Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Trapp Complete Commentary - Numbers 30:2 - 30:2
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Num_30:2 If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.
Ver. 2. If a man vow a vow unto the Lord.] God is the proper object of a vow. {Psa_76:11} Papists vow to saints, both themselves, as to Francis, Austin, Dominick, &c., and other things, as pilgrimages, oblations, &c. Our Lady, as they call her, of Loretto, hath her churches so stuffed with vowed presents and memories, as they are fain to hang their cloisters and churchyards with them. {a} This is sacrilege; yea, it is idolatry.
To bind his soul with a bond.] Which none ought to do, but such as (1.) are free, or have the consent of their governors; (2.) Such as have knowledge and judgment to discern of a vow or oath; {Ecc_5:3; Ecc_5:5} (3.) Are conscientious, as Jacob, Hannah, &c. Not such votaries as Herod, {Mat_14:7} those assassins, {Act_23:14} those idolaters. {Jer_44:27}
He shall not break his word.] If he do, he will make a great breach in his conscience and crack his comfort exceedingly. "Better not vow than not pay." {Ecc_5:4} It is a sin as bad or worse than perjury, and God takes it heavily at men’s hands. {Jer_34:10-11}
{a} Sandys’s Relation of West. Relig., sect. 4.