Numbers 30:1

1 And he spake to the princes of the lineages of the sons of Israel, This is the word, which the Lord commanded, (And he spoke to the leaders of the tribes of the Israelites, and said, This is what the Lord commanded,)

Numbers 30:1 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 30:1

And Moses spake unto the heads of the tribes
Or the princes of them, who could more easily be convened, and who used to meet on certain occasions, and on whom it lay to see various laws put in execution:

concerning the children of Israel;
how they ought to conduct and behave in the following case, it being an affair which concerned them all:

saying, this is the thing which the Lord hath commanded;
relating to vows. Aben Ezra is of opinion that this was delivered after the battle with Midian, of which there is an account in the following chapter, and is occasioned by what was said, to the tribes of Gad and Reuben, ( Numbers 32:24 Numbers 32:25 )

do that which hath proceeded out of your mouth;
to which they replied,

thy servants will do as my lord commandeth;
upon which the nature of a vow, and the manner of keeping it, are observed; but the occasion of it rather seems to be what is said towards the close of the foregoing chapter, ( Numbers 29:39 ) , that the various sacrifices there directed were to be offered in their season, besides the vows and freewill offerings; and when these were ratified and confirmed, and when null and void, and to be fulfilled or neglected, is the principal business of this chapter.

Numbers 30:1 In-Context

1 And he spake to the princes of the lineages of the sons of Israel, This is the word, which the Lord commanded, (And he spoke to the leaders of the tribes of the Israelites, and said, This is what the Lord commanded,)

2 If any of men maketh a vow to the Lord, either bindeth himself by an oath, he shall not make void, or false, his word, but he shall fulfill all thing that he promised. (If anyone maketh a vow to the Lord, or bindeth himself with an oath, he shall not make his word void, or false, but he shall fulfill everything that he promised.)

3 If a woman that is in the house of her father, and is yet in the age of a young damsel, avoweth anything, either bindeth herself by an oath (or bindeth herself with an oath),

4 (and) her father knoweth the avow, that she promised, and the oath, by which she bound her soul, and he is still, she shall be guilty of that oath, if she break it; whatever thing she promised, and swore, she shall fulfill in work. (and her father knoweth of the vow, which she promised to do, or the oath, with which she hath bound her soul, and he is silent, she shall be bound by that oath, if she break it, and whatever thing that she hath promised, or hath sworn, to do, she shall fulfill it, or shall do it.)

5 Forsooth if her father against-said (it), anon as he heard (as soon as he heard it), both (her) vows, and her oaths shall be (made) void, and she shall not be holden bound to the promise, for her father against-said it.