Bible Chapter Summary
Numbers 30 Summary
Laws Governing Vows and Oaths
Moses delivers to the heads of the tribes the LORD's commandments concerning vows and oaths. A man who makes a vow to the LORD must fulfill it without breaking his word. For women, the binding force of a vow depends on their household situation: a daughter's vow made in her father's house stands unless her father disallows it on the day he hears it, and a wife's vow stands unless her husband disallows it on the day he hears it; in both cases of disallowance, the LORD forgives the woman. Widows and divorced women, however, bear full personal responsibility for every vow they make, and a husband who delays before nullifying a vow bears the guilt himself. Moses closes by identifying these as the statutes the LORD commanded him governing the relationships between a man and his wife and between a father and his daughter.
Key themes
Key verses
Numbers 30:2
“If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.”
Numbers 30:5
“But if her father disallow her in the day that he heareth; not any of her vows, or of her bonds wherewith she hath bound her soul, shall stand: and the LORD shall forgive her, because her father disallowed her.”
Numbers 30:9
“But every vow of a widow, and of her that is divorced, wherewith they have bound their souls, shall stand against her.”
Numbers 30:15
“But if he shall any ways make them void after that he hath heard them; then he shall bear her iniquity.”
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