Bible Commentaries
Numbers 30

Verses 1-16

Concerning vows (30:1-16)

A vow was a pledge that a person made, whether to God or to a fellow human being, to carry out some specifically stated action. The vow usually involved swearing an oath in the name of God.
When a man made a vow, he could not change his vow once he had sworn it (30:1-2). But when a woman made a vow it could be cancelled by her father (in the case of a single woman) (3-5), or by her husband (in the case of a married woman) (6-9), provided the man expressed his disapproval on the day he heard her vow. Silence meant approval. If he at first allowed the vow but later changed his mind and stopped the woman fulfilling it, then he, not the woman, was held guilty for the broken vow (10-16).