44: Making a Vow (Num 30)

The previous chapters (28-29) talk about offerings in the land of Canaan. Making a vow could be understood as another kind of offering.

👉 Read Numbers 30:1-16

When a man's vow stands regardless of his wife’s approval. (T or F)

When a woman makes a vow, her father must confirm it for her vow to stand even though she is an adult. (T or F)

A widow’s vow stands only when her father confirms it because her husband died. (T or F)

Any vow made before marriage and confirmed by her father will stand after marriage regardless of her husband’s consent. (T or F)

When a woman makes a vow, and her husband hears, his silence implies approval of her vow. (T or F)

Her husband can nullify her vow later when he sees her affliction due to the vow. In this case, he will bear her iniquity. (T or F)

Answers and meditations

A vow is a legitimate expression of dedication or devotion to God. It could be offering an animal or one's own life, a case in which they redeemed a prescribed amount of money.

T.

T. Verse 3 only addresses 'young women.' Thus, we assume all women were supposed to marry at an early age. When an adult woman is not married, she must be under the authority and protection of her father or her brother (Leah and Rachel's story). 

F. a widow can make a vow by herself.

F. her husband can nullify it at the moment of marriage.

T.

T. It was his fault if her husband had not nullified her vow when he knew about it and nullified it later.

This regulation would help us understand why Jesus asked the Samaritan woman to bring her husband in John 4. 

This rule shows a woman was under her husband's or father's authority. In the same way, a man is under the authority of the Lord’s commands. We are under Christ's authority and protection.