Numbers 30:15

15 Soothly if her husband against-said her avow, and her oath, after that he knew thereof, he shall bear his wickedness. (But if her husband saith against her vow, or her oath, sometime after that he hath learned of it, he shall bear her wickedness, that is, the penalty for not fulfilling the vow.)

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 If she avoweth, and bindeth herself by an oath, that she torment her soul by fasting, either by abstinence of other things, it shall be in the doom of her husband, that she do that, either do it not. (If she voweth, or bindeth herself with an oath, that she torment her soul with fasting, or by abstaining from other things, it shall be her husband who shall decide whether she must do it, or not.)
14 That if the husband heareth it, and he is still, and delayeth the sentence in[to] the tother day, she shall yield whatever thing she avowed and promised, for he was still, (and said not against it,) anon as he heard. (But if her husband heareth of it, and he is silent, and delayeth his judgement into the next day, she shall yield whatever that she hath vowed, or hath promised, for he was silent, and said nothing against it, as soon as he heard of it.)
15 Soothly if her husband against-said her avow, and her oath, after that he knew thereof, he shall bear his wickedness. (But if her husband saith against her vow, or her oath, sometime after that he hath learned of it, he shall bear her wickedness, that is, the penalty for not fulfilling the vow.)
16 These be the laws, which the Lord ordained to Moses, betwixt the husband and the wife, (and) betwixt the father and the daughter, which is yet in the age of a young damsel, or that yet dwelleth in her father's house unmarried.
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.