Judges 11:35

⁷Therefore he promised with an oath to give her whatever she should ask. ⁸She, being prompted by her mother, said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptizer.”

⁹The king was grieved, but for the sake of his oaths and of those who sat at the table with him, he commanded it to be given,

³³The king was much moved, and went up to the room over the gate and wept. As he went, he said, “My son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! I wish I had died instead of you, Absalom, my son, my son!”

²Don’t be rash with your mouth, and don’t let your heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven, and you on earth. Therefore let your words be few. ³For as a dream comes with a multitude of cares, so a fool’s speech with a multitude of words. ⁴When you vow a vow to God, don’t defer to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay that which you vow. ⁵It is better that you should not vow, than that you should vow and not pay. ⁶Don’t allow your mouth to lead you into sin. Don’t protest before the messenger that this was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?

¹Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, “None of us will give his daughter to Benjamin as a wife.” ²The people came to Bethel and sat there until evening before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept severely. ³They said, “The LORD, the God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that there should be one tribe lacking in Israel today?”

⁴On the next day, the people rose early and built an altar there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. ⁵The children of Israel said, “Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who didn’t come up in the assembly to the LORD?” For they had made a great oath concerning him who didn’t come up to the LORD to Mizpah, saying, “He shall surely be put to death.” ⁶The children of Israel grieved for Benjamin their brother, and said, “There is one tribe cut off from Israel today. ⁷How shall we provide wives for those who remain, since we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?”

²⁹Reuben returned to the pit, and saw that Joseph wasn’t in the pit; and he tore his clothes. ³⁰He returned to his brothers, and said, “The child is no more; and I, where will I go?”

³⁰While they were on the way, the news came to David, saying, “Absalom has slain all the king’s sons, and there is not one of them left!”

³¹Then the king arose, and tore his garments, and lay on the earth; and all his servants stood by with their clothes torn.

²⁰Then Job arose, and tore his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground, and worshiped.

⁴in whose eyes a vile man is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD; he who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and doesn’t change;

³⁶Jacob, their father, said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children! Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin away. All these things are against me.”

³⁷Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “Kill my two sons, if I don’t bring him to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him to you again.”

³⁸He said, “My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he only is left. If harm happens to him along the way in which you go, then you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.”

²When a man vows a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

³“Also, when a woman vows a vow to the LORD and binds herself by a pledge, being in her father’s house, in her youth, ⁴and her father hears her vow and her pledge with which she has bound her soul, and her father says nothing to her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge with which she has bound her soul shall stand. ⁵But if her father forbids her in the day that he hears, none of her vows or of her pledges with which she has bound her soul, shall stand. The LORD will forgive her, because her father has forbidden her.