Charles Ellicott Commentary Numbers 30

If a woman also ... — Four distinct cases are contemplated in the following verses regarding vows taken by women:

1. The case of an unmarried woman, living in her youth in her father's house.
2. The case of a woman who is unmarried at the time of making a vow but enters into marriage before the vow is fulfilled.
3. The case of a widow or a divorced woman.
4. The case of a married woman.

The sanctity and obligations of the fifth commandment are distinctly recognized and enforced in these verses. (See Matthew 15:4-5.) Whenever her father heard of the vow the young daughter had made, he had the power either to ratify or to nullify it. If he remained silent, the vow was ratified; if he nullified the vow, the obligation to fulfill it was no longer in force.

The Lord shall forgive her—that is, she would not incur the guilt or punishment which would otherwise have been incurred by neglecting to fulfil the vow which she had made.

And if she had at all an husband ... — Better, And if she should be married to a husband while her vows are upon her, or the rash utterance of her lips with which she has bound her soul. The case here considered appears to be that of a woman who married while under a vow. On the other hand, the case of a woman who takes a vow after marriage is discussed later in Numbers 30:10-13. The cognate verb of the word mibta, rash utterance, occurs in Leviticus 5:4, and seems to mean something which is uttered without reflection.

And if she vowed in her husband’s house, or bound her soul ... — i.e., if she took a vow of performance or of abstinence while in the house of her husband.

Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul.— Reference is again made to the two kinds of vows which are discussed in this chapter—namely, a vow to do anything, and a vow to abstain from anything.