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Chapter Summary
When a man makes a vow he must not break his word. When a woman makes a vow it shall stand unless her father or husband forbids it.
1And Moses explained to the sons of Israel all that the Lord had commanded him. 2And he said to the leaders of the tribes of the sons of Israel: “This is the word, which the Lord has instructed: 3If any man makes a vow to the Lord, or binds himself by an oath, he shall not make his word null and void, but all that he has promised, he shall fulfill. 4If a woman, who is in her father’s house, vows anything, or binds herself by an oath, and she is still in a state of childhood, if her father knew of the vow which she has promised or of the oath by which she has obligated her soul, and he kept silent, she shall be liable to the vow: 5whatever she has promised or swore, she shall complete in deed. 6But if her father, as soon as he had heard it, had contradicted it, both her vows and her oaths shall be nullified, neither shall she be held liable to the promise, because her father had contradicted it. 7If she has a husband, and she has vowed anything, then, once the word has gone out of her mouth, she will have obligated her soul by an oath. 8On the day that her husband will hear of it, and yet not contradict it, she shall be liable to the vow, and she shall repay whatever she has promised. 9But if, as soon as he hears it, he contradicts it, then he will have caused her promises, and the words by which she had bound her soul, to be null and void. The Lord will be favorable to her. 10Widows and divorced women shall repay whatever they have vowed. 11If a wife in the house of her husband has bound herself by a vow or an oath, 12if her husband heard it and remained silent, and he did not contradict the promise, she shall repay what she had promised. 13But if he promptly contradicts it, she shall not be held liable to the promise. For her husband has contradicted it. And the Lord will be favorable to her. 14If she has vowed or bound herself by oath, in order to afflict her soul by fasting, or by abstaining from other things, it shall be for the arbitration of her husband, as to whether or not she may do it. 15But if the husband, upon hearing it, remains silent, and he delays judgment until another day, whatever she had vowed or promised, she shall repay, because when he first heard it, he remained silent. 16And if he contradicted it only sometime after he had known about it, he shall bear his iniquity.” 17These are the laws which the Lord has appointed to Moses, between a husband and a wife, between a father and a daughter, who is still in the state of childhood or who remains in her father’s house.