1
Ne 4:37 when Zoram had made an oath unto us, our
fears did cease
Hugh
Nibley
¡°¡¦the
oath is the one thing that is most sacred and inviolable among the desert
people and their descendants: ¡®Hardly will an Arab break his oath, even if his
life be in jeopardy,¡¯ for ¡®there is nothing stronger, and nothing more sacred
than the oath among the nomads,¡¯ and even the city Arabs, if it be exacted
under special conditions. ¡®The taking of an oath is a holy thing with the Bedouins,
says one authority, ¡®Wo to him who swears falsely; his social standing will be
damaged and his reputation ruined. No one will receive his testimony, and he
must also pay a money fine.¡¯
¡°But
not every oath will do. To be most binding and solemn an oath should be by the life
of something, even if it be but a blade of grass. The only oath more awful than
that ¡®by my life¡¯ or (less commonly) ¡®by the life of my head,¡¯ is the wa
hayat Allah ¡®by the life of God,¡¯ or ¡®as the Lord Liveth,¡¯ the exact Arabic
equivalent of the ancient Hebrew hai Elohim. ...
¡°So
we see that the only way that Nephi could possibly have pacified the struggling
Zoram in an instant was to utter the one oath that no man would dream of
breaking, the most solemn of all oaths to the Semite:
¡®As the Lord liveth, and as I live!¡¯¡±(An Approach to the Book of
Mormon, p.103-5)