Numbers 30:3

Solemn promises by women

3 When a woman makes a solemn promise to the LORD or a binding obligation while she is young and in her father's household,

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.''

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 Niddah, c. 5. sect. 6.

Numbers 30:3 In-Context

1 Moses spoke to the leaders of the tribes of the Israelites: This is what the LORD has commanded:

2 When a man makes a solemn promise to the LORD or swears a solemn pledge of binding obligation for himself, he cannot break his word. He must do everything he said.

3 When a woman makes a solemn promise to the LORD or a binding obligation while she is young and in her father's household,

4 and her father hears her solemn promise or her binding obligation for herself and keeps silent—then all her solemn promises and any of her binding obligations for herself will stand.

5 But if her father expresses disapproval to her on the day that he hears her, none of her solemn promises nor any of her binding obligations for herself will stand. The LORD will forgive her, because her father expressed disapproval to her.