Bible Strands
Numbers 30:10
If a woman in her husband’s house has made a vow or put herself under an obligation with an oath,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses relays divine instructions to the Israelite assembly regarding the legal status of vows. The verse addresses a married woman residing in her husband’s household who has voluntarily initiated a vow or oath.
The words — נָדָרָה (na.Da.rah) and אָסְרָה (a.se.Rah) are the key verbs, literally meaning “she has vowed” and “she has bound.” These terms describe the woman’s active initiation of a binding commitment through speech.
The thread — The mechanism of binding vows recurs in Leviticus 27:2-8 for dedicated persons and Ecclesiastes 5:4-5 regarding oath fulfillment. The New Testament reaffirms the gravity of spoken commitments in Matthew 5:33-37 and James 5:12.
Why it lands — The text establishes that a woman’s spoken vows create a real obligation that requires formal recognition within the household structure. It demands the reader to treat personal commitments as legally binding and to follow the prescribed procedures for their confirmation or cancellation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And if she vowed in her husband’s house, or bound her soul by a bond with an oath;