However, if you tell anyone what we have been doing, then we will not have to keep our promise which you have made us give you."

I want you to make a vow in the name of the LORD, the God of heaven and earth, that you will not choose a wife for my son from the people here in Canaan.

But the servant asked, "What if the young woman will not leave home to come with me to this land? Shall I send your son back to the land you came from?"

The LORD, the God of heaven, brought me from the home of my father and from the land of my relatives, and he solemnly promised me that he would give this land to my descendants. He will send his angel before you, so that you can get a wife there for my son.

"Do not use my name for evil purposes, for I, the LORD your God, will punish anyone who misuses my name.

"Do not steal or cheat or lie.

Do not make a promise in my name if you do not intend to keep it; that brings disgrace on my name. I am the LORD your God.

When a man makes a vow to give something to the LORD or takes an oath to abstain from something, he must not break his promise, but must do everything that he said he would.

During David's reign there was a severe famine which lasted for three full years. So David consulted the LORD about it, and the LORD said, "Saul and his family are guilty of murder; he put the people of Gibeon to death."

(The people of Gibeon were not Israelites; they were a small group of Amorites whom the Israelites had promised to protect, but Saul had tried to destroy them because of his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah.)

But because of the sacred promise that he and Jonathan had made to each other, David spared Jonathan's son Mephibosheth, the grandson of Saul.