1. A solemn promisemade to God, or by a pagan to his deity. The Roman generals when they went to war, sometimes made a vow that they would build a temple to some favorite deity, if he would give them victory. A vow is a promise of something to be given or done hereafter.
2. A person is constituted a religious by taking three vows, of chastity, of poverty, and of obedience. Among the Isrealites, the vows of children were not binding, unless ratified by the express or tacit consent of their father. Numbers 30:2 .
3. A solemn promise; as the vows of unchangeable love and fidelity. In a moral and religious sense, vows are promises to God, as they appeal to God to witness their sincerity, and the violation of them is a most heinousoffense.
1. To give, consecrate or dedicate to God by a solemn promise. When Jacob went to Mesopotamia, he vowed to God a tenth of this substance, and his own future devotion to his service. Genesis 28:20 .
1. A solemn promise made to God, or to some deity; an act by which one consecrates or devotes himself, absolutely or conditionally, wholly or in part, for a longer or shorter time, to some act, service, or condition; a devotion of one's possessions; as, a baptismal vow; a vow of poverty.
2. Specifically, a promise of fidelity; a pledge of love or affection; as, the marriage vow.
3. To give, consecrate, or dedicate to God, or to some deity, by a solemn promise; to devote; to promise solemnly.
VOW, a solemn undertaking to do something which is held to be acceptable to the Deity. In the antique re ligions mere prayer, without some material expression of homage, was not held to be a complete or normal act of worship (cf. Sacrifice). Supplications, therefore, were generally presented to the Deity in connexion with a sacrifice, or, if the moment of need was one at which a ritual offering could not well be presented, the prayer for help was naturally accompanied by a promise to present a gift at a future time. Thus prayer together with a vow is a sort of imperfect act of worship, which has to be completed by the discharge of the vow at the sanctuary. So in Greek the same word εύχή is equally applicable to the prayer which opened a service of sacrifice and to a vow taken at the commencement of an enterprise or in other time of need. So too the Latin votum means both “vow” and “desire.” In the Old Testament, in like manner, it is generally a sacrifice or gift at the sanctuary which is promised in vows, and the word “vow” (néder) means also “a votive sacrifice,” as distinguished from obligatory sacrifices (piacular offerings and stated festal sacrifices; 1 Sam. i. 21)....
The vows of which we read in the Old Testament and in classical authors are generally conditional on the fulfilment of the petition with which they are coupled. Such vows are made on occasions of special need, or difficulty (Ps. lxvi. 13 sq.·, Pliny, H. N., viii. 21 [57], “turn praecipuus votorum locus est cum spei nullus est”), as before a perilous enterprise (Gen. xxviii. 20; Judg. xi. 30). The payment offered may be a victim for the altar, or any other gift which the ritual of the religion acknowledges as acceptable. But, as vows are generally made on extraordinary occasions, the thing promised will often be exceptional in kind or magnitude. The vow of Jephthah (Judg. xi.) is a case in point, and also illustrates by an extreme example the principle that a vow once taken must be fulfilled at any cost. This principle was so far modified in later times, in Israel, that exceptional vows were by law redeemed at a valuation (Lev. xxvii.). Hannah’s vow, devoting her unborn son to the service of the sanctuary (1 Sam. i. 11), would have fallen under this law. Moreover, the law provided that the vow of an unmarried daughter or of a wife might be disallowed by the father or husband respectively (Numb. xxx.). On the other hand, a widow or a divorced woman was free to make what vow she pleased. These provisions are important evidence of the legal position of woman in Hebrew society, and also, ex silentio, as implying that Hebrew sons (at least after infancy) were not subject to patria potestas of the Roman kind.
Of ordinary vows a common type in antiquity was a promise made in peril by sea, sickness, or other straits, to suspend in a temple a picture or other symbol of the danger against which the Divine aid was implored. This usage passed into Christianity and survives in Catholic countries, where votive pictures and models of eyes, hands, &c., cured in answer to prayer, are still seen in churches. At the council of Lestines (743 a.d.) the use of such models was condemned as a pagan practice.
In point of obligation, vows were analogous to oaths (Numb. XXX. 2); their sanction was not human but Divine (Deut. xxiii. 21). Thus slackness or fraud in the fulfilment of vows is the mark of an age of declining faith (Mal. i. 14; Hárith, Moall., 1. 69 Arnold; Lucian, Jupiter Trag., c. 15; cf. Eccles. v. 4). Among the Arabs the speedy fulfilment of vows was favoured by a rule of abstinence from certain enjoyments and conveniences (ihrām), which custom imposed till the vow was fulfilled. This appears to have been the ancient practice of other Semitic nations also; among the Hebrews it survives in the Nazarite vow (see Nazarite), and probably also in the esār or issār (interdict), which is mentioned along with vows in Numb. xxx., and is described in verse 13 as “an oath of abstinence to afflict the soul,”—words which seem to show that fasting is specially contemplated. As there is no ascetic tendency in Hebrew religion, in which fasting and similar observances have not positive religious value, but are only expressions of penitentsupplication, it seems reasonable to interpret the oath of abstinence by the aid of the examples in Psalm cxxxii. 2 sq., Acts xxiii. 12 (cf. also 1 Sam. xiv. 24 sq.), and to understand it, like the Arabian ihram, as an obligation of abstinence till a positive vow was fulfilled. The detail in the Psalm, “I will not enter my house or rest in my bed till,” &c., has its parallel in Arabia and in Syrianheathenism (Sûr. ii. 185—where to enter the house from behind is an evasion of the rule; Lucian, Dea Syr., § 55; cf. Wellhausen, Skizzen, iii. 117). It is to be observed that in Arabia, where there was little or no development of obligatory ritual sacrifices, offerings were usually votive, and vows were often simple and not conditional promises; so too in Deut. xxiii. 23, Lev. vii. 16, vows are closely associated with free-will offerings. A purpose of sacrifice formed at a distance from a sanctuary naturally found expression in a vow. Occasions of sacrifice are not frequent in nomad life and it may be conjectured that the earliest vows were simply deferred sacrifices, without the element of bargaining with the Divinity which is prominent in later times. The simple vow presupposes that the sanctuary or the customary day of sacrifice is remote; the conditional vow, on the other hand, may often be made at the sanctuary itself, where the Godhead is nearest to man (Gen. xxviii. 20; 1 Sam. i. 11; Iliad, vii. 93).
In Christian times vows to present a material gift (vota realia) have been less important than vows to adopt a certain course of life (vota personalia), a change which naturally followed from the modification of the idea of sacrifice in Christianity (see Sacrifice). The personal vows recognized by the Catholic church are of various kinds, covering all manner of actions religiously meritorious (e.g., pilgrimage or crusading); but the most prominent have been vows of abstinence (fasting, chastity), to which the growth of asceticism gave a positive value. Most important of all is the monastic vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience (see Monachism). The presupposition of all such vows is that there is a higher life of godliness, which cannot be attained to by Christians at large, and which all are not bound to attempt, although there is merit in consecratingoneself to it. From this point of view it came about in process of time that vows of self-consecration were viewed as necessarily perpetual. To fall back from a purpose of higher life was not at all the same thing as never to have formed such a purpose. Hence, e.g., the vow of chastity, which Cyprian still regards as terminable by marriage in the case of virgins who have not strength to persevere in continence, was declared to be of perpetual obligation as early as the council of Ancyra (314 a.d.). On the other hand, the church was careful to guard against the rash assumption of vows, by requiring certain formalities in the act, and by the institution of the noviciate, as a period of probation. The power of the pope to dispense from vows, which appears in the Decretals, was of later growth. Protestantism, denying the superior merit of the ascetic life, rejects all perpetual vows, and indeed shows little favour to vows of any kind. (w. R. S.)
9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 24, p. 300 [1,320 words — estimated reading time: 8 minutes]
a promise made to God, of doing some good thing hereafter. The use of vows is observable throughout Scripture. When Jacob went into Mesopotamia, he vowed to God the tenth of his estate, and promised to offer it at Bethel, to the honour of God, Gen. xxviii, 22. Moses enacts several laws for the regulation and execution of vows. A man might devote himself, or his children, to the Lord. Jephthah devoted his daughter, Judges xi, 30, 31. Samuel was vowed or consecrated to the service of the Lord before his birth, by his pious mother Hannah; and was really offered to him, to serve in the tabernacle, 1 Sam. i, 21, &c. If a man and woman vowed themselves to the Lord, they were obliged to adhere strictly to his service, according to the conditions of the vow; but in some cases they might be redeemed. A man from twenty years of age till sixty, gave fifty shekels of silver; and a woman thirty, Lev. xxvii, 3. From the age of five years to twenty, a man gave twenty shekels, and a woman ten; from a month old to five years, they gave for a boy five shekels, and for a girl three. A man of sixty years old, or upward, gave fifteen shekels, and a woman of the same age gave ten. If the person was poor, and could not procure this sum, the priest imposed a ransom upon him, according to his abilities. If any one had vowed an animal that was clean, he had not the liberty of redeeming it, or of exchanging it, but was obliged to sacrifice it to the Lord. If it was an unclean animal, and such as was not allowed to be sacrificed, the priest made a valuation of it; and if the proprietor would redeem it, he added a fifth part to the value, by way of forfeit. They did the same in proportion, when the thing vowed was a house or a field. They could not devote the first born, because in their own nature ...they belonged to the Lord, Lev. xxvii, 28, 29. Whatever was devoted by way of anathema, could not be redeemed, of whatever nature or quality it was. An animal was put to death, and other things were devoted for ever to the Lord. The consecration of Nazarites was a particular kind of vow. The vows and promises of children were void, of course, except they were ratified either by the express or tacit consent of their parents. It was the same with the vows of a married woman; they were of no validity, except confirmed by the express or tacit consent of her husband, Num. xxx. But widows, or liberated wives, were bound by their vows, whatever they were.
Whosoever invokes the awful name of God to witness any untruth, knowing it to be such, is guilty of taking it in vain. Our Lord did not mean to preclude solemn appeals to heaven, whether oaths or vows, in courts of justice, or in important compacts. For an oath, or appeal to the greatest of all beings, as the Searcher of hearts, to witness a transaction, and to punishfalsehood or perjury, is necessary, for putting an end to all strife or controversy among men, to promote confirmation or security of property, Heb. vi, 16. And it was sanctioned by the example of God, swearing by himself, Genesis xxii, 15; Heb. vi, 17, 18; and by the example of the patriarchs and saints of old; thus Abraham swore by the most high God, Creator of heaven and earth, Gen. xiv, 22; the transjordanite tribes, by the God of gods, the Lord, Joshua xxii, 22. And the law prescribed, “Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name,” Deut. vi, 13. And afterward, “All Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn unto the Lord with a loud voice, with all their heart, and sought him with their whole desire: and he was found of them; and the Lord gave them rest round about,” 2 Chron. xv, 14, 15. And a highly gifted Apostle uses the following most solemn asseveration, “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not,” 2 Cor. xi, 31. See the vows of the priests and Levites, to put away strange wives, Ezra x, 5; and to take no usury from their brethren, Neh. x, 29. St. Paul also vowed a vow, which he performed, Acts xviii, 18; xxi, 23. Our Lord, therefore, reënacted the law, while he guarded against the abuse of it, by prohibiting all oaths in common conversation, as a profanation either of God’s name, where that was irreverently used, or where any of his works was substituted instead of the awful and terrible name of the Lord, which the Jews, through superstitiousdread, at length ceased to use, from misinterpretation of Deut. xxviii, 58: “But I say unto you, Swear not at all,” in common conversation, by any of your usual oaths, “neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool,” &c. For, by the detestablecasuistry of the scribes and Pharisees, some oaths were reckoned binding, others not, as we learn from the sequel; thus, to swear by the temple, the altar, heaven, &c, they considered as not binding: but to swear by the gold of the temple, by the gift on the altar, &c, they considered as binding; the absurdity and impiety of which practice is well exposed by our Lord in Matt. xxiii, 16–22.
A vocal, or sometimes a whispered, sound modified by resonance in the oral passage, the peculiar resonance in each case giving to each several vowel its distinctive character or quality as a sound of speech; -- distinguished from a consonant in that the latter, whether made with or without vocality, derives its character in every case from some kind of obstructive action by the mouth organs. Also, a letter or character which represents such a sound. See Guide to Pronunciation, // 5, 146-149.
V. assert, make an assertion, have one's say, say, affirm, predicate, declare, state, protest, profess, put forth, put forward, advance, allege, propose, propound, enunciate, broach, set forth, hold out, maintain, contend, pronounce, pretend, depose, depone, aver, avow, avouch, asseverate, swear, make oath, take one's oath, make an affidavit, swear an affidavit, put in an affidavit, take one's bible oath, kiss the book, vow, vitam impendere vero, swear till one is black in the face, swear till one is blue in the face, swear till all's blue, be sworn, call heaven to witness, vouch, warrant, certify, assure, swear by bell book and candle, swear by, insist upon, take one's stand upon, emphasize, lay stress on, assert roundly, assert positively, lay down, lay down the law, raise one's voice, dogmatize, have the last word, rap out, repeat, reassert, reaffirm, announce, acknowledge, attest, adjure
Adv.affirmatively, in the affirmative, with emphasis, ex-cathedra, without fear of contradiction, as god is my witness, i must say, indeed, i' faith, let me tell you, why, give me leave to say, marry, you may be sure, i'd have you to know, upon my word, upon my honor, by my troth, egad, i assure you, by jingo, by jove, by george, &c, troth, seriously, sadly, in sadness, in sober sadness, in truth, in earnest, of a truth, truly, perdy, in all conscience, upon oath, be assured, yes, i'll warrant, i'll warrant you, i'll engage, i'll answer for it, i'll be bound, i'll venture to say, i'll take my oath, in fact, forsooth, joking apart, so help me god, not to mince the matter
V. promise, give a promise, undertake, engage, make an engagement, form an engagement, enter into an engagement, enter on an engagement, bind oneself, tie oneself, pledge oneself, commit oneself, take upon oneself, vow, swear, give one's word, pass one's word, pledge one's word, plight one's word, give one's honor, pass one's honor, pledge one's honor, plight one's honor, give credit, pass credit, pledge credit, plight credit, give troth, pass troth, pledge troth, plight troth, betroth, plight faith, assure, warrant, guarantee, covenant, attest, hold out an expectation, contract an obligation, become bound to, become sponsor for, answer for, be answerable for, secure, give security, underwrite, adjure, administer an oath, put to one's oath, swear a witness
V. worship, lift up the heart, aspire, revere, adore, do service, pay homage, humble oneself, kneel, bow the knee, bend the knee, fall down, fall on one's knees, prostrate oneself, bow down and worship, pray, invoke, supplicate, put up, offer up prayers, offer petitions, beseech, say one's prayers, tell one's beads, return thanks, give thanks, say grace, bless, praise, laud, glorify, magnify, sing praises, give benediction, lead the choir, intone, deacon, deacon off propitiate, offer sacrifice, fast, deny oneself, vow, offer vows, give alms, work out one's salvation, go to church, attend service, attend mass, communicate
And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,
Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey, and if He will provide me with food to eat and clothes to wear,
I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.
I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and made a solemn vow to Me. Now get up and leave this land at once, and return to your native land.’”
But if the sacrifice of his offering be a vow, or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offereth his sacrifice: and on the morrow also the remainder of it shall be eaten:
If, however, the sacrifice he offers is a vow or a freewill offering, it shall be eaten on the day he presents his sacrifice, but the remainder may be eaten on the next day.
Speak unto Aaron, and to his sons, and unto all the children of Israel, and say unto them, Whatsoever he be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers in Israel, that will offer his oblation for all his vows, and for all his freewill offerings, which they will offer unto the LORD for a burnt offering;
“Speak to Aaron and his sons and all the Israelites and tell them, ‘Any man of the house of Israel or any foreign resident who presents a gift for a burnt offering to the LORD, whether to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering,
And whosoever offereth a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD to accomplish his vow, or a freewill offering in beeves or sheep, it shall be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish therein.
When a man presents a peace offering to the LORD from the herd or flock to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering, it must be without blemish or defect to be acceptable.
Either a bullock or a lamb that hath any thing superfluous or lacking in his parts, that mayest thou offer for a freewill offering; but for a vow it shall not be accepted.
You may present as a freewill offering an ox or sheep that has a deformed or stunted limb, but it is not acceptable in fulfillment of a vow.
Beside the sabbaths of the LORD, and beside your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your freewill offerings, which ye give unto the LORD.
These offerings are in addition to the offerings for the LORD’s Sabbaths, and in addition to your gifts, to all your vow offerings, and to all the freewill offerings you give to the LORD.
But if he be poorer than thy estimation, then he shall present himself before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to his ability that vowed shall the priest value him.
But if the one making the vow is too poor to pay the valuation, he is to present the person before the priest, who shall set the value according to what the one making the vow can afford.
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the LORD:
“Speak to the Israelites and tell them that if a man or woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the LORD,
All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the LORD, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.
For the entire period of his vow of separation, no razor shall pass over his head. He must be holy until the time of his separation to the LORD is complete; he must let the hair of his head grow long.
This is the law of the Nazarite who hath vowed, and of his offering unto the LORD for his separation, beside that that his hand shall get: according to the vow which he vowed, so he must do after the law of his separation.
This is the law of the Nazirite who vows his offering to the LORD for his separation, in addition to whatever else he can afford; he must fulfill whatever vow he makes, according to the law of his separation.”
And will make an offering by fire unto the LORD, a burnt offering, or a sacrifice in performing a vow, or in a freewill offering, or in your solemn feasts, to make a sweet savour unto the LORD, of the herd, or of the flock:
and you present an offering made by fire to the LORD from the herd or flock to produce a pleasing aroma to the LORD—either a burnt offering or a sacrifice, for a special vow or freewill offering or appointed feast—
These things ye shall do unto the LORD in your set feasts, beside your vows, and your freewill offerings, for your burnt offerings, and for your meat offerings, and for your drink offerings, and for your peace offerings.
You are to present these offerings to the LORD at your appointed times, in addition to your vow and freewill offerings, whether burnt offerings, grain offerings, drink offerings, or peace offerings.”
If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.
If a man makes a vow to the LORD or swears an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word; he must do everything he has promised.
If a woman also vow a vow unto the LORD, and bind herself by a bond, being in her father’s house in her youth;
And if a woman in her father’s house during her youth makes a vow to the LORD or obligates herself by a pledge,
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