Numbers 30 KJV
Vows of Women
Numbers Chapter 30: Vows of Women
The chapter's distinction between a 'vow' (neder) and a 'bond' (issar) reveals an ancient legal nuance where the latter could function as a self-imposed prohibition on otherwise permitted actions, such as abstaining from food, allowing annulment to protect household welfare without voiding sacred pledges outright.
1nd Moses spake unto the heads of the tribes concerning the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded.
2 If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.
3 If a woman also vow a vow unto the LORD, and bind herself by a bond, being in her fatherโs house in her youth;
4 And her father hear her vow, and her bond wherewith she hath bound her soul, and her father shall hold his peace at her: then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she hath bound her soul shall stand.
5 But if her father disallow her in the day that he heareth; not any of her vows, or of her bonds wherewith she hath 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 ought 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 shall stand.
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, shall stand against her.
10 And if she vowed in her husbandโs 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 shall stand.
12 But if her husband hath 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 hath made them void; and the LORD shall 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 establisheth all her vows, or all her bonds, which are upon her: he confirmeth 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 iniquity.
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 fatherโs house.
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Did You Know?
The chapter's distinction between a 'vow' (neder) and a 'bond' (issar) reveals an ancient legal nuance where the latter could function as a self-imposed prohibition on otherwise permitted actions, such as abstaining from food, allowing annulment to protect household welfare without voiding sacred pledges outright.
By limiting a father's or husband's right of disallowance strictly to the day he hears the vow, the text establishes an implicit legal principle of prompt ratification through silence, preventing retroactive manipulation while underscoring communal accountability in oath-keeping.
This legislation uniquely positions male authority not as arbitrary power but as protective headship, where the father or husband absorbs potential guilt for an unfulfilled vow, reflecting a theological transfer of responsibility that parallels substitutionary themes elsewhere in the Torah.
The exemption for widows and divorced women, whose vows remain fully binding, highlights a rare biblical acknowledgment of female legal autonomy outside male oversight, contrasting with surrounding ancient Near Eastern codes that often kept women perpetually under guardianship.
Literary echoes appear in Jephthah's tragic vow in Judges 11, where the absence of any male figure to annul his daughter's implied commitment illustrates the irreversible consequences the Numbers framework sought to mitigate for women under authority.