Numbers 30:15

15 But if he cancels them after he hears [about them], he will be responsible for her^[a] commitment."^[b]

Numbers 30:15 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 30:15

But if he shall any ways make them void, after that he hath
heard them
Some way or other expressing his dislike of them; not at the time he heard them, but some time afterwards; one day after, as the Targum of Jonathan:

then he shall bear his iniquity:
be accountable for the breach of the vow, the sin shall be reckoned to him, and he shall bear the punishment of it, because he ought to have declared is disapprobation of it sooner; and it may be, his doing it when he did was only in a spirit of contradiction, or through covetousness; and it would have been more advisable to have let the vow stand, and therefore acted a criminal part, and so was answerable for it; the Targum of Jonathan explains it,

``her husband or her father shall bear her iniquity,''

supposing her not to be at age: Aben Ezra gives the reason of it, because she is in his power.

Numbers 30:15 In-Context

13 Her husband may confirm or cancel any vow or any sworn obligation to deny herself.

14 If her husband says nothing at all to her from day to day, he confirms all her vows and obligations, which are binding. He has confirmed them because he said nothing to her when he heard [about them].

15 But if he cancels them after he hears [about them], he will be responsible for her commitment."

16 These are the statutes that the Lord commanded Moses concerning [the relationship] between a man and his wife, or between a father and his daughter in his house during her youth.

Footnotes

• [a]. Sam, LXX, some Syr mss read his
• [b]. Or will bear her guilt