Laws Concerning Vows

1And Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the Lord has commanded. 2Whatsoever man shall vow a vow to the Lord, or swear an oath, or bind himself with an obligation upon his soul, he shall not break his word; all that shall come out of his mouth he shall do.

3And if a woman shall vow a vow to the Lord, or bind herself with an obligation in her youth in her father's house; and her father should hear her vows and her obligations, wherewith she has bound her soul, and her father should hold his peace at her, then all her vows shall stand, 4and all the obligations with which she has bound her soul, shall remain to her. 5But if her father straitly forbid her in the day in which he shall hear all her vows and her obligations, which she has contracted upon her soul, they shall not stand; and the Lord shall hold her guiltless, because her father forbade her.

6But if she should be indeed married, and her vows be upon her according to the utterance of her lips, in respect of the obligations which she has contracted upon her soul; 7and her husband should hear, and hold his peace at her in the day in which he should hear, then thus shall all her vows be binding, and her obligations, which she has contracted upon her soul shall stand. 8But if her husband should straitly forbid her in the day in which he should hear her, none of her vows or obligations which she has contracted upon her soul shall stand, because her husband has disallowed her, and the Lord shall hold her guiltless.

9And the vow of a widow and of her that is put away, whatsoever she shall bind upon her soul, shall stand to her. 10And if her vow be made in the house of her husband, or the obligation upon her soul with an oath, 11and her husband should hear, and hold his peace at her, and not disallow her, then all her vows shall stand, and all the obligations which she contracted against her soul, shall stand against her. 12But if her husband should utterly cancel the vow in the day in which he shall hear it, none of the things which shall proceed out of her lips in her vows, and in the obligations contracted upon her soul, shall stand to her; her husband has cancelled them, and the Lord shall hold her guiltless.

13Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict her soul, her husband shall confirm it to her, or her husband shall cancel it. 14But if he be wholly silent at her from day to day, then shall he bind upon her all her vows; and he shall confirm to her the obligations which she has bound upon herself, because he held his peace at her in the day in which he heard her. 15And if her husband should in any wise cancel them after the day in which he heard them, then he shall bear his iniquity.

16These are the ordinances which the Lord commanded Moses, between a man and his wife, and between a father and daughter in her youth in the house of her father.