What Does Matthew 5:33 Mean?
Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not break your oath, but shall pay to the LORD your oaths.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:THE KEY
The word rendered “perform” means “give back,” revealing an oath as something your speech pledges and your life must render to the Lord.
THE MEANING
Your speech is not weightless: when you bind it with an oath, the promise becomes answerable before the Lord. The verse names both edges of that bond: a false oath breaks it, and fulfilling it renders what was pledged. Its words meet you wherever sacred language is used to make a promise sound trustworthy.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that invoking God makes a promise complete by itself: the pledge still has to become action.
THE ROOT
ἀποδώσεις
apodōseis
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
to give
“pay to” in this verse is apodōseis. The word translated “perform” is a form of ἀποδίδωμι (apodidōmi), meaning to render, repay, or give back. That makes the oath more than words to keep: it is a pledge that comes due before the Lord.
ALSO GROWS
apodidōmi: render, repay, give back
ἀποδίδωμι
This is the verb used here: fulfilling an oath is framed as rendering what is owed.
paradidōmi: hand over, deliver
παραδίδωμι
This compound shares the root for “give,” showing how the same seed carries the sense of transferring something into another’s hands.
ἐπιορκήσεις
epiorkēseis
GROWS FROM
ὅρκος
horkos
oath; a sworn bond
“break your oath” in this verse is epiorkēseis. The word for “forswear” belongs to the same word family as “oath”: it means to be false to a sworn bond. Beside the verb for “give back,” it shows both ways the pledge can go, broken or rendered.
ALSO GROWS
horkizō: adjure, put under oath
ὁρκίζω
This branch shows the oath as a bond imposed through sworn words.
epíorkos: perjurer, one who swears falsely
ἐπίορκος
This branch names the breach of the same sworn bond that the verse says must be fulfilled.
THE PATTERN
A promise spoken before God carries an obligation through to fulfillment.
When you vow a vow to God, do not linger to make it whole. For there is no delight in the thick-headed. Make whole what you have vowed.In whose eyes the despised one is spurned, yet he gives weight to those in awe of the LORD. He swears to his own harm, and does not shift.Before all things, my brethren, do not swear, neither by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath. Let your yes be yes, and your no be no, lest you fall under judgment.THE THREAD
But let your word be, Yes, yes; No, no. For whatever is more than these comes from evil.The next line shows that plain yes and no are meant to carry truth without an oath as reinforcement. It opens this verse further by shifting the ground of reliability from a sworn promise to the truthfulness of ordinary words.
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