Numberschapter 30
16 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
If a man makes a vow to the LORD or swears an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word; he must do everything he has promised.
It stands in A man must not break his word, verses 1 to 2.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Laws of vows. A man's vow binds him; he shall not break his word. A woman's vow in her father's house. If her father holds his peace it stands; if he disallows on the day he hears, it is void. A wife's vow. The husband may confirm or disallow on the day he hears. A widow's or divorcée's vow stands of itself. The husband who, hearing a vow, holds his peace and then afterward makes it void shall bear her iniquity. The chapter sets a family-structural rule around religious speech. The free utterance guarded by the head of household, binding only when heard and not disallowed.
Context
Law · Moses · Numbers overview
The world behind this chapter
Numbers 30The history
Verse 1 names the speaker and the hearers plainly. Moses speaks, and he speaks to the heads of the tribes, which marks this as law for the men who would hear such cases. It stands in the fortieth year on the plains of Moab with the rest of the closing laws of the book. The occasion is the chapter that runs before it. Chapters 28 and 29 have just ordered the offerings the nation owes at fixed times. Verse 39 of chapter 29 ends by setting those beside the vow and freewill offerings a person brings by choice, which is this chapter's subject. A first hearer knew that a vow was a legal act with a price attached. A man who vowed an animal owed that animal, and a woman who vowed to deny herself food owed the fast. He also knew that a daughter in her father's house and a wife in her husband's house held no property of their own. The chapter works by one test applied four times over, which is whether the man who heard the vow spoke on the day he heard it.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
What it meant to them
The law held two things together for them at once. A word given to God stood and had to be paid, which verse 2 states without qualification for the man who vows. Where the one who vowed had no means of her own, the chapter gave the head of the house one day to answer. His silence became consent that bound him too. Verse 15 puts the guilt on a husband who annuls a vow late, so a household could rely on what had been said.
Sources cited
- Jacob Milgrom, Numbers , The JPS Torah Commentary, 1990
- Mishnah, tractate Nedarim
- John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony , 1563, on Numbers 30
Where the chapter sits
Numbers 30 falls in Second census and preparations (chapters 26–36). A new generation numbered; inheritance laws; Joshua commissioned; cities of refuge and tribal boundaries.
Before it: Approach to Moab, chapters 21–25.
The whole shape of Numbers→The structure of this chapter
People1
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. A man must not break his wordvv. 1-2
The law on vows is spoken to the heads of the tribes rather than to the whole congregation, and those men would be the ones judging such cases when they came up. Verse 2 gives the rule for a man in a single line with no qualification on it, and the verb rendered break is the word used elsewhere of profaning what is holy. Deuteronomy 23:21-23 and Ecclesiastes 5:4-5 press the same point, and Matthew 5:33 states it as shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. The chapter also keeps two things apart, a vow that promises something to God and an oath that binds the soul to go without.
Numbers 30:1
“The regulations respecting vows appropriately follow those given respecting sacrifices, since a large proportion of vows would always relate to the presentation of such offerings. Rules had already been given Lev. 27 for the estimation of things vowed to God. It is probable that this fresh legislation dealing especially with vows made by persons in a state of tutelage, was occasioned by some case of practical difficulty that had recently arisen; and it is addressed by Moses to “the heads of the tribes” Num 30:1, who would in their judicial capacity have to determine questions on these subjects.”
Numbers 30:2
“If a man vow a vow - A vow is a religious promise made to God. Vows were of several kinds: - 1. Of abstinence or humiliation, see Num 30:13; 2. Of the Nazarite, see Numbers 6; 3. Of giving certain things or sacrifices to the Lord, Lev 7:16; 4. Of alms given to the poor, see Deu 23:21. The law in this chapter must have been very useful, as it both prevented and annulled rash vows, and provided a proper sanction for the support and performance of those that were rationally and piously made.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Numbers 30:2
“Moreover, since there is here a distinction made between males and females, it may be probably conjectured that boys of ten years old, although still united with their family, are bound by their promises; and therefore I will not pertinaciously contend about this, because it is better to leave undecided whatever is doubtful, and disputable, as it is commonly called, on either side.”
John Calvin· Commentaries (1554)reformed
Numbers 30:2
“But as it would frequently happen that parties would vow to do things which were neither good in themselves nor in their power to perform, the law ordained that their natural superiors should have the right of judging as to the propriety of those vows, with discretionary power to sanction or interdict their fulfilment.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
B. A daughter still in her father's housevv. 3-5
Numbers 30:3-8
One procedure is written out twice, once for a daughter in her father's house and once for a wife, and both turn on the phrase in the day that he heareth. The power to disallow lasts that day and then closes, so a vow left unchallenged past it stands. Where the father or the husband does disallow it, the text says the Lord shall forgive her, which treats the vow as a real debt remitted rather than as words that never counted. Barnes reads the at all of verse 6 as covering a girl betrothed but not yet married, and Gill allows either the betrothed or the married woman.
Numbers 30:3
“Being in her father’s house in her youth - It was not ordinarily until her betrothal or marriage, that the female passed (some suppose by purchase) from the power of her father to that of her husband.”
2 more voices on this verse
Numbers 30:3
“Hence we gather that all those who are possessed of power do not do their duty unless they frankly and discreetly express their opposition whenever anything displeases them; since their connivance is a kind of tacit approbation.”
John Calvin· Commentaries (1554)reformed
Numbers 30:3
“The judgment of a father or guardian on the vow of any under his charge might be given either by an expressed approval or by silence, which was to be construed as approval. But in the case of a husband who, after silence from day to day, should ultimately disapprove or hinder his wife's vow, the sin of non-performance was to be imputed to him and not to her [Nu 30:15].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Numbers 30:4
“Vowing is an ordinance of God; if we vow in hypocrisy we profane that ordinance: it is plainly determined, Better not vow than vow and not pay, Eccl. v. 5 . Be not deceived, God is not mocked. His promises to us are yea and amen, let not ours to him be yea and nay.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Numbers 30:5
“The Lord shall forgive - Or, will forgive her not performing it. But this should be understood only of vows which could not be performed without invading the father's right; for if one should vow to forbear such, or such a sin, and all occasions or means leading to it, and to perform such, or such duties, when he had opportunity, no father can discharge him from such vows.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
C. A husband may confirm a vow or annul it
1. (vv. 6-8)
Numbers 30:6
“And if she had at all an husband with whom she vowed,.... Or "when her vows were upon her" (w), was either betrothed or married to a man: or uttered ought out of her lips, wherewith she bound her soul; uttered anything, either with or without premeditation, either with thought and deliberation, or rashly and imprudently, as the word signifies, yet in such a manner that it was binding upon her. (w) ונדריה עליה.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 30:6
“Rather, And if she shall at all be an husband’s, and her vows shall be upon her, or a rash utterance of her lips, wherewith she hath bound her soul, etc. The “at all” intimates that the case of a girl betrothed but not yet actually married is here especially contemplated.”
Numbers 30:7
“And her husband heard it, and held his peace at her in the day that he heard it,.... The vow she made, and by his silence consented to it: then her vows shall stand, and her bonds wherewith she bound her soul shall stand; or she be under obligation to perform them.”
Numbers 30:8
“But if her husband disallow her on the day that he heard it,....”
2. (vv. 9-12)
Numbers 30:9
“But every vow of a widow,....”
Numbers 30:10
“And if she vowed in her husband's house,.... Before his death, in his lifetime, or before divorced: the Targum of Jonathan adds, by way of explanation, "and not at age for marriage", understanding it of a betrothed, and not a married person; but Jarchi says, the Scripture speaks of a married one, which seems most likely: or bound her soul by a bond with an oath; to fulfil her vow, to abstain from this, or to do that or the other thing.”
Numbers 30:11
“And her husband heard it, and held his peace at her, and disallowed her not,....”
Numbers 30:12
“But if her husband hath utterly made them void on the day he heard them,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 30:12
“Concerning the bond of her soul - Her life is at stake if she fulfill not the obligation under which she has laid herself.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
A widow and a divorced woman stand by their own word, and the rule is given flat with no reason attached to it. The daughter and the wife each have a head who may hear a vow and disallow it, and these two women have none, which is the difference the chapter names and does not explain. Verses 10 to 12 go back to the wife who vowed under her husband's roof and repeat the same limit, that his voiding of it falls on the day he heard it or not at all.
3. (vv. 13-16)
Numbers 30:13
“A promise to man is a bond upon the estate, but a promise to God is a bond upon the soul. Our sacramental vows, by which we are bound to no more than what was before our duty, and which neither father nor husband can disannul, are bonds upon the soul, and by them we must feel ourselves bound out from all sin and bound up to the whole will of God.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Numbers 30:14
“But if her husband altogether hold his peace at her from day today,.... Said not one word to her day after day, neither on the day he heard her vow, nor the day following: then he establisheth all her vows, or all her bonds, which are upon her; by his silence: he confirmeth them, because he held his peace at her, in the day that he heard them; for not to contradict them was to confirm them.”
Numbers 30:15
“But if he shall any ways make them void, after that he hath heard them,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 30:15
“Now here it is very observable how carefully the divine law consults the good order of families, and preserves the power of superior relations, and the duty and reverence of inferiors.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Numbers 30:16
“These are the statutes - It is very probable that this law, like that concerning the succession of daughters, (Numbers 27)., rose from the exigency of some particular case that had just then occurred. Making vows, in almost any case, is a dangerous business; they seldom do any good, and often much evil. He who does not feel himself bound to do what is fit, right, and just, from the standing testimony of God’s word, is not likely to do it from any obligation he may lay upon his own conscience.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
To afflict the soul is the phrase Leviticus 16:29 and 23:27 use of the day of atonement, so the vows in view here include fasting and self denial. Verse 14 makes silence an act, since a husband who says nothing from day to day confirms what his wife bound herself to, and 1 Samuel 1:21-23 shows Elkanah doing that with Hannah's vow. Verse 15 puts the price of a late annulment on the man in four words, he shall bear her iniquity, so the guilt of the unkept vow moves to him. The closing verse holds the whole statute to two relationships, a man and his wife and a father and his daughter in her youth, and Numbers 6:2 had already opened the Nazarite vow to a woman.
This page carries no textual note on Numbers 30. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.