Psalms 66:13-14

66:13 I will enter ¹  your temple with burnt sacrifices;

I will fulfill the vows I made to you,

66:14 which my lips uttered

and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble.

Psalms 76:11

76:11 Make vows to the Lord your God and repay them!

Let all those who surround him ²  bring tribute to the awesome one!

Psalms 116:14-19

116:14 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord

before all his people.

116:15 The Lord values

the lives of his faithful followers. ³ 

116:16 Yes, Lord! I am indeed your servant;

I am your lowest slave. ⁴ 

You saved me from death. ⁵ 

116:17 I will present a thank offering to you,

and call on the name of the Lord.

116:18 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord

before all his people,

116:19 in the courts of the Lord’s temple,

in your midst, O Jerusalem.

Praise the Lord!

Psalms 119:106

119:106 I have vowed and solemnly sworn

to keep your just regulations.

Genesis 28:20-22

28:20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God is with me and protects me on this journey I am taking and gives me food ⁶  to eat and clothing to wear, 28:21 and I return safely to my father’s home, ⁷  then the Lord will become my God. 28:22 Then this stone ⁸  that I have set up as a sacred stone will be the house of God, and I will surely ⁹  give you back a tenth of everything you give me.” ¹⁰ 

Genesis 35:1-3

The Return to Bethel

35:1 Then God said to Jacob, “Go up at once ¹¹  to Bethel ¹²  and live there. Make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” ¹³  35:2 So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have among you. ¹⁴  Purify yourselves and change your clothes. ¹⁵  35:3 Let us go up at once ¹⁶  to Bethel. Then I will make ¹⁷  an altar there to God, who responded to me in my time of distress ¹⁸  and has been with me wherever I went.” ¹⁹ 

Numbers 30:2-16

30:2 If a man ²⁰  makes a vow ²¹  to the Lord or takes an oath ²²  of binding obligation on himself, ²³  he must not break his word, but must do whatever he has promised. ²⁴ 

Vows Made by Single Women

30:3 “If a young ²⁵  woman who is still living ²⁶  in her father’s house makes a vow to the Lord or places herself under an obligation, 30:4 and her father hears of her vow or the obligation to which she has pledged herself, and her father remains silent about her, ²⁷  then all her vows will stand, ²⁸  and every obligation to which she has pledged herself will stand. 30:5 But if her father overrules her when he hears ²⁹  about it, then none ³⁰  of her vows or her obligations which she has pledged for herself will stand. And the Lord will release ³¹  her from it, because her father overruled her.

Vows Made by Married Women

30:6 “And if she marries a husband while under a vow, ³²  or she uttered ³³  anything impulsively by which she has pledged herself, 30:7 and her husband hears about it, but remains silent about her when he hears about it, then her vows will stand and her obligations which she has pledged for herself will stand. 30:8 But if when her husband hears it he overrules her, then he will nullify ³⁴  the vow she has taken, ³⁵  and whatever she uttered impulsively which she has pledged for herself. And the Lord will release her from it.

Vows Made by Widows

30:9 “But every vow of a widow or of a divorced woman which she has pledged for herself will remain intact. ³⁶  30:10 If she made the vow in her husband’s house or put herself under obligation with an oath, 30:11 and her husband heard about it, but remained silent about her, and did not overrule her, then all her vows will stand, and every obligation which she pledged for herself will stand. 30:12 But if her husband clearly nullifies ³⁷  them when he hears them, then whatever she says ³⁸  by way of vows or obligations will not stand. Her husband has made them void, and the Lord will release her from them.

30:13 “Any vow or sworn obligation that would bring affliction to her, ³⁹  her husband can confirm or nullify. ⁴⁰  30:14 But if her husband remains completely silent ⁴¹  about her from day to day, he thus confirms all her vows or all her obligations which she is under; he confirms them because he remained silent about when he heard them. 30:15 But if he should nullify them after he has heard them, then he will bear her iniquity.” ⁴² 

30:16 These are the statutes that the Lord commanded Moses, relating to ⁴³  a man and his wife, and a father and his young daughter who is still living in her father’s house.

Numbers 30:1

Vows Made by Men

30:1 ⁴⁴ Moses told the leaders ⁴⁵  of the tribes concerning the Israelites, “This is what ⁴⁶  the Lord has commanded:

Numbers 1:11

1:11 from Benjamin, Abidan son of Gideoni;

Numbers 1:24-28

1:24 ⁴⁷ From the descendants of Gad: According to the records of their clans and families, all the males twenty years old or older who could serve in the army were listed by name. 1:25 Those of them who were numbered from the tribe of Gad were 45,650.

1:26 From the descendants of Judah: According to the records of their clans and families, all the males twenty years old or older who could serve in the army were listed by name. 1:27 Those of them who were numbered from the tribe of Judah were 74,600.

1:28 From the descendants of Issachar: According to the records of their clans and families, all the males twenty years old or older who could serve in the army were listed by name.

Ecclesiastes 5:4-6

5:4 When you make a vow ⁴⁸  to God, do not delay in paying it. ⁴⁹ 

For God ⁵⁰  takes no pleasure in fools:

Pay what you vow!

5:5 It is better for you not to vow

than to vow and not pay it. ⁵¹ 

5:6 Do not let your mouth cause you ⁵²  to sin,

and do not tell the priest, ⁵³  “It was a mistake!” ⁵⁴ 

Why make God angry at you ⁵⁵ 

so that he would destroy the work of your hands?”

[66:13]  ¹ sn Here the psalmist switches to the singular; he speaks as the representative of the nation.

[76:11]  ² tn The phrase “all those who surround him” may refer to the surrounding nations (v. 12 may favor this), but in Ps 89:7 the phrase refers to God’s heavenly assembly.

[116:15]  ³ tn Heb “precious in the eyes of the Lord [is] the death of his godly ones.” The point is not that God delights in or finds satisfaction in the death of his followers! The psalmist, who has been delivered from death, affirms that the life-threatening experiences of God’s followers get God’s attention, just as a precious or rare object would attract someone’s eye. See Ps 72:14 for a similar expression of this belief.

[116:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “I am your servant, the son of your female servant.” The phrase “son of a female servant” (see also Ps 86:16) is used of a son born to a secondary wife or concubine (Exod 23:12). In some cases the child’s father is the master of the house (see Gen 21:10, 13; Judg 9:18). The use of the expression here certainly does not imply that the Lord has such a secondary wife or concubine! It is used metaphorically and idiomatically to emphasize the psalmist’s humility before the Lord and his status as the Lord’s servant.

[116:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “you have loosed my bonds.” In this context the imagery refers to deliverance from death (see v. 3).

[28:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “bread,” although the term can be used for food in general.

[28:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “and I return in peace to the house of my father.”

[28:22]  ⁸ tn The disjunctive clause structure (conjunction + noun/subject) is used to highlight the statement.

[28:22]  ⁹ tn The infinitive absolute is used before the finite verb for emphasis.

[28:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and all which you give to me I will surely give a tenth of it to you.” The disjunctive clause structure (conjunction + noun/object) highlights this statement as well.

[35:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “arise, go up.” The first imperative gives the command a sense of urgency.

[35:1]  ¹² map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[35:1]  ¹³ sn God is calling on Jacob to fulfill his vow he made when he fled from…Esau (see Gen 28:20-22).

[35:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “which are in your midst.”

[35:2]  ¹⁵ sn The actions of removing false gods, becoming ritually clean, and changing garments would become necessary steps in Israel when approaching the Lord in worship.

[35:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “let us arise and let us go up.” The first cohortative gives the statement a sense of urgency.

[35:3]  ¹⁷ tn The cohortative with the prefixed conjunction here indicates purpose or consequence.

[35:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “day of distress.” See Ps 20:1 which utilizes similar language.

[35:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “in the way in which I went.” Jacob alludes here to God’s promise to be with him (see Gen 28:20).

[30:2]  ²⁰ tn The legal construction states the class to which the law applies, and then lays down the condition: “men [man] – if….”

[30:2]  ²¹ tn The Hebrew text uses a cognate accusative construction to express this: “a man if he vows a vow.”

[30:2]  ²² tn The expression is “swear an oath” (הִשָּׁבַע שְׁבֻעָה, hishava’ shÿvu’ah). The vow (נֵדֶר, neder) was a promise to donate something of oneself or one’s substance to the Lord. The solemn oath seals the vow before the Lord, perhaps with sacrifice. The vocabulary recalls Abraham’s treaty with Abimelech and the naming of Beer Sheba with the word (see Gen 21).

[30:2]  ²³ tn The Hebrew text hasלֶאְסֹר אִסָּר (le’sor ’issar), meaning “to take a binding obligation.” This is usually interpreted to mean a negative vow, i.e., the person attempts to abstain from something that is otherwise permissible. It might involve fasting, or abstaining from marital sex, but it might also involve some goal to be achieved, and the abstaining from distractions until the vow is fulfilled (see Ps 132). The נֶדֶר (neder) may have been more for religious matters, and the אִסָּר more for social concerns, but this cannot be documented with certainty.

[30:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “according to all that goes out of his mouth.”

[30:3]  ²⁵ tn The qualification comes at the end of the verse, and simply says “in her youth.”

[30:3]  ²⁶ tn The Hebrew text just has “in her father’s house” and not “who is still living,” but that is the meaning of the line.

[30:4]  ²⁷ tn The intent of this expression is that he does not object to the vow.

[30:4]  ²⁸ tn The verb קוּם (qum) is best translated “stand” here, but the idea with it is that what she vows is established as a genuine oath with the father’s approval (or acquiescence).

[30:5]  ²⁹ tn The idiom is “in the day of,” but it is used in place of a preposition before the infinitive construct with its suffixed subjective genitive. The clause is temporal.

[30:5]  ³⁰ tn The Hebrew “all will not stand” is best rendered “none will stand.”

[30:5]  ³¹ tn The verb has often been translated “forgive” (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV, NLT), but that would suggest a sin that needed forgiving. The idea of “release from obligation” is better; the idea is like that of having a debt “forgiven” or “retired.” In other words, she is free from the vow she had made. The Lord will not hold the woman responsible to do what she vowed.

[30:6]  ³² tn Heb “and her vows are upon her.” It may be that the woman gets married while her vows are still unfulfilled.

[30:6]  ³³ tn The Hebrew text indicates that this would be some impetuous vow that she uttered with her lips, a vow that her husband, whether new or existing, would not approve of. Several translate it “a binding obligation rashly uttered.”

[30:8]  ³⁴ tn The verb is the Hiphil perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive from the verb פָּרַר (parar, “to annul”). The verb functions here as the equivalent of an imperfect tense; here it is the apodosis following the conditional clause – if this is the case, then this is what will happen.

[30:8]  ³⁵ tn Heb “which [she is] under it.”

[30:9]  ³⁶ tn The Hebrew text says her vow “shall stand against her.” In other words, she must fulfill, or bear the consequences of, whatever she vowed.

[30:12]  ³⁷ tn The verb is the imperfect tense in the conditional clause. It is intensified with the infinitive absolute, which would have the force of saying that he nullified them unequivocally, or he made them null and void.

[30:12]  ³⁸ tn Heb whatever proceeds from her lips.”

[30:13]  ³⁹ tn The sentence uses the infinitive construct לְעַנֹּת (lÿ’annot, “to afflict”), which is the same word used in the instructions for the day of atonement in which people are to afflict themselves (their souls). The case here may be that the woman would take a religious vow on such an occasion to humble herself, to mortify her flesh, to abstain from certain things, perhaps even sexual relations within marriage.

[30:13]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “or her husband can nullify.”

[30:14]  ⁴¹ tn The sentence uses the infinitive absolute to strengthen the idea.

[30:15]  ⁴² sn In other words, he will pay the penalty for making her break her vows if he makes her stop what she vowed. It will not be her responsibility.

[30:16]  ⁴³ tn Heb “between.”

[30:1]  ⁴⁴ sn Num 30 deals with vows that are different than the vows discussed in Lev 27 and Num 6. The material is placed here after all the rulings of the offerings, but it could have been revealed to Moses at any time, such as the Nazirite vows, or the question of the daughters’ inheritance. The logic of placing it here may be that a festival was the ideal place for discharging a vow. For additional material on vows, see R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 465-66.

[30:1]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “heads.”

[30:1]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “This is the word which.”

[1:24]  ⁴⁷ tc The LXX has vv. 24-35 after v. 37.

[5:4]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “vow a vow.” The phrase תִּדֹּר נֶדֶר (tiddor neder, “to vow a vow”) is a Hebrew idiom in which the root נדר is repeated for emphasis. The construction is a cognate accusative (see IBHS 166-67 §10.2.1f). The verb נָדַר (nadar, “to vow”) refers to the action of making a solemn promise to the Lord to perform an action or offer a sacrifice, e.g., Lev 27:8; Num 6:21; 30:11; Deut 23:23-24; Jonah 2:10; Mal 1:14; Pss 76:12; 132:2; see HALOT 674 s.v. נדר. The noun נֶדֶר (“vow”) was a gift or offering promised to be given to the Lord (Num 30:3; Deut 12:11; 23:19; Isa 19:12; Nah 2:1 [ET 1:15]; Ps 61:6, 9); see HALOT 674–75 s.v. נֵדֶר. It usually was a sacrifice or free-will offering (Deut 12:6; Ps 66:13) that was often promised during times of pressure (Judg 11:30; 1 Sam 1:11; 2 Sam 15:7-8; Pss 22:25; 66:13; 116:14, 18; Jonah 2:9).

[5:4]  ⁴⁹ tn The term לְשַׁלְּמוֹ (lÿshallÿmo, preposition + Piel infinitive construct from שָׁלַם, shalam + 3rd person masculine singular suffix) is derived from the root שׁלם which is used in a general sense of paying a debt (2 Kgs 4:7; Ps 37:21; Prov 22:27; Job 41:3), and more specifically of fulfilling a vow to the Lord (Deut 23:22; 2 Sam 15:7; Pss 22:26; 50:14; 61:9; 66:13; 76:12; 116:14, 18; Prov 7:14; Job 22:27; Isa 19:21; Jonah 2:10; Nah 2:1); see HALOT 1535 s.v. שׁלם 3a; BDB 1022 s.v. שָׁלֵם 4. An Israelite was never required to make a vow, but once made, it had to be paid (Lev 22:18-25; 27:1-13; Num 15:2-10; Nah 1:15 [2:1 HT]).

[5:4]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (“God”) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:5]  ⁵¹ tn The word “it” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[5:6]  ⁵² tn Heb “your flesh.” The term בָּשָׂר (basar, “flesh”) is a synecdoche of part (i.e., flesh) for the whole (i.e., whole person), e.g., Gen 2:21; 6:12; Ps 56:4[5]; 65:2[3]; 145:21; Isa 40:5, 6; see HALOT 164 s.v. בָּשָׂר; E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 642.

[5:6]  ⁵³ tc The MT reads הַמַּלְאָךְ (hammal’akh, “messenger”), while the LXX reads τοῦ θεοῦ (tou qeou, “God”) which reflects an alternate textual tradition of הָאֱלֹהִים (ha’elohim, “God”). The textual problem was caused by orthographic confusion between similarly spelled words. The LXX might have been trying to make sense of a difficult expression. The MT is preferred as the original. All the major translations follow the MT except for Moffatt (“God”).

[5:6]  ⁵⁴ tn The Hebrew noun שְׁגָגָה (shÿgagah) denotes “error; mistake” and refers to a sin of inadvertence or unintentional sin (e.g., Lev 4:2, 22, 27; 5:18; 22:14; Num 15:24-29; 35:11, 15; Josh 20:3, 9; Eccl 5:5; 10:5); see HALOT 1412 s.v. שְׁגָגָה; BDB 993 s.v. שְׁגָגָה. In this case, it refers to a rash vow thoughtlessly made, which the foolish worshiper claims was a mistake (e.g., Prov 20:25).

[5:6]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “at your voice.” This is an example of metonymy (i.e., your voice) of association (i.e., you).