Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 30-31.

The passage begins with regulations concerning vows.  I find it interesting that Moses delivers these instructions between when God told the Israelites to treat the Midianites as enemies and when they actually launched their attack on the Midianites associated with Baal-Peor.  The first part is plain and straightforward: if a man makes a vow to the Lord, or takes an oath to do something, he is obligated to keep that oath.  The second part regarding women requires a little more thought.  In order to understand what Moses tells them about women taking oaths we need to be aware of the nature of their society.  In that society a father or husband of a woman would have had the power to prevent a woman from keeping a vow or oath which she made, whether the law allowed for him to do so or not.  The rule which Moses gave here limited that power in a very interesting way.  The rule was that when a woman’s father (if she was not married and thus still under his authority) or her husband (if she was married) had to confirm or nullify any vow or oath she had made as soon as he learned of it.  However, confirming it was the default.  If he did not immediately nullify it, it was confirmed.  If he later prevented her from keeping the vow or oath, it was as if he had failed to keep a vow or oath which he himself had made.  If a woman’s husband learned that she had made a vow or taken an oath and did not immediately forbid her from keeping it, he was obligated to help her keep that vow or oath.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.