Numbers 30--Laws Concerning Vows and Oaths

Numbers 30
English Standard Version

Men and Vows
30 Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the people of Israel, saying, “This is what the LORD has commanded. 2 If a man vows a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

Women and Vows
3 “If a woman vows a vow to the LORD and binds herself by a pledge, while within her father's house in her youth, 4 and her father hears of her vow and of her pledge by which she has bound herself and says nothing to her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. 5 But if her father opposes her on the day that he hears of it, no vow of hers, no pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. And the LORD will forgive her, because her father opposed her.

6 “If she marries a husband, while under her vows or any thoughtless utterance of her lips by which she has bound herself, 7 and her husband hears of it and says nothing to her on the day that he hears, then her vows shall stand, and her pledges by which she has bound herself shall stand. 8 But if, on the day that her husband comes to hear of it, he opposes her, then he makes void her vow that was on her, and the thoughtless utterance of her lips by which she bound herself. And the LORD will forgive her. 9 (But any vow of a widow or of a divorced woman, anything by which she has bound herself, shall stand against her.) 10 And if she vowed in her husband's house or bound herself by a pledge with an oath, 11 and her husband heard of it and said nothing to her and did not oppose her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge by which she bound herself shall stand. 12 But if her husband makes them null and void on the day that he hears them, then whatever proceeds out of her lips concerning her vows or concerning her pledge of herself shall not stand. Her husband has made them void, and the LORD will forgive her. 13 Any vow and any binding oath to afflict herself, her husband may establish, or her husband may make void. 14 But if her husband says nothing to her from day to day, then he establishes all her vows or all her pledges that are upon her. He has established them, because he said nothing to her on the day that he heard of them. 15 But if he makes them null and void after he has heard of them, then he shall bear her iniquity.”

16 These are the statutes that the LORD commanded Moses about a man and his wife and about a father and his daughter while she is in her youth within her father's house.

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Moses is still giving final instructions to the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel before God takes him to heaven.  He's just reminded all the people of all the sacrifices that need to be made on a regular basis.  That passage ended making reference to the fact that any freewill offerings or offerings that were pledged as part of a vow (like the Nazarite Vow that we studied in Numbers 6) would be in addition to the required sacrifices listed in Numbers 28 and 29.

While it may seem in this passage that there's little said about the men and less said about the women and that somehow this would be unfair towards the women, take not of why more is said about the women.  God is recognizing that the women are under the authority of their fathers until they are married and under the authority of their husbands once they are married.  God makes provision for her if she vows something personally and her father stands in the way of that vow before she gets married or her husband stands in the way of her keeping that vow after she is married.  The LORD makes way for that broken vow to be forgiven.  No such exception is made for men.  Their word is to be their bond and they are responsible to keep their word to God no matter who stands in their way.

For the woman's vow to be binding to the LORD during the time she was a child in her father's house, she must have said the vow in his presence and he must have said nothing about it, but if he opposes it as soon as he hears of it, then the vow would be nullified and the LORD would forgive her for breaking the vow because she obeyed the command to obey her parents.

Similarly for the married woman, her husband must hear the vow and say nothing about it for it to be binding on her, but if he hears about later and says something about it, the vow is nullified and she will be forgiven by the LORD because she obeyed the command to submit to her husband's authority (See Ephesians 5, Colossians 3, and 1 Peter 3 as a few places where wives are told to submit to their own husbands and how God will hold the husband responsible for loving and leading his family in the same kind of way that Christ loves and leads the Church).  This exception does not apply to any woman who is widowed for divorced for she is no longer under the authority of her husband--it might depend if she goes back to her father's house at the point and becomes submissive to him once again, but the text seems to indicate that she must keep her vow if she has been widowed or divorced.

God clarifies that silence from the husband (or father) is acceptance if he does not oppose the vow or oath as soon as he hears of it.  He cannot come back later and oppose her if he has been permissive of the vow or oath already.  If he does nullify her vow after hearing of it and being silent at first, then God will hold him accountable and put the guilt of breaking the vow on him, not her.  So it is that the wife will not ever be responsible for breaking a vow that her husband nullifies.

Like I said, a lot more is said to women, but look how loving it is that God in so many instances says that He will not hold the woman to her vow or oath if father or husband nullify the oath.  No guilt is put on her.  So we see that there is a general principle here that God has established all authority in family and marriage and that we are to submit to that authority even in instances of making vows to the LORD and should not try to use the name of the LORD to vow to do something opposed to the authority of the one we are in submission to in order to say "Sorry, you have to live with my vow because I made my vow to God and you can't break it."  Such vows would best be made with the full knowledge of and in the presence of the one in whom the woman is submissive to so that they could come to the LORD together in agreement and there is nothing being hidden between father and daughter or wife and husband.