Numbers, chapter 30, comments: if an Israelite made a vow to God

 

Numbers 30:1 ¶  And 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.

 

A vow can be a conditional promise like.

 

Genesis 28:20  And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, 21  So that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God: 22  And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.

 

1Samuel 1:11  And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.

 

An oath can be a covenantal promise like;

 

Genesis 26:28  And they said, We saw certainly that the LORD was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee;

 

Genesis 50:25  And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.

 

This standard makes perfect sense. If they made a vow to God they better keep it. The assumption is that God would do His part.

 

Deuteronomy 23:21  When thou shalt vow a vow unto the LORD thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it: for the LORD thy God will surely require it of thee; and it would be sin in thee. 22  But if thou shalt forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in thee.

 

King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 5:4 ¶  When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. 5  Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.

 

This will become a point of contention for us when we get to Judges 11 and the Judge Jephthah. We’ll save that for then.

 

Numbers 30:3 ¶  If a woman also vow a vow unto the LORD, and bind herself by a bond, being in her father’s 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 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 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 father’s house.

 

Here is a law that concerns a Hebrew girl or woman making a vow to God. They were completely under the authority of their father, when young and unmarried, and then under the authority of their husband with regard to vows made to God. A widow or a divorced woman will not have her vows rendered null as she does not have the authority of a father or husband to direct her.

 

Property ownership, as we have seen, typically went through the male and the son owned everything the father possessed upon his death. A woman would not be able to commit anything to God without the approval of the man in her life.

 

While we typically do not make vows to God unless in extreme situations it is a regular part of worship, I’ve read, in the Eastern Orthodox Church to make a vow, the promise something to God. We exchange wedding vows and vow to tell the truth before God in a court of law. These vows are expected to be honored and are part of the foundation upon which our civilization rests.