Numbers 30:10

Summary

Numbers 30:10 introduces a conditional clause about a woman who, while residing in "the house of her husband" (beit 'ishah, H1004M/H0376H), makes a vow (nadarah, H5087) or binds herself to an obligation ('aserah 'issar, H0631/H0632) by means of an oath (bishvu'ah, H7621). The verse sets up the legal scenario that the following verses will resolve regarding the husband's role in confirming or nullifying such a vow.

Key words

• beit ("house of", H1004M) — masculine singular construct noun, forming a possessive chain "house of her husband," indicating the domestic/marital context in which the vow occurs.
• 'ishah ("husband", H0376H) — construct noun linked to beit, completing the phrase "her husband's house"; the pronominal suffix -h ("her") attaches to it.
• nadarah ("she has vowed", H5087) — qal perfect, third person feminine singular, marking a completed act of vowing performed by the woman herself.
• 'aserah ("she bound", H0631) paired with 'issar ("an obligation", H0632) — a verb-and-cognate-noun construction ("she bound a binding") that intensifies the sense of a self-imposed obligation.
• nephesh ("self", H5315I) — feminine singular construct noun with suffix "her," here meaning "upon herself," the object over which the obligation is placed.

What the text says

The verse opens with the compound conjunction ve'im ("and if"), marking this as a conditional legal case, continuing the series of scenarios about women's vows begun earlier in the chapter. The subject is defined spatially: beit 'ishah, "the house of her husband," a construct chain that locates the woman's vow within the marital household rather than, for example, her father's house (as in earlier verses of the chapter). Two parallel qal perfect verbs, nadarah ("she vowed") and 'aserah ("she bound"), describe the same basic action from two angles — the general act of vowing and the more specific act of binding an 'issar ("obligation") upon her nephesh ("self," literally "soul" or "person"). The phrase 'al-naphshah ("upon herself") indicates that the obligation weighs directly on her own person. The final phrase, bishvu'ah ("by an oath"), specifies the instrument or means by which the vow/obligation was ratified — an oath formalizing the vow. The sentence structure thus builds a layered legal description: location (husband's house), action (vowing/binding), object (herself), and means (oath).

Differences between versions

The Septuagint (LXXSWETE) and Vulgate (VULCLEM) texts supplied here describe a widow or divorced woman's vow ("χήρας καὶ ἐκβεβλημένης," "Vidua et repudiata"), which is different subject matter than the Hebrew text at this position, which concerns a married woman in her husband's house (beit 'ishah). This indicates that the Greek and Latin verses cited align with a different verse number in their versification systems than the Hebrew verse presented here. The Spanish (RV1909, SBLIBRE) and English (BSB) renderings correspond more directly to the Hebrew content, describing a woman's vow made within her marriage.