But if he shall any ways make them void after that he hath heard them; then he shall bear her iniquity.
Numbers 30 belongs to the instructions about the vows of wives and daughters, setting out the limited circumstances in which such vows may be made void. Those circumstances include the authority of a husband over his wife's vows and of a father over a young daughter in his household. To make a vow void is to break it.
If a husband hears his wife's vow and afterward annuls it, he bears her iniquity. The same responsibility rests on a father with authority over a woman's vow, so that if he hears it and later makes it void, he bears her iniquity. The chapter thus bears on faithfully keeping vows.
The verse also illustrates that people cannot abolish God's law but can make it of no effect in their hearts through disobedience, while faith establishes the law in the heart and is incompatible with disobedience. Applied to daily life, a wife who cooks swine's flesh for her husband at his request is not counted guilty merely for doing so.
Numbers 30 belongs to the instructions about the vows of wives and daughters, setting out the limited circumstances in which such vows may be made void. Those circumstances include the authority of a husband over his wife's vows and of a father over a young daughter in his household. To make a vow void is to break it.
If a husband hears his wife's vow and afterward annuls it, he bears her iniquity. The same responsibility rests on a father with authority over a woman's vow, so that if he hears it and later makes it void, he bears her iniquity. The chapter thus bears on faithfully keeping vows.
The verse also illustrates that people cannot abolish God's law but can make it of no effect in their hearts through disobedience, while faith establishes the law in the heart and is incompatible with disobedience. Applied to daily life, a wife who cooks swine's flesh for her husband at his request is not counted guilty merely for doing so.