SEV Biblia, Chapter 23:18
Y: Cualquiera que jurare por el altar, es nada; mas cualquiera que jurare por el presente que est sobre l, deudor es.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 18. And whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing , etc.] These are again the words or savings of the scribes and Pharisees, and express their sentiments and practice: it was usual with them to swear by the altar; and this was reckoned either no sin at all, or such an oath was not accounted binding on a man; he might break, or keep it as he thought fit: of this kind of swearing, we have the following instances. One said to another f1275 , swear to me that thou wilt not discover me, and he swore to him; by what did he swear? says R. Jose bar Chanina, ymynph jbzmb , by the innermost altar. Again, it is said of Zedekiah f1276 , that he (Nebuchadnezzar) made him to swear; by what did he make him to swear? says R. Jose, by the covenant he made him to swear; Rabbi says jbzmb , by the altar he made him to swear.
And elsewhere it is said of him, and he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who made him swear by God, ( 2 Chronicles 36:13). By what did he make him swear? says R. Jose bar Chanina, by the horns of the innermost altar he made him swear. But whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty : of perjury, if he does not make good his oath; he is bound to perform it, it is obligatory; whatever he swore should be a gift for the altar, he was indispensably obliged to bring it; for whatever he swore by Korban, or the gift, could never be put to any other use.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 13-33 - The scribes and Pharisees were enemies to the gospel of Christ, an therefore to the salvation of the souls of men. It is bad to keep awa from Christ ourselves, but worse also to keep others from him. Yet it is no new thing for the show and form of godliness to be made a cloa to the greatest enormities. But dissembled piety will be reckone double iniquity. They were very busy to turn souls to be of their party. Not for the glory of God and the good of souls, but that the might have the credit and advantage of making converts. Gain being their godliness, by a thousand devices they made religion give way to their worldly interests. They were very strict and precise in smalle matters of the law, but careless and loose in weightier matters. It is not the scrupling a little sin that Christ here reproves; if it be sin, though but a gnat, it must be strained out; but the doing that and then swallowing a camel, or, committing a greater sin. While the would seem to be godly, they were neither sober nor righteous. We ar really, what we are inwardly. Outward motives may keep the outsid clean, while the inside is filthy; but if the heart and spirit be mad new, there will be newness of life; here we must begin with ourselves The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was like the ornament of a grave, or dressing up a dead body, only for show. The deceitfulness of sinners' hearts appears in that they go down the streams of the sins of their own day, while they fancy that they shoul have opposed the sins of former days. We sometimes think, if we ha lived when Christ was upon earth, that we should not have despised an rejected him, as men then did; yet Christ in his Spirit, in his word in his ministers, is still no better treated. And it is just with God to give those up to their hearts' lusts, who obstinately persist i gratifying them. Christ gives men their true characters.
Greek Textus Receptus
και 2532 CONJ ος 3739 R-NSM εαν 1437 COND ομοση 3660 5661 V-AAS-3S εν 1722 PREP τω 3588 T-DSN θυσιαστηριω 2379 N-DSN ουδεν 3762 A-NSN εστιν 2076 5748 V-PXI-3S ος 3739 R-NSM δ 1161 CONJ αν 302 PRT ομοση 3660 5661 V-AAS-3S εν 1722 PREP τω 3588 T-DSN δωρω 1435 N-DSN τω 3588 T-DSN επανω 1883 ADV αυτου 846 P-GSN οφειλει 3784 5719 V-PAI-3S
Vincent's NT Word Studies
18. He is guilty (ofeilei). In the rendering of this word the A.V. seems to have been shaped by the earlier and now obsolete sense of guilt, which was probably a fine or payment. Compare Anglo-Saxon gyld, a recompense, and German geld, money. There is a hint of this sense in Shakspeare, Henry IV. (Second Part), Act iv., Sc. iv. "England shall double gild his treble guilt,"
where the play upon the words hovers between the sense of bedeck and recompense. Wyc. renders oweth, and Tynd., he is debtor. Rev., he is a debtor.
