Numbers 30:2 - Forerunner Commentary

Numbers 30:2

The Law Concerning Vows

1 Then Moses spoke to ^athe heads of the tribes concerning the children of Israel, saying, “This is the thing which the Lord has commanded:

2 ^aIf a man makes a vow to the Lord, or ^bswears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word; he shall ^cdo according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

3 “Or if a woman makes a vow to the Lord, and binds herself by some agreement while in her father’s house in her youth,

4 and her father hears her vow and the agreement by which she has bound herself, and her father¹ holds his peace, then all her vows shall stand, and every agreement with which she has bound herself shall stand.

5 But if her father overrules her on the day that he hears, then none of her vows nor her agreements by which she has bound herself shall stand; and the Lord will release her, because her father overruled her.

6 “If indeed she takes a husband, while bound by her vows or by a rash utterance from her lips by which she bound herself,

7 and her husband hears it, and makes no response to her on the day that he hears, then her vows shall stand, and her agreements by which she bound herself shall stand.

Commentaries:

No entry exists in Forerunner Commentary for Numbers 30:2.

Numbers 30:1-9

The reason why I thought that verse 9 has the most bearing on this is because she was a grown woman. She had already left her father's house and so by analogy, she was like a widow or a divorced woman who was living on her own. She was not living in her father's house and she was not a youth. So she was bound by her vow, or as it says, by some agreement in verse 2. And also in verse 3, if a woman vows a vow to the Lord and binds herself by some agreement.

That is what she did. This lady made a contract, a written contract, with these people who took Jessica. Since she was no longer in her father's house, nor was she married yet, she was still a year and a half away from being married. She was not under a man's authority. She would be considered competent to make her own decisions and she would therefore legally have to stand by them. So the contract she signed with the Michigan couple would be legally and eternally binding, and the unmarried father would have no legal recourse in the matter. He is just totally outside the whole case.

Excerpted from Judging

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