Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. The false oath prohibition connects personal honesty to the covenant's most sacred category: the name of God. Using God's name to back a false oath profanes the divine name — it invokes the holiness of God in the service of a lie. The I am the Lord formula after the prohibition communicates that the false oath offense is directly against the God whose name is invoked. Matthew 5:33–37 records Jesus addressing the oath tradition, pointing beyond the prohibition on false oaths to the character that makes oaths unnecessary.

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