Bible Strands
Numbers 30:13
Her husband may confirm or nullify any vow or any sworn pledge to deny herself.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses instructs the Israelite community on the legal procedure for a husband to address his wife's vows upon hearing of them.
The words — The text centers on נֵדֶר (neder, "vow") and אִסַּר (issar, "obligation") tied to a woman's self-humiliation, which the husband retains the authority to confirm or nullify.
The thread — This marital regulation on vow authority connects to the headship framework in 1 Corinthians 11:3 and echoes the self-humiliation commands in Leviticus 16:29 and 23:27.
Why it lands — The verse demands that a reader acknowledge the husband's day-to-day authority to validate or void his wife's self-denying commitments before they take binding effect.
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
Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish it, or her husband may make it void.
Cross-references
- 1 Corinthians 11:3 But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
- Leviticus 16:29 This is to be a permanent statute for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month, you shall humble yourselves and not do any work—whether the native or the foreigner who resides among you—
- Leviticus 23:27 “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. You shall hold a sacred assembly and humble yourselves, and present a food offering to the LORD.
- Leviticus 23:32 It will be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you shall humble yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to keep your Sabbath.”
- Numbers 29:7 On the tenth day of this seventh month, you are to hold a sacred assembly, and you shall humble yourselves; you must not do any work.
- Ezra 8:21 And there by the Ahava Canal I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask Him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions.
- Psalms 35:13 Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting, but my prayers returned unanswered.
- Isaiah 58:5 Is this the fast I have chosen: a day for a man to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the LORD?
- 1 Corinthians 11:9 Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.
- 1 Peter 3:1 Wives, in the same way, submit yourselves to your husbands, so that even if they refuse to believe the word, they will be won over without words by the behavior of their wives