Numbers 30:9

Summary

Numbers 30:9 states that any vow made by a widow or a divorced woman remains binding upon her. Unlike vows made by women still under a father's or husband's authority (addressed in the preceding verses), this verse establishes that such vows have unconditional validity because no male guardian exists to annul them.

Key words

• neder ("[the] vow of", H5088) — masculine singular construct noun, opening a construct chain meaning "the vow of [a widow]."
• 'almanah ("a widow", H0490) — feminine singular noun, the first category of woman whose vow is addressed.
• gerushah ("a divorced [woman]", H1644H) — qal passive participle, feminine singular; grammatically it describes a woman who has been "sent away," paired with 'almanah by the conjunction ve/u ("and", H9002).
• 'asrah ("she has bound", H0631) — qal perfect, 3rd feminine singular, marking a completed act of self-binding through the vow.
• yaqum ("it will stand", H6965I) — qal imperfect, 3rd masculine singular, expressing durative or future validity: the vow "stands" or remains in force.

What the text says

The verse opens with a construct chain: neder ("vow of") governs both 'almanah ("a widow") and gerushah ("a divorced woman"), joined by the conjunction ve/u ("and", H9002). This structure places both categories of women under a single grammatical and legal heading — vows made by either type of woman are treated identically in this clause.

The relative clause kol 'asher 'asrah 'al-naphshah ("all that she has bound upon her self") uses the qal perfect 'asrah ("she has bound", H0631) to describe the completed act of vow-making, phrased idiomatically with naphshah ("her self/soul", H5315I plus suffix H9024) — a common Hebrew expression for undertaking a personal obligation. The main clause then shifts to the qal imperfect yaqum ("it will stand", H6965I), indicating that the vow's binding force is not momentary but continues into the future. The closing prepositional phrase 'aleyha ("upon her", H5921A plus suffix H9034) reinforces that the obligation rests specifically on the woman herself, with no third party named as having power to annul it — a grammatical silence that contrasts with the father/husband language found in adjacent verses of the chapter.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text of this verse concerns the vow of a widow or divorced woman standing firm. The LXX (Swete) and Vulgate texts supplied here, however, describe a husband hearing of a vow and either "shaking his head" (LXX) or "contradicting" it (Vulgate), with the vow then failing and the LORD being "propitious" or "purified" toward the woman — content that corresponds to the husband's disallowance scenario found elsewhere in the chapter, not to the widow/divorced-woman clause of the Hebrew verse cited. The Spanish (RV1909, SBLIBRE) and English (BSB) renderings align with the Hebrew, stating that the vow of a widow or divorced woman is firm/binding.