Numbers 30:3

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),

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 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.
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.