Numbers 30:15

15 But if he in any way annul them after he hath heard them, then he shall bear her iniquity.

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 Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband can establish it, or her husband can annul it.
14 And if her husband be altogether silent at her from day to day, then he hath established all her vows or all her bonds which are upon her; he hath confirmed them, for he hath been silent at her in the day that he heard them.
15 But if he in any way annul them after he hath heard them, then he shall bear her iniquity.
16 These are the statutes, which Jehovah commanded Moses, between a man and his wife, between a father and his daughter, in her youth in her father's house.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Or 'expressly,' as ver. 12.
The Darby Translation is in the public domain.