Numbers 30:3

3 Yf a damsell vowe a vowe vnto ye Lorde and binde herselfe beynge in hir fathers housse and vnmaried:

Numbers 30:3 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 30:3

If a woman also vow a vow unto the Lord
Who has not passed thirteen years, as the Targum of Jonathan:

[and] bind [herself] by a bond;
lay herself under obligation to perform her vow by an oath: being in her father's house; unto the twelfth year, as the same Targum; that is, that is under his care, tuition, and jurisdiction, whether she literally, or properly speaking, is in the house or no at the time she vows; so Jarchi interprets it of her being in the power of her father, though not in his house, she being not at age to be at her own disposal, but at his: wherefore it is added,

in her youth;
which, as the same writer explains it, signifies that she is

``neither a little one, nor at age; for a little one's vow is no vow, and one at age is not in the power of her father to make void her vow: who is a little one? our Rabbins say, one of eleven years of age and one day, her vows are examined, whether she knows on whose account she vows and consecrates, or devotes anything; one vows a vow that is twelve years and one day old, there is no need to examine them.''

He seems to refer to a passage in the Misnah F20,

``a daughter of eleven years and one day, her vows are examined; a daughter of twelve years and one day, her vows are firm, but they are to be examined through the whole twelfth year.''


FOOTNOTES:

F20 Niddah, c. 5. sect. 6.

Numbers 30:3 In-Context

1 And Moses spake vnto the heedes of the trybes of ye childern of Israel sayege: this is the thynge which the Lorde commaundeth.
2 Yf a man vowe a vowe vnto the Lorde or swere an othe ad bynde his soule he shall not goo backe with his worde: but shal fulfyll all ye proceadeth out of his mouth
3 Yf a damsell vowe a vowe vnto ye Lorde and binde herselfe beynge in hir fathers housse and vnmaried:
4 Yf hir father heare hir vowe and bonde which she hath made vppon hir soule and holde his pease thereto: then all hir vowes and bodes which she hath made vppo hir soule shall stonde in effecte.
5 But and yf hir father forbyd her the same daye that he heareth it none of hir vowes nor bondes which she hath made vppon hir soule shalbe of value ad the Lorde shall forgeue her because hir father forbade her.
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