Numbers 30:13

13 Her husband has the right to affirm or to annul any vow or promise that she has made.

Numbers 30:13 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 30:13

Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul
By fasting, as Aben Ezra observes; as when a vow was made, or a person bound herself by an oath to abstain from such and such food, or to fast on such a day; to keep a fast which was not appointed, to set apart a day for fasting, besides the grand and general fast on the day of atonement: Jarchi from hence gathers, that a man only makes vows of afflicting the soul, or vows of fasting; but this is not said by way of limitation and restriction, but by way of amplification and illustration, giving a particular instance, by which others may be judged of:

her husband may establish it, or her husband may make it void,
just as he pleased; and this power an husband had, to prevent confusion in the family, and trouble in the affairs of it, by vowing abstinence from such and such food, or from such and such liquor, and the like; and to prevent running into expenses he was not able to answer, by vowing and dedicating, this and the other to holy uses, for sacrifices, and repairs of the temple, and the like.

Numbers 30:13 In-Context

11 she must do everything that she vowed or promised unless her husband raises an objection when he hears about it.

12 But if her husband forbids her to fulfill the vow when he hears about it, she is not required to keep it. The Lord will forgive her, because her husband prevented her from keeping her vow.

13 Her husband has the right to affirm or to annul any vow or promise that she has made.

14 But if, by the day after he hears of the vow, he has raised no objection, she must do everything that she has vowed or promised. He has affirmed the vow by not objecting on the day he heard of it.

15 But if he later annuls the vow, he must suffer the consequences for the failure to fulfill the vow.