Numbers 30:2

Israel is camped on the plains of Moab, on the edge of the promised land. The wandering life of the wilderness is about to give way to settled life in Canaan, and God is giving his people the laws they will need there.

The two chapters before this one set out the offerings and feasts of the whole nation (Numbers 28–29). Now the subject turns from what all Israel brings to God together to what one person promises him alone. The order teaches something. A person’s faithfulness in what he says belongs to Israel’s covenant life with God just as much as the appointed sacrifices do. The verses that follow apply the rule to particular cases, including the vows of women under the authority of a father or a husband (Numbers 30:3–16), and the next chapter, Numbers 31, goes on to Israel acting on the LORD’s commands.

Moses gives this law to the “heads of the tribes”, in Hebrew rashei hammattot, the recognised leaders of Israel’s tribes and clans. God’s word comes from God to Moses, from Moses to these leaders, and through them to “the children of Israel”, whom the law concerns. In a people so large this was an orderly way to make the command known, and the leaders were then responsible for teaching it and seeing it kept among their own people. Moses had appointed such heads over the tribes earlier (Deuteronomy 1:15).

The same pattern of entrusted leadership continues among God’s people. Elders are charged to feed the flock of God that is among them (1 Peter 5:1–3), and anyone who teaches God’s word carries the duty these heads carried, to pass it on faithfully and whole.

Before a word of the law is given, Moses says whose law it is. “This is the thing”, zeh haddavar in Hebrew, is a form of words the books of Moses often use to bring in a direct command from God. The verb for “spake”, dâbar, is the ordinary word for speaking or telling, and here Moses is telling the leaders what he has received. The verb for “commanded”, tsâvâh, is a strong one. It means to give an order that binds, so what follows is law and carries God’s full authority.

The name behind “the LORD” is Yᵉhôvâh, the personal name of the God who made a covenant with Israel and redeemed them. The law of vows therefore comes from the God who already belongs to this people and has bound himself to them. He is the lawgiver, and his commands come from his holy and just character and are given for his people’s good. Israel was told to add nothing to his word and take nothing from it (Deuteronomy 4:2) and to walk in all the ways he commanded, turning aside neither to the right hand nor to the left (Deuteronomy 5:32–33). The psalmist calls that word a lamp to his feet (Psalm 119:105).

A vow, neder, is a solemn promise made to God, and the word can also name the thing promised. It is voluntary. God commands many things, but a vow begins with the person, who freely promises to give something, to do something or to go without something. People in Scripture made vows in times of distress, as Jephthah did (Judges 11:30–31), in thanksgiving, in hope of God’s help, or as an act of dedication, as in the Nazirite vow of Numbers 6. Jacob vowed a vow at Bethel.

An oath, shᵉbûwʻâh, is a sworn statement. A person swears to the truth of what he says or pledges that he will do what he has declared, and God’s name is often called on as witness. Abraham and Abimelech swore to one another in this way at Beer-sheba. In a world where a spoken promise often did the work of a written contract, a man’s honour rested on keeping it.

The verse puts both under one rule. In the Hebrew the noun and its verb stand side by side, neder yiddor, “vow a vow”, and the doubling marks the vow as a deliberate and weighty act. The word for “man” here is ʼîysh, and the rest of the chapter takes up the vows of women.

The rule is given first as a prohibition and then as a command. The verb for “break” is châlal, which means to profane, to treat a holy thing as common. The “word” is dâbâr, the ordinary term for a word or a thing said. A promise made to the LORD has become a holy thing, and to leave it undone is to profane it.

The command that follows asks for everything: “he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.” The verb yâtsâʼ means to go out or come out, and peh is the mouth. Whatever came out of the man’s mouth in his vow is the measure of what he owes, in every part. The law says the same again elsewhere (Deuteronomy 23:21–23), and Ecclesiastes speaks of paying what has been vowed to God (Ecclesiastes 5:4–5).

Behind this stands who God is. “For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth” (Psalm 33:4). His own word holds, and he asks his people to be like him in what they say. The law’s commands about honesty between neighbours belong to the same call (Leviticus 19:11). God hears what is promised to him, and he requires that it be paid.

The principle of this verse stands, and Jesus raises it higher. In Matthew 5:33–37 he recalls the old command to perform to the Lord what has been sworn, and he teaches against the casual or manipulative use of oaths to make a statement sound more believable. A disciple’s ordinary speech is to be so truthful that a plain “yea” or “nay” is enough. Jesus leaves the duty of keeping one’s word in place and carries it from the sworn promise into every sentence a person speaks.

So the law of vows reaches promises made in ordinary conversation, in families and at work, and above all what is said to God in prayer, in worship, at a wedding or at baptism.

Moses brought Israel what the LORD commanded, and Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant (Hebrews 8:6). He is the Word made flesh (John 1:14), so that God’s will is now made known in a living person, who says of himself that he is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). He speaks with God’s own authority. The officers sent to arrest him came back saying, “Never man spake like this man” (John 7:46), and on the mountain the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him” (Matthew 17:5).

He is also the one man who has kept every word. We often fail in what we promise, but Jesus came to fulfil the law (Matthew 5:17), and he did all that proceeded out of his mouth. He is “the Amen, the faithful and true witness” (Revelation 3:14), and all the promises of God are yea in him (2 Corinthians 1:20). By his obedience, his death on the cross and his resurrection he established the new covenant, and in it God has kept what he swore to his people.

This passage shows a God who speaks plainly and means what he says. His commands come with his name on them, and his promises to us are kept in Christ. Our own truthfulness begins there, because the people of a faithful God are to be known for words that hold.

It also gives weight to what we say. A promise made to God is heard by him, and so it is good to think and pray before speaking one. Most of us have vowed something before God, whether in marriage, at baptism or in a hard hour of prayer. Those words still stand before him, and keeping them honours him and builds trust with the people around us.