Mark 6:23

And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom.

This was the type of boastful, extravagant oath, characteristic of tyrants and despots of that era. Any person asking a gift large enough to embarrass such a monarch ordinarily found it fatal to do so; but the accepted code of that day, as it applied to such requests, required the king's compliance with the request if it lay within his power to give it without jeopardy to himself.