Numbers 30:1-16
Verses 1-16 A promise to God is a very serious matter. In fact, it is better not to make any promise if you do not want to *keep that promise (Ecclesiastes 5:5). Numbers 30:1-2 emphasises that it is very important to *keep a promise to God.
The *Israelites made promises to God that they would do a particular thing. Sometimes, they made a promise not to do a particular thing, too. Also, a person might promise to give a special gift to God, usually a *sacrifice. Or perhaps a person would promise not to eat for a period of time. In this passage, the word that we have translated as ‘promise’ refers to any of these types of promise.
Men who made promises had to *keep their promises. But there were different rules for women, because men had authority over them. Fathers had authority over their unmarried daughters. Husbands had authority over their wives.
A father had the right to cancel the promise of his unmarried daughter. Also, a husband had the right to cancel promises that his wife had made before their marriage. The father or the husband might not have known about the promise. Other people might have told them about it. But when they heard about it, they could cancel it. However, they had to cancel it quickly, on the same day when they heard about it first.
There were different rules for widows and for women whose husbands had divorced them. They were responsible for their own promises. So they had to *keep their promises. Nobody could cancel their promises on their behalf.
If a married woman made a promise after her marriage, still her husband had the right to cancel it. But if he knew about it, he had to say something in public immediately. If he said nothing, this was the same as consent. (‘Consent’ means to agree that something should happen.) Then, if he decided to cancel the promise later, he would be wrong. It was as if he had cancelled his own promise. So he would receive a punishment.
This passage teaches us that promises to God are serious matters always. We should think very carefully before we make a promise. We should never make a promise if we do not intend to *keep that promise.
