B q 1,2. Vows made by men.
r 3-15. Vows made by women.
q 16. Vows made by men and women.
1452 B.C.
Numbers 30)
1: And Moses spoke to the princes of the tribes concerning the sons of Israel, saying, “This is the thing which the Lord has commanded.
2: If a man make a solemn promise to the Lord, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond (used 12 times in this chapter for the whole responsible person); he shall break
(Heb. profane) his word, he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
r s 3-5. Virgin.
t 6-8. Wife.
s 9. Widow (or Divorcee).
t 10-15. Wife.
3: If a woman also make a solemn promise to the Lord, and
bind herself by a bond (= make a solemn bond), being in her father's house in her youth;
4: And her father hear her vow, and her bond wherewith she has bound her soul, and her father shall hold his peace at her: then all her vows abide firm (cp. Gen. 23:17,20. Ps. 19:7. Isa. 14:24; 40:8.
Jer. 44:29), and every bond wherewith she has bound her soul abides firm.
5: But if her father disallow her in the day that he hears; not any of her vows, or of her bonds wherewith she
has bound her soul, shall stand: and the Lord shall forgive her, because her father disallowed her.
6: And if she had at all an husband, when she vowed, or uttered anything out of her lips, wherewith she bound her soul;
7: And her husband heard it, and held his peace at her in the day that he heard it: then her vows shall stand, and her bonds wherewith she bound her soul abides firm.
8: But if her husband disallowed her on the day that he heard it; then he shall make her vow which she vowed, and that which she uttered with her lips, wherewith she bound her soul, of none effect: and the Lord shall forgive her.
9: But every vow of a widow, and of her that is divorced, wherewith they have bound their souls, abides firm against her.
10: And if she vowed in her husband's house, or bound her soul by a bond with an oath;
11: And her husband heard it, and held his peace at her, and disallowed her not: then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she bound her soul abides firm.
12: But if her husband has utterly made them void on the day he heard them; then whatsoever proceeded out of her
lips concerning her vows, or concerning the bond of her soul, shall not stand: her husband has made them void; and the Lordshall forgive her.
13: Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish it, or her husband may make it void.
14: But if her husband altogether hold his peace at her from day to day; then he establishes all her vows, or all her bonds, which are upon her: he confirms them, because he held his peace at her in the day that he heard them.
15: But if he shall any ways make them void after that he hath heard them; then he shall bear her
perverseness.” (Fig., put for the punishment occasioned by it)
16: These are the statutes, which the Lord commanded Moses, between a man and his wife, between the father and his daughter, being yet in her youth in her father's house.