29 Bible Verses about Making Vows

If thou make a vow unto God, be not slack to perform it. As for foolish vows, he hath no pleasure in them. If thou promise anything, pay it; for better it is that thou make no vow than that thou shouldest promise, and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh for to sin, neither say thou before the angel that it is thy ignorance. For then God will be angry at thy voice, and destroy all the works of thine hands.read more.
And why? Whereas are many dreams and many words, there are also divers vanities: but look that thou fear God. If thou seest the poor to be oppressed and wrongfully dealt withal, so that equity and the right of the law is wrested in the land: marvel not thou at such judgment, for one great man keepeth touch with another, and the mighty help themselves together.

If a man vow a vow unto the LORD or swear an oath and bind his soul, he shall not go back with his word: but shall fulfill all that proceedeth out of his mouth.

My praise is of thee in the great congregation; my vows will I perform in the sight of them that fear him.

So will I always sing praise unto thy name, that I may daily perform my vows.

I will go into thine house with burnt-offerings, to pay thee my vows,

I will pay my vows, now, in the presence of all his people;

I will pay my vows unto the LORD in the sight of all his people,

but that which is once gone out of thy lips, thou must keep and do, according as thou hast vowed unto the LORD thy God a freewill offering which thou hast spoken with thy mouth.

"Again, ye have heard how it was said to them of old time, 'Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform thine oath to God':

Offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the most highest.

Then shalt thou make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee, and thou shalt keep thy promises.

Look what ye promise unto the LORD your God: see that ye keep it, all ye that be round about him; bring presents unto him that ought to be feared.

Behold, upon the mountains come the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, and preacheth peace. O Judah, keep thy holidays, perform thy promises: for Belial shall come no more in thee, he is utterly rooted out.

If thou promise anything, pay it; for better it is that thou make no vow than that thou shouldest promise, and not pay.

When thou hast vowed a vow unto the LORD thy God, see thou be not slack to pay it. For he will surely require it of thee, and it shall be sin unto thee.

If thou make a vow unto God, be not slack to perform it. As for foolish vows, he hath no pleasure in them.

Moreover, Egypt shall be brought unto the LORD, and the Egyptians also shall know the LORD at the same time: they shall do him reverence with peace offerings, and with meat offerings: they shall promise him offerings, yea, and pay him also.

{To the Chanter, a Psalm and song of David} Thou, O God, art praised in Zion; and unto thee shall the vow be performed in Jerusalem.

But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving, and will pay that that I have vowed, that saving cometh of the LORD."

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, "Speak unto children of Israel and say unto them, 'When either man or woman appointeth to vow a vow of abstinence, for to abstain unto the LORD, he shall abstain from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine or of strong drink, nor drink whatsoever is pressed out of grapes: and shall eat no fresh grapes neither yet dried, as long as his abstinence endureth.read more.
Moreover he shall eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, no not so much as the kernels or the husk of the grape. And as long as the vow of his abstinence endureth, there shall no razor nor shears come upon his head, until his days be out which he fasteth unto the LORD, and he shall be holy and shall let the locks of his hair grow. As long as he abstaineth unto the LORD he shall come at no dead body: he shall not make himself unclean at the death of his father, mother, brother or sister: For the abstinence of his God is upon his head. And therefore as long as his abstinence lasteth, he shall be holy unto the LORD. "'And if it fortune that any man, by chance, die suddenly before him and defile the head of his abstinence, then must he shave his head the day of his cleansing: even the seventh day he shall shave it. And the eighth day he shall bring two turtles or two young pigeons to the priest, unto the door of the tabernacle of witness. And the priest shall offer the one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering and make an atonement for him, as concerning that he sinned upon the dead, and shall also hallow his head the same day and he shall abstain unto the LORD the time of his abstinency, and shall bring a lamb of an year old for a trespass offering: but the days that were before are lost, because his abstinence was defiled. "'This is the law of the abstainer, when the time of his abstinence is out; he shall be brought unto the door of the tabernacle of witness and he shall bring his offering unto the LORD: a he-lamb of a year old without blemish for a burnt offering and a she-lamb of a year old without blemish for a sin offering, a ram without blemish also for a peace offering, and a basket of sweet bread of fine flour mingled with oil and wafers of sweet bread anointed with oil with meat offerings and drink offerings that long thereto. And the priest shall bring him before the LORD and offer his sin offering and his burnt offering, and shall offer the ram for a peace offering unto the LORD with the basket of sweet bread, and the priest shall offer also his meat offering and his drink offering. And the abstainer shall shave his head in the door of the tabernacle of witness and shall take the hair of his sober head and put it in the fire which is under the peace offering. Then the priest shall take the sodden shoulder of the ram and one sweet cake out of the basket and one sweet wafer also and put them in the hand of the abstainer after he hath shaven his abstinence off, and the priest shall wave them unto the LORD, which offering shall be holy unto the priest with the wavebreast and heaveshoulder: and then the abstainer may drink wine. This is the law of the abstainer which hath vowed his offering unto the LORD for his abstinence, besides that his hand can get. And according to the vow which he vowed, even so he must do in the law of his abstinence.'"

It is a snare for a man to blaspheme that which is holy, and then to go about with vows.

If a damsel vow a vow unto the LORD and bind herself, being in her father's house and unmarried: If her father hear her vow and bond which she hath made upon her soul, and hold his peace thereto: then all her vows and bonds which she hath made upon her soul shall stand in effect. But and if her father forbid her the same day that he heareth it, none of her vows nor bonds which she hath made upon her soul shall be of value, and the LORD shall forgive her, because her father forbade her.read more.
If she had a husband when she vowed or pronounced ought out of her lips wherewith she bound her soul, and her husband heard it and held his peace thereat the same day he heard it: Then her vows and her bonds wherewith she bound her soul, shall stand in effect. But and if her husband forbade her the same day that he heard it, then hath he made her vow which she had upon her of none effect, and that also which she pronounced with her lips wherewith she bound her soul, and the LORD shall forgive her. The vow of a widow and of her that is divorced, and all that they have bound their souls withal, shall stand in effect with them. If she vowed in her husband's house or bound her soul with an oath, and her husband heard it and held his peace and forbade her not: then all her vows and bonds wherewith she bound her soul, shall stand. But if her husband disannulled them the same day that he heard them, then nothing that proceeded out of her lips in vows and bonds wherewith she bound her soul shall stand in effect: for her husband hath loosed them, and the LORD shall forgive her. "All vows and oaths that bind to humble the soul, may her husband establish or break. But if her husband hold his peace from one day unto another, then he establisheth all her vows and bonds which she had upon her, because he held his peace the same day that he heard them. And if he afterward break them, he shall bear her sin himself." These are the ordinances which the LORD commanded Moses, between a man and his wife, and between the father and his daughter, being a damsel in her father's house.

But ye say, 'Every man shall say to his father or mother: That which thou desirest of me to help thee with, is given God.'

But ye say, 'A man shall say to his father or mother, Corban; which is, that thou desirest of me, to help thee with, is given to God.'

"Speak unto Aaron and his sons and unto all the children of Israel, and say unto them, 'Whatsoever he be of the house of Israel or stranger in Israel that will offer his offering: whatsoever vow or freewill offering it be which they will offer unto the LORD for a burnt offering to reconcile them selves, it must be a male without blemish of the oxen, sheep or goats.

An ox or a sheep that hath any member out of proportion, mayst thou offer for a freewill offering: but in a vow it shall not be accepted.

Cursed be the dissembler, which hath in his flock one that is male, and when he maketh a vow, offereth a spotted one unto the LORD. For I am a great King, sayeth the LORD of Hosts, and my name is fearful among the Heathen.

"'If it be a vow or a freewill offering that he bringeth, the same day that he offereth it, it shall be eaten, and that which remaineth may be eaten on the morrow:

"Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, 'If any man will give a singular vow unto the LORD according to the value of his soul, then shall the male from twenty years unto sixty be set at fifty sicles of silver, after the sicle of the sanctuary, and the female at thirty sicles.read more.
And from five years to twenty the male shall be set at twenty sicles, and the female at ten sicles. And from a month unto five years, the male shall be set at five sicles of silver, and the female at three. And the man that is sixty and above, shall be valued at fifteen sicles, and the woman at ten. If he be too poor so to be set, then let him come before the priest: and let the priest value him, according as the hand of him that vowed is able to get. "'If it be of the beasts of which men bring an offering unto the LORD: all that any man giveth of such unto the LORD, shall be holy. He may not alter it nor change it: a good for a bad or a bad for good. If he change beast for beast, then both the same beast and it also wherewith it was changed shall be holy. If it be any manner of unclean beast of which men may not offer unto the LORD, let him bring the beast before the priest and let the priest value it. And whether it be good or bad as the priest setteth it, so shall it be. And if he will buy it again, let him give the fifth part more to that it was set at. "'If any man dedicate his house, it shall be holy unto the LORD. And the priest shall set it; whether it be good or bad, and as the priest hath set it, so it shall be. If he that sanctified it will redeem his house, let him give the fifth part of the money that it was judged at thereto, and it shall be his. If a man hallow a piece of his inherited land unto the LORD, it shall be set according to that it beareth. If it bear a homer of barley, it shall be set at fifty sicles of silver. If he hallow his field immediately from the trumpet year, it shall be worth according as it is esteemed. But and if he hallow his field after the trumpet year, the priest shall reckon the price with him according to the years that remain unto the trumpet year, and thereafter it shall be lower set. "'If he that sanctified the field will redeem it again, let him put the fifth part of the price that it was set at thereunto, and it shall be his: if he will not, it shall be redeemed no more. But when the field goeth out in the trumpet year, it shall be holy unto the LORD: even as a thing dedicated, and it shall be the priest's possession. "'If a man sanctify unto the LORD a field, which he hath bought and is not of his inheritance, then the priest shall reckon with him what it is worth unto the trumpet year, and he shall give the price that it is set at the same day, and it shall be holy unto the LORD. But in the trumpet year, the field shall return unto him of whom he bought it, whose inheritance of land it was. "'And all setting shall be according to the holy sicle. One sicle maketh twenty geras. "'But the firstborn of the beasts that pertain unto the LORD, may no man sanctify: whether it be ox or sheep, for they are the LORD's already. If it be an unclean beast, then let him redeem it as it is set at, and give the fifth part more thereto. If it be not redeemed, then let it be sold as it is rated. Notwithstanding, no dedicated thing that a man dedicateth unto the LORD, of all his goods - whether it be man or beast or land of his inheritance - shall be sold or redeemed: for all dedicated things are most holy unto the LORD. No dedicated thing therefore that is dedicated of man, may be redeemed, but must needs die. "'All these tithes of the land, whether it be of the corn of the field or fruit of the trees, shall be holy unto the LORD. If any man will redeem ought of his tithes, let him add the fifth part more thereto. "'And the tithes of oxen and sheep and of all that goeth under the herdsman's keeping, shall be holy tithes unto the LORD. Men shall not look if it be good or bad nor shall change it. If any man change it then both it and that it was changed withal, shall be holy and may not be redeemed.'"