisfaction in their own consciences as to forbid the subjects to concur in this war, and associate with the army so constituted. Therefore it is needful to speak something to this point, That it is …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Canaan
Canaan was the inheritance which the Israelites won for themselves by the sword. Their ancestors had already settled in it in patriarchal days. Abraham "the Hebrew" from Babylonia had bought in it a burying-place near Hebron; Jacob had purchased a field near Shechem, where he could water his flocks from his own spring. It was the "Promised Land" to which the serfs of the Pharaoh in Goshen looked forward when they should again become free men and find a new home for themselves. Canaan had ever been …
Archibald Sayce—Early Israel and the Surrounding Nations

Brief Directions How to Read the Holy Scriptures once Every Year Over, with Ease, Profit, and Reverence.
But forasmuch, that as faith is the soul, so reading and meditating on the word of God, are the parent's of prayer, therefore, before thou prayest in the morning, first read a chapter in the word of God; then meditate awhile with thyself, how many excellent things thou canst remember out of it. As--First, what good counsels or exhortations to good works and to holy life. Secondly, what threatenings of judgments against such and such a sin; and what fearful examples of God's punishment or vengeance …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Commerce
The remarkable change which we have noticed in the views of Jewish authorities, from contempt to almost affectation of manual labour, could certainly not have been arbitrary. But as we fail to discover here any religious motive, we can only account for it on the score of altered political and social circumstances. So long as the people were, at least nominally, independent, and in possession of their own land, constant engagement in a trade would probably mark an inferior social stage, and imply …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life

Nature of Covenanting.
A covenant is a mutual voluntary compact between two parties on given terms or conditions. It may be made between superiors and inferiors, or between equals. The sentiment that a covenant can be made only between parties respectively independent of one another is inconsistent with the testimony of Scripture. Parties to covenants in a great variety of relative circumstances, are there introduced. There, covenant relations among men are represented as obtaining not merely between nation and nation, …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Scriptures Showing the Sin and Danger of Joining with Wicked and Ungodly Men.
Scriptures Showing The Sin And Danger Of Joining With Wicked And Ungodly Men. When the Lord is punishing such a people against whom he hath a controversy, and a notable controversy, every one that is found shall be thrust through: and every one joined with them shall fall, Isa. xiii. 15. They partake in their judgment, not only because in a common calamity all shares, (as in Ezek. xxi. 3.) but chiefly because joined with and partakers with these whom God is pursuing; even as the strangers that join …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Appeal to the Christian Women of the South
BY A.E. GRIMKE. "Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not within thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place: but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this. And Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer:--and so will I go in unto the king, …
Angelina Emily Grimke—An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South

The Tenth Commandment
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.' Exod 20: 17. THIS commandment forbids covetousness in general, Thou shalt not covet;' and in particular, Thy neighbour's house, thy neighbour's wife, &c. I. It forbids covetousness in general. Thou shalt not covet.' It is lawful to use the world, yea, and to desire so much of it as may keep us from the temptation …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

Deuteronomy
Owing to the comparatively loose nature of the connection between consecutive passages in the legislative section, it is difficult to present an adequate summary of the book of Deuteronomy. In the first section, i.-iv. 40, Moses, after reviewing the recent history of the people, and showing how it reveals Jehovah's love for Israel, earnestly urges upon them the duty of keeping His laws, reminding them of His spirituality and absoluteness. Then follows the appointment, iv. 41-43--here irrelevant (cf. …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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