Numbers 30:3

3 si quis virorum votum Domino voverit aut se constrinxerit iuramento non faciet irritum verbum suum sed omne quod promisit implebit

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 narravitque Moses filiis Israhel omnia quae ei Dominus imperarat
2 et locutus est ad principes tribuum filiorum Israhel iste est sermo quem praecepit Dominus
3 si quis virorum votum Domino voverit aut se constrinxerit iuramento non faciet irritum verbum suum sed omne quod promisit implebit
4 mulier si quippiam voverit et se constrinxerit iuramento quae est in domo patris sui et in aetate adhuc puellari si cognoverit pater votum quod pollicita est et iuramentum quo obligavit animam suam et tacuerit voti rea erit
5 quicquid pollicita est et iuravit opere conplebit
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.