The Law Concerning Vows
1 Then Moses spoke tothe heads of the tribes concerning the children of Israel, saying, “Thisisthe thing which theLordhas commanded:
2 If a man makes a vow to theLord, orswears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word; he shalldo according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
3 “Or if a woman makes a vow to theLord, and bindsherselfby some agreement while in her father’s house in her youth,
4 and her father hears her vow and the agreement by which she has bound herself, and her father holds his peace, then all her vows shall stand, and every agreement with which she has bound herself shall stand.
5 But if her father overrules her on the day that he hears, then none of her vows nor her agreements by which she has bound herself shall stand; and theLordwill release her, because her father overruled her.
6 “If indeed she takes a husband, while bound by her vows or by a rash utterance from her lips by which she bound herself,
7 and her husband hearsit,and makes no response to her on the day that he hears, then her vows shall stand, and her agreements by which she bound herself shall stand.
8 But if her husbandoverrules her on the day that he hearsit,he shall make void her vow which she took and what she uttered with her lips, by which she bound herself, and theLordwill release her.
9 “Also any vow of a widow or a divorced woman, by which she has bound herself, shall stand against her.
10 “If she vowed in her husband’s house, or bound herself by an agreement with an oath,
11 and her husband heardit,and made no response to heranddid not overrule her, then all her vows shall stand, and every agreement by which she bound herself shall stand.
12 But if her husband truly made them void on the day he heardthem,then whatever proceeded from her lips concerning her vows or concerning the agreement binding her, it shall not stand; her husband has made them void, and theLordwill release her.
13 Every vow and every binding oath to afflict her soul, her husband may confirm it, or her husband may make it void.
14 Now if her husband makes no response whatever to her from day to day, then he confirms all her vows or all the agreements that bind her; he confirms them, because he made no response to her on the day that he heardthem.
15 But if he does make them void after he has heardthem,then he shall bear her guilt.”
16 Thesearethe statutes which theLordcommanded Moses, between a man and his wife, and between a father and his daughter in her youth in her father’s house.