Numbers 30:15

3-16 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....

EXPOSITION OF VOWS MADE BY WOMEN (Numbers 30:1). NUMBERS 30:1 AND MOSES SPAKE UNTO THE HEADS OF THE TRIBES. The regulations here laid down about vows follow with a certain propriety upon those concerning the ordinary routine of sacrifices, but we cannot conclude with any assurance that they were actually given at this particular period. It would appear upon the lace of it that we have in Leviticus 27:1, and in this chapter two fragments of Mosaic legislation dealing with the same subject, but, for some reason which it is useless to attempt to discover, widely separated in the

BUT IF HE SHALL ANY WAYS MAKE THEM VOID, AFTER THAT HE HATH HEARD THEM,.... Some way or other expressing his dislike of them; not at the time he heard them, but some time afterwards; one day after, as the Targum of Jonathan: THEN HE SHALL BEAR HIS INIQUITY: be accountable for the breach of the vow, the sin shall be reckoned to him, and he shall bear the punishment of it, because he ought to have declared is disapprobation of it sooner; and it may be, his doing it when he did was only in a spirit of contradiction, or through covetousness; and it would have been more advisable to have let the vow stand, and therefore acted a criminal part, and so was answerable for it; the Targum of Jonathan explains it, "her husband or her father shall bear her iniquity,'' supposing her not to be at age: Aben Ezra gives the reason of it, because she is in his power....

6. CONCERNING VOWS CHAPTER 30 _ 1. The vow of a man (Numbers 30:1)_ 2. The vows of women (Numbers 30:3) The entire chapter treats of vows. It also has a deeper meaning. There is a sharp contrast between the vow of a man and the vows of virgins, widows or wives. The vows of women could be set aside under certain conditions. The husband or the father could disallow the vow. But if they kept their peace or if she was a widow or divorced, she had to keep the vow. It was different with the man; he was not to break his word, but to do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. The man who keeps his word, who does all that he vowed, typifies the Lord Jesus Christ. He has completely done the work He voluntarily bound Himself to do. The woman represents the nation Israel. T

THE CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH VOWS ARE BINDING. The vows coming under review are of two kinds: (_a)_ promises to give or dedicate something to Yahweh, (_b_) pledges to practise some form of abstinence. These, if undertaken by men, or by women in positions of independence, are unconditionally binding. But young unmarried women (under the control of their fathers) and married women (under control of their husbands) are only to be bound by their vows if, when the vows were undertaken, no objection was raised. Interference by father or husband at a later date entails guilt on the man. The case of unmarried women who have passed their youth is not expressly considered. See p. 105. NUMBERS 30:9. Apparently misplaced, since Numbers 30:10 continues the subject of...

INIQUITY. Put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Cause), App-6, for the punishment occasioned by it. Hebrew. _'avah._ App-44....

If, after tacitly consenting at the time that he heard of the vow, he compels her at a later time to break it, then Jehovah will not (as in the foregoing cases) forgive, but the iniquity will rest upon the husband and not upon the woman....

EVERY BINDING OATH TO AFFLICT THE SOUL— By fasting, abstinence, or rather acts of mortification and self-denial. See Leviticus 16:24. Perhaps St. Paul had this passage in view, when he says, _the wife hath not power over her own body._ 1 Corinthians 7:4. The husband had it in his power to _establish or make void_ the vows of the wife; but (Numbers 30:14.) the tacit or explicit consent of the husband to the religious vow of the wife, and of the father to the vow of the daughter, once freely given at the first making of it, was to establish and render it irreversible. Their silence, or not contradicting it, at the first proposal, was to be interpreted consent; nor was it in the husband's or parent'

I. LAW ON WOMEN'S VOWS (NUMBERS 30) TEXT 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. 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

30:15 way (a-6) Or 'expressly,' as ver. 12....