Swearing by the moon – Bible (Old and New Testaments) & Qur’an

One book shows swearing (taking an oath) by the Name of God.
One book says not to swear at all.
One book shows swearing by the moon.

Do you know which book has each of these?

How do you feel about each of these scenarios?

Read on to learn more about this interesting topic.

 The Old Testament

 Lev 19:12 “ ‘Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.

Jos 23:6 “Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left. 7 Do not associate with these nations that remain among you; do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them. You must not serve them or bow down to them. 8 But you are to hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have until now.

Ps 63:11 But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God’s name will praise him,
while the mouths of liars will be silenced.

Isa 45:23 By myself I have sworn,
my mouth has uttered in all integrity
a word that will not be revoked:
Before me every knee will bow;
by me every tongue will swear.
Isa 45:24 They will say of me, ‘In the LORD alone
are righteousness and strength.’ ”
All who have raged against him
will come to him and be put to shame.
Isa 45:25 But in the LORD all the descendants of Israel
will be found righteous and will exult.

The New Testament

Mt 5:33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ 34 But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

The Qur'an

[74:32] Absolutely, (I swear) by the moon.

also - compare the verses below to the text from Isaiah above, for context and the message of Sura 74.

[74:5] Forsake what is wrong.
[74:6] Be content with your lot.
[74:7] Steadfastly commemorate your Lord.
[74:8] Then, when the horn is blown.
[74:9] That will be a difficult day.
[74:10] For the disbelievers, not easy.
[74:11] Let Me deal with one I created as an individual.
[74:12] I provided him with lots of money.
[74:13] And children to behold.
[74:14] I made everything easy for him.
[74:15] Yet, he is greedy for more.
[74:16] He stubbornly refused to accept these proofs.
[74:17] I will increasingly punish him.
[74:18] For he reflected, then decided.
[74:19] Miserable is what he decided.
[74:20] Miserable indeed is what he decided.
[74:21] He looked.
[74:22] He frowned and whined.
[74:23] Then he turned away arrogantly.
[74:24] He said, "This is but clever magic!
[74:25] "This is human made."
[74:26] I will commit him to retribution.
[74:27] What retribution!
[74:28] Thorough and comprehensive.
[74:29] Obvious to all the people.

What does this all mean?

What we see here is that in the Old Testament, God swears by His own Name,  After all, there is nothing higher than God by which to take an oath.  We read in Leviticus that making a false oath in God's name is to not only go back on that oath, but in the process that person also profanes the name of God.  Can't get any worse than that.  Obviously, keeping an oath is of the utmost importance.

We also read in Joshua about the importance of not taking an oath in the name of other gods.  These other gods could be "imagined beings" or objects, such as the sun and moon.  This is commanded as a way to keep God as the most important thing in the people's lives.  Once we start letting other things take precedence over God, we are on the path to ruin - as described in both Isaiah and Sura 74 from the Qur'an.

Which brings us to Sura 74, which is actually the 4th one revealed to the prophet.  The message is very much the same as the verses above from Isaiah.  One of the big differences is that, as often happens, the Qur'an is more focused on earthly things compared to the Bible.  For instance -

[74:11] Let Me deal with one I created as an individual.
[74:12] I provided him with lots of money.
[74:13] And children to behold.
[74:14] I made everything easy for him.
[74:15] Yet, he is greedy for more.