4 Or if a soul swear, pronouncing with his lips to do evil, or to do good, whatsoever it be that a man shall pronounce with an oath, and it be hid from him; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty in one of these.

Today’s verse talks about when a man makes a pledge or an oath, but something about it is “hid from him,” such that he wasn’t able to fulfill his promise, even though he meant it when he said it. The “hiding” factor could be that he forgot his promise, or he failed to account for conflicting factors that made it impossible, or that he over-committed himself beyond what he could actually do. This is not a terrible sin, but it is an infraction where the integrity of his deeds did not fully match his words.

Clearly this is a common thing even today. I promise to help a friend move, but I forgot I won’t be in town that day. I promise my boss to have my report ready by end of day, but it was more work than I realized. I say that I’ll bring the ice, then sleep through my alarm and miss the whole thing. So long as I genuinely meant to do what I said, then I’m not a liar, and I have no malice, but people are still left wanting and disappointed.

The rituals that we will start to hear about in the following verses would serve as both a way to set things right, and a reminder to be more careful with our promises. We should all endeavor to minimize our failures in promise-keeping and take accountability for any instances that still occur.