Numbers 30 Study Notes

30:1-16 In this section the legal force of vows and oaths is set forth for both men and women. A vow was a conditional promise, made in the context of petitionary prayer (T. W. Cartledge). The force of a woman’s vows was limited by her male guardian, usually either her father or her husband. If the guardian was passive or assenting, the vows of the woman had the same legal force as a man’s vow. The vows of widows and divorced women were also binding. This statute also applied to a woman who was taking a Nazirite vow (6:1-21).

30:1-2 Making vows was voluntary, but any man who made a vow or swore an oath to the Lord was required to fulfill his obligation. Vows involved a verbal act of commitment to a task, or to consecration of oneself or property to the Lord. Oral vows were just as binding as formal written documents. To break a vow in which God’s name had been evoked was to profane God’s name (Lv 27:28-29). Sacrificial offerings were part of the obligation ritual, especially in ancient Israel where oaths were to be made only to God. In the case of the Nazirite vow (Nm 6), the procedure included an oath of abstinence from wine and strong drink, from shaving of the head, and from contamination by a corpse. Jesus cites 30:2 in Mt 5:33.

30:3-5 If a woman in her father’s house during her youth had made a vow, the patriarchal headship of her father became the controlling factor. A young female lived under her father’s authority until she married (usually in the late teenage years), at which time her husband assumed this responsibility (vv. 6-8).

30:9 In the case of a widow or divorced woman, she no longer lived under the patriarchal authority of her father or husband, so she had the same status and responsibility as a man with regard to vows.

30:10-15 In the patriarchal society of ancient Israel, vows could be annulled by the husband if they were considered detrimental to the woman, to her husband, or to the husband-wife relationship. Special considerations were given to the circumstances under which the wife took a vow, when the husband was apprised of the commitment, and how he responded to the information. The cases of Hannah (1Sm 1:11) and the mother of Samson (Jdg 13:1-23) are good examples of vow-taking under the condition of childlessness.