Numbers 30:3
וְאִשָּׁה כִּֽי־תִדֹּר נֶדֶר לַיהוָה וְאָסְרָה אִסָּר בְּבֵית אָבִיהָ בִּנְעֻרֶֽיהָ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְאִשָּׁ֕ה כִּֽי־תִדֹּ֥ר נֶ֖דֶר לַיהוָ֑ה וְאָסְרָ֥ה אִסָּ֛ר בְּבֵ֥ית אָבִ֖יהָ בִּנְעֻרֶֽיהָ׃
ἄνθρωπος ἄνθρωπος ὃς ἄν εὔξηται εὐχὴν κυρίῳ ἢ ὀμόσῃ ὅρκον ὁρισμῷ ἢ ὁρίσηται περὶ τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ, οὐ βεβηλώσει τὸ ῥῆμα αὐτοῦ· παντᾶ ὅσα ἐὰν ἐξέλθῃ ἐκ τοῦ στόματος αὐτοῦ ποιήσει. ἐὰν δὲ γυνὴ εὔξηται
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Si quis virorum votum Domino voverit, aut se constrinxerit juramento: non faciet irritum verbum suum, sed omne quod promisit, implebit.
“Si una mujer joven, que todavía vive en la casa de su padre, le hace una promesa a Yehová obligándose a cumplir algo,
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Mas la mujer, cuando hiciere voto á Jehová, y se ligare con obligación en casa de su padre, en su mocedad;
(Num.30.4)
And if a woman in her father’s house during her youth makes a vow to the LORD or obligates herself by a pledge,
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse introduces the legal case of a woman who makes a vow to YHWH (H3068G) and binds herself with an obligation, specifying that this occurs while she is still in her father's household, during her youth. The sentence sets up a conditional scenario that will be resolved in the following verses regarding the father's authority to nullify or confirm the vow.
Key words
- 'ishah ("a woman", H0802G) — feminine singular noun, the subject of the entire conditional clause, distinguishing this case from the male vower discussed in the preceding verse.
- ki ("if", H3588A) — conditional particle that opens a hypothetical/legal case, common in casuistic legal formulations throughout the Torah.
- tiDor ("she will vow", H5087) — qal imperfect, third person feminine, expressing the hypothetical future action that triggers the legal scenario.
- 'aseRah ("she will bind", H0631) — qal sequential perfect (vav + perfect), continuing the verbal chain begun by the imperfect; this pairing (imperfect → vav-perfect) is a standard construction for sequential or consequential actions in conditional legal Hebrew.
- bin'ureiha ("in her youths", H5271A) — masculine plural noun in construct with the pronominal suffix "her", literally "in the youths of her", specifying the temporal condition of being unmarried and under paternal authority.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence is built as a casuistic conditional: ve'ishah ki-tidor neder ("and a woman, if she vows a vow") establishes the hypothetical subject and action, followed by ve'aserah 'issar ("and she binds an obligation") using the vav-consecutive perfect to continue the same temporal frame as the initial imperfect. This grammatical pairing — imperfect followed by sequential perfect — is typical of Hebrew legal/conditional prose, where the second verb does not introduce a new tense but extends the same hypothetical situation.
The phrase beit 'aviha ("house of her father", construct chain) and bin'ureiha ("in her youths") together locate the woman within a specific social and temporal context: she is unmarried, residing under her father's authority, and still young. The plural form of na'urim ("youths") for what would typically be an abstract singular concept ("youth") is a common Hebrew usage where abstract periods of life are expressed in the plural.
Differences between versions
The Vulgate text provided (Si quis virorum...) corresponds to the case of a man's vow, not the woman's case in this Hebrew verse; the Latin text for the woman's vow is not included in the data given. The LXX text shown ends with ἐὰν δὲ γυνὴ εὔξηται ("but if a woman vows"), which aligns with the opening of the Hebrew clause ve'ishah ki-tidor, though the LXX's continuation for this verse is not provided in the data.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.