Numbers30
New King James Version
1Then Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes concerning the children of Israel, saying, “This is the thing which the Lord has commanded:
2If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
3“Or if a woman makes a vow to the Lord, and binds herself by some agreement while in her father’s house in her youth,
4and her father hears her vow and the agreement by which she has bound herself, and her father holds his peace, then all her vows shall stand, and every agreement with which she has bound herself shall stand.
5But if her father overrules her on the day that he hears, then none of her vows nor her agreements by which she has bound herself shall stand; and the Lord will release her, because her father overruled her.
6“If indeed she takes a husband, while bound by her vows or by a rash utterance from her lips by which she bound herself,
7and her husband hears it, and makes no response to her on the day that he hears, then her vows shall stand, and her agreements by which she bound herself shall stand.
8But if her husband overrules her on the day that he hears it, he shall make void her vow which she took and what she uttered with her lips, by which she bound herself, and the Lord will release her.
9“Also any vow of a widow or a divorced woman, by which she has bound herself, shall stand against her.
10“If she vowed in her husband’s house, or bound herself by an agreement with an oath,
11and her husband heard it, and made no response to her and did not overrule her, then all her vows shall stand, and every agreement by which she bound herself shall stand.
12But if her husband truly made them void on the day he heard them, then whatever proceeded from her lips concerning her vows or concerning the agreement binding her, it shall not stand; her husband has made them void, and the Lord will release her.
13Every vow and every binding oath to afflict her soul, her husband may confirm it, or her husband may make it void.
14Now if her husband makes no response whatever to her from day to day, then he confirms all her vows or all the agreements that bind her; he confirms them, because he made no response to her on the day that he heard them.
15But if he does make them void after he has heard them, then he shall bear her guilt.”
16These are the statutes which the Lord commanded Moses, between a man and his wife, and between a father and his daughter in her youth in her father’s house.
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Numbers 30.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: Vows to be kept. (1, 2). The cases wherein vows might be released. (3–16).
vv1-2
No man can be bound by his own promise to do what he is already, by the Divine precept, forbidden to do. In other matters the command is, that he shall not break his words, through he may change his mind.
vv3-16
Two cases of vows are determined. The case of a daughter in her father's house. When her vow comes to his knowledge, it is in his power either to confirm it or do it away. The law is plain in the case of a wife. If her husband allows her vow, though only by silence, it stands. If he disallows it, her obligation to her husband takes place of it; for to him she ought to be in subjection, as unto the Lord. The Divine law consults the good order of families. It is fit that every man should bear rule in his own house, and have his wife and children in subjection; rather than that this great rule should be broken, or any encouragement be given to inferior relations to break those bonds asunder, God releases the obligation even of a solemn vow. So much does religion secure the welfare of all societies; and in it the families of the earth have a blessing.
Key Words
מֹשֶׁה: Mosheh, the Israelite lawgiver
דָבַר: perhaps properly, to arrange; but used figuratively (of words), to speak; rarely (in a destructive sense) to subdue
רֹאשׁ: the head (as most easily shaken), whether literal or figurative (in many applications, of place, time, rank, itc.)
מַטֶּה: a branch (as extending); figuratively, a tribe; also a rod, whether for chastising (figuratively, correction), ruling (a sceptre), throwing (a lance), or walking (a staff; figuratively, a support of life, e.g. bread)
בֵּן: a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etc., (like father or brother), etc.)
יִשְׂרָאֵל: Jisrael, a symbolical name of Jacob; also (typically) of his posterity
אָמַר: to say (used with great latitude)
זֶה: the masculine demonstrative pronoun, this or that
דָּבָר: a word; by implication, a matter (as spoken of) or thing; adverbially, a cause
צָוָה: (intensively) to constitute, enjoin
Cross References
Numbers 30Establishes the command to pay vows to God without delay, echoing the absolute binding nature.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Exhorts keeping vows to God immediately, as God has no pleasure in fools who delay.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Condemns the Pharisaic abuse of vows (Corban) to escape duties to parents, violating parental authority.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Illustrates the meaning of 'profaning' or breaking a covenant or spoken word.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Reiterates the obligation to perform what has freely gone out of one's lips.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Defines the phrase 'to afflict the soul' as self-denial, especially fasting.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Grounds the husband's veto power in the creation order of marital subjection.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Parallels the responsibility of bearing iniquity for silent complicity in a vow or oath.
Supported by Matthew Poole