John Calvin Commentary Numbers 30:3

"Also when a woman voweth a vow unto Jehovah, and bindeth herself by a bond, being in her father`s house, in her youth," — Numbers 30:3 (ASV)

If a woman also vow. He now proceeds to the point he proposed to address, that is, that vows made by persons who are not their own masters are not valid; and he mentions two cases. For, in the first place, he teaches that if a daughter, while living with her father, has vowed anything without his knowledge, it is invalid.

He lays down the same rule if the father, hearing the vow, has disapproved of it; but if he has remained silent, it is declared that his silence is equivalent to consent. From this we gather that all those who have authority fail in their duty unless they frankly and discreetly express their opposition whenever anything displeases them, since their connivance is a kind of tacit approval.

In the second place, he addresses married women, whose vows, made in the absence or with the disapproval of their husbands, he commands to have no effect; but if the husbands have known of them and remained silent, he makes their performance binding. For many deceptions might have arisen in this way, since it is common for many, when they wish to please their wives, to conceal their opinion for the time, but, when the period of actual performance arrives, to avoid fulfilling what may have been promised.

But unless husbands use their privilege at the proper time, God requires them to bear the punishment of their servile indulgence and dissimulation. Furthermore, because women are often led to deceive by their levity and inconstancy, this danger is also foreseen.

It may also happen³²⁶ that a woman, while under her husband’s authority, may make a vow in the hasty fervor of her zeal, and when he is dead, may retract it under the specious pretext that she was not then free and independent. The same thing may occur when a divorced woman binds herself by a vow, and then, after marrying again, considers herself released from it.

Since instances of this wicked change of mind are too frequent, it is no wonder that this special precaution should be added to prevent such deceptions. Therefore, God declares that the time when the vow was made must be considered, so that such women are just as liable as if their condition had remained the same. He therefore binds to the fulfillment of their vow those women who have been freed from their fathers’ authority by marriage, and also those who have been set free by the death of their husband or by divorce. Yet it appears from the last verse of the chapter that two exceptions, modifying the general law, are specifically addressed here.

³²⁶ The Lat. is, “is, “Accidet ut mulier in vidaitate viro non subjecta, praecipiti zeli fervore voveat, eo mortuo retractet specioso praetextu, quia tunc libera non erat, nec sui juris.” The .” The Fr., “Il adviendra qu’une femme estante en sujection de mari, vouera par une ardeur hastive de zele, le marl trespasse, elle prendra honneste couverture de se retracter, d’autant qu’elle n’estoit pas libre pour lors.” I have translated the latter, not being able to understand the original, nor to reconcile them..” I have translated the latter, not being able to understand the original, nor to reconcile them.