Numbers 30
How to nix promises women make to God
Men should keep their promise
1Moses called a meeting of all the Israelite tribal leaders. He told them:The LORD says: 2If you make a promise to the LORD—a vow or a pledge to do something—don’t break your word. Keep your promise.
Promises of women are subject to approval
3If a woman makes a promise to the LORD while she’s still young and living under her father’s care, 4and her father learns about the promise and doesn’t object, then she has to keep her promise. 5But if her father objects to the promise, then she doesn’t have to keep it. The LORD won’t hold it against her. She’s forgiven.6If a married woman made a promise to the LORD while still living under her father’s care,[1] 7and her husband hears about it and doesn’t object, she needs to honor her promise by doing what she said she would do. 8But if her husband objects the day he finds out about it, the promise becomes invalid. She doesn’t have to keep it. The LORD won’t hold it against her. She’s forgiven.
9A widow’s promise, however, remains valid. So does the promise of a divorced woman. They have to do whatever they promised.
10If a married woman makes a promise to the LORD, obligating herself to do something, 11and her husband hears about it and doesn’t object, she needs to honor her promise by doing what she said she would do. 12But if her husband objects the day he finds out about it, the promise is invalidated. She doesn’t have to keep it. The LORD won’t hold it against her. She’s forgiven.
A husband’s rights
13A woman’s husband has every right to cancel her promise or to let her keep her promise. 14But if he wants to cancel it, he has to do it on the day he finds out about the promise. 15If he waits more than a day to cancel it, he’ll face the consequences for not letting her keep her promise to the LORD. 16These are the laws the LORD gave Moses to pass on about relationships between fathers and their daughters, and husbands and their wives.Footnotes
130:6
Scholars debate how to interpret verses 6-8 since verses 10-12 seem to repeat the same thing. Some leave the repetition alone. Some say verses 6-8 may refer to a woman who is engaged, but not yet married. Others say verses 6-8 refer to promises made before an engagement or marriage, but something the husband might object to after he hears about it.
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