서론
제목 없음
简体中文
영문 원문
In this chapter we have a law concerning vows, which had been mentioned in the close of the foregoing chapter. I. Here is a general rule laid down that all vows must be carefully performed, Nu 30:1,2. II. Some particular exceptions to this rule. 1. That the vows of daughters should not be binding unless allowed by the father, Nu 30:3-5. Nor, 2. The vows of wives unless allowed by the husband, Nu 30:6-16, etc.
1-16
Concerning Vows (1452 BC)
简体中文
论许愿（主前1452年）
¹ 摩西告诉以色列人各支派的首领，说："耶和华所吩咐的乃是这样：
² 人若向耶和华许愿，或起誓约束自己，就不可食言，必要按口中所出的一切话行。"
这律法是晓谕各支派首领的，使他们可以教导属下的人，向他们解释律法，给予必要的提醒，并若遇违约之事，便追讨其罪。或许各支派首领因某次紧急情况，曾请教摩西，借他求问神的心意，此处便是给他们的回答：关于许愿，耶和华所吩咐的乃是这样——这命令至今仍然有效。
1. 所假设的情形是人向耶和华许愿，以神为应许的一方，并在其中以他的尊荣与荣耀为目的。所许愿的事当以合乎律法之事为前提：任何人都不能借自己的应许受约束去行神诫命所禁止之事。然而此事应在某时、以某种程度、某种方式，不是在许愿之前就必尽的本分。一个人可以许愿在某个时候献某样祭物，可以许愿捐出某笔款或某比例作赒济，可以禁戒律法所允许的某些饮食，可以在赎罪日之外的别的日子禁食、刻苦己心（这在民30:13特别提及）。在圣洁热忱的非常激发之下，为着所犯某罪的谦卑忏悔，或为防止犯罪，为追求所渴望的怜悯，或为所得怜悯感恩，都可以作许多类似的许愿。作这样的许愿大有益处，只要以真诚并加适当的谨慎而行。许愿（犹太博士说）是分别的藩篱，即宗教的篱笆。许愿的人在此处被称为用约束绑住自己的灵魂。这是向神——他是灵——所许的愿，所以灵魂及其一切能力都当被束缚。向人所应许的，是束缚产业的债；向神所应许的，是束缚灵魂的债。我们所受圣礼之愿——我们借此所受的约束不外乎从前已有的本分，且无论是父亲还是丈夫都不能废止——乃是加在灵魂上的债；我们当借这些愿感受自己被拘束脱离一切罪恶、被绑缚于神全部的旨意。我们偶发的愿——论及从前在我们自己权下之事（徒5:4）——一旦立下，也是加在灵魂上的债。2. 所赐的命令是这些愿当凭良心履行：他不可食言——虽然后来可能改变心意，却要照他所说的话去行。旁注：他不可亵渎自己的言语。许愿是神的设立；我们若假冒为善地许愿，便是亵渎那设立；这事已明明断定：许愿不还，不如不许（传5:5）。不要自欺，神是轻慢不得的。他对我们的应许都是是的和阿们的，愿我们对他也不至是而又非。
³ 女子若向耶和华许愿，用约束绑住自己，还在年幼的时候在父亲家中；
⁴ 她父亲也听见她所许的愿和约束自己的话，她父亲却向她默默不言；那么她所许的一切愿都要立定，她约束自己的一切话也都要立定。
⁵ 但她父亲听见的那日，若不容许她；那么她所许的愿、或约束自己的一切话，都不得立定；耶和华必赦免她，因为她父亲不容许她。
⁶ 她若出了嫁，许了愿，或嘴里冒失发了言约束自己；
⁷ 她丈夫听见了，在那听见的那日向她默默不言；那么她的愿要立定，她约束自己的话也都要立定。
⁸ 但她丈夫在听见的那日不容许她；那就使她所许的愿、嘴里所说约束自己的话归于无效；耶和华也必赦免她。
⁹ 寡妇或是被休的妇人所许的愿，凡约束自己的话，都要立定，加在她身上。
¹⁰ 她若在丈夫家里许了愿，或用起誓的话约束自己；
¹¹ 她丈夫听见了，却向她默默不言，也不容许她；那么她所许的一切愿都要立定，约束自己的一切话也都要立定。
¹² 但她丈夫在听见的那日，若全然使这些归于无效；那么她嘴里所出关于许愿的话，或约束自己的话，都不得立定；她丈夫已经使这些归于无效；耶和华也必赦免她。
¹³ 凡许愿和起誓刻苦己心的话，她丈夫可以坚立，也可以使无效。
¹⁴ 但她丈夫若从一天到另一天默默不言；那么他便坚立了她所许的一切愿、和加在她身上的一切约束的话；他在听见的那日向她默默不言，便确认了这些。
¹⁵ 她丈夫若在听见之后，无论如何使之无效；那么他就要担当妇人的罪孽。
¹⁶ 这些是律例，是耶和华在男人与妻子之间，在父亲与尚在年幼、还在父亲家中的女儿之间，所吩咐摩西的。
此处以一切有自主权（sui juris）且理智记忆健全的人，都当履行所许一切合乎律法、力所能及的愿为当然之义；但许愿的人若在别人的管治与支配之下，情形便不同。此处提出并断定两个相似的情形：
I. 在父亲家中的女儿：有人合理地以为，这规定也可延伸到儿子——只要他仍在家中与父亲同住，在师傅和管家之下。这一例外可否如此延伸，我不敢断言。*Non est distinguendum, ubi lex non distinguit——律法既不分别，我们也不可擅自分别。*总则是：人若许愿，就当还愿。但对于女儿则有明言：她所许的愿在父亲知道之前，或在父亲知道之前，是无效的，或在悬而未决之中（假设父亲从她口中得知此事）；因为一旦传到他耳中，他便有权批准或撤销。然而为尊重所许的愿：1. 连他的沉默也足以批准：他若默默不言，她的愿要立定（民30:4）。Qui tacet, consentire videtur——沉默即为同意。他借此允许女儿所已行使的自由，只要他不反对她的愿，她就受其约束。但是，2. 他的抗议却足以完全取消它；因为这样的愿可能损害家事，打乱父亲的安排，若所许之愿关乎饮食，便要搅扰他为饭桌所作的预备；若所许之愿花费超过他的产业所能负担，便要减少他给儿女的预备；无论如何，这无疑是对他在儿女身上权柄的侵犯；所以他若不允许，她便得解脱，耶和华必赦免她——即不算她犯违背所许之愿的罪；她许愿表明了她的善意，她若在其中存心诚实，便被算为胜过祭物。这显明儿女对父母当有极大的恭敬，当何等尊重、顺服他们。维持父母的权柄乃是公众的利益所在；因为儿女在违逆父母上若受纵容（如古人的遗传所行的，太15:5,6），他们在别的事上不久便要成为彼列之子。这律法若不可延伸到儿女未得父母同意而婚嫁一事上——使父母有权撤销婚约、解除其约束（如有些人所想）——那么它至少证明了此举之有罪，并迫使如此行了愚妄事的儿女悔改，在神和父母面前自卑。
II. 妻子的情形大致相同。至于寡妇或被休的妇人，她既没有父亲也没有丈夫可以辖制她，所以无论她用什么约束自己的话绑住灵魂，都要加在她身上（民30:9）；她若反悔，便要自负风险。但妻子，她严格说来没有一样可称为自己的东西，唯有丈夫所允许的，便不能在丈夫允许之外许这样的愿。1. 律法对仍为妻的身份在许愿之后的情形是明确的。她丈夫若允许她所许的愿——即使只是借沉默——便要立定（民30:7）。他若不允许，她之所以受所许之愿的约束，纯然出于她自己的行为，而非出于神先前的命令，那么她对丈夫的本分便当居先，因为她当如同顺服主那样顺服丈夫；此时履行所许之愿不仅不是她的本分，反而是违逆丈夫的罪——也许她在许愿之前就该先求他的同意；因此她需要赦免（民30:8）。2. 律法对不久便成为寡妇、或被休的妻子的情形也相同。她虽回到父家，并不因此重新落在父亲权柄之下，以至父亲有权撤销她的愿（民30:9）；然而她若在丈夫家时立愿，丈夫又不允许，那愿便永远归于无效；她从丈夫的律法上得释放时，并不重新落在所许之愿的律法之下。这看来是民30:10-14的独特含意，否则不过是民30:6-8的重复。但此处又加上（民30:15）：丈夫若使妻子的愿归于无效，他就要担当她的罪孽；即她所许之愿若果真为善——为神的尊荣、为自己灵魂的益处——丈夫却因贪婪、或任性、或为彰显权柄而不允许，那么她虽从所许之愿的约束中得解脱，他将来却要交许多账。此处我们可留意，神的律法何等谨慎地照顾家庭的良好秩序，维护尊亲属的权柄，以及卑亲属的本分与敬意。各人当管理自己的家，使儿女端庄顺服，这是合宜的；为要维护这一大法则，不给卑亲属任何鼓励去挣断这些纽带，神甚至愿意放弃自己的权利，解除甚至庄严之愿的约束——可见宗教何等坚固一切关系的纽带，何等保障一切社会的福祉，地上的万族都要因它得福。
영문 원문
Concerning Vows (1452 BC)
¹ And Moses spake unto the heads of the tribes concerning the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded.
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.
This law was delivered to the heads of the tribes that they might instruct those who were under their charge, explain the law to them, give then necessary cautions, and call them to account, if there were occasion, for the breach of their vows. Perhaps the heads of the tribes had, upon some emergency of this kind, consulted Moses, and desired by him to know the mind of God, and here they are told it: This is the thing which the Lord has commanded concerning vows, and it is a command still in force.
1. The case supposed is that a person vows a vow unto the Lord, making God a party to the promise, and designing his honour and glory in it. The matter of the vow is supposed to be something lawful: no man can be by his own promise bound to do that which he is already by the divine precept prohibited from doing. Yet it is supposed to be something which, in such and such measures and degrees, was not a necessary duty antecedent to the vow. A person might vow to bring such and such sacrifices at certain times, to give such and such a sum or such a proportion in alms, to forbear such meats and drinks which the law allowed, to fast and afflict the soul (which is specified Nu 30:13) at other times besides the day of atonement. And many similar vows might be made in an extraordinary heat of holy zeal, in humiliation for some sin committed or for the prevention of sin, in the pursuit of some mercy desired or in gratitude for some mercy received. It is of great use to make such vows as these, provided they be made in sincerity with due caution. Vows (say the Jewish doctors) are the hedge of separation, that is, a fence to religion. He that vows is here said to bind his soul with a bond. It is a vow to God, who is a spirit, and to him the soul, with all its powers, must be bound. A promise to man is a bond upon the estate, but a promise to God is a bond upon the soul. Our sacramental vows, by which we are bound to no more than what was before our duty, and which neither father nor husband can disannul, are bonds upon the soul, and by them we must feel ourselves bound out from all sin and bound up to the whole will of God. Our occasional vows concerning that which before was in our own power (Ac 5:4), when they are made, are bonds upon the soul likewise. 2. The command given is that these vows be conscientiously performed: He shall not break his word, though afterwards he may change his mind, but he shall do according to what he has said. Margin, He shall not profane his word. Vowing is an ordinance of God; if we vow in hypocrisy we profane that ordinance: it is plainly determined, Better not vow than vow and not pay, Ec 5:5. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. His promises to us are yea and amen, let not ours to him be yea and nay.
³ If a woman also vow a vow unto the LORD, and bind herself by a bond, being in her father's house in her youth;
⁴ And her father hear her vow, and her bond wherewith she hath bound her soul, and her father shall hold his peace at her: then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she hath bound her soul shall stand.
⁵ But if her father disallow her in the day that he heareth; not any of her vows, or of her bonds wherewith she hath bound her soul, shall stand: and the LORD shall forgive her, because her father disallowed her.
⁶ And if she had at all an husband, when she vowed, or uttered ought out of her lips, wherewith she bound her soul;
⁷ And her husband heard it, and held his peace at her in the day that he heard it: then her vows shall stand, and her bonds wherewith she bound her soul shall stand.
⁸ But if her husband disallowed her on the day that he heard it; then he shall make her vow which she vowed, and that which she uttered with her lips, wherewith she bound her soul, of none effect: and the LORD shall forgive her.
⁹ But every vow of a widow, and of her that is divorced, wherewith they have bound their souls, shall stand against her.
¹⁰ And if she vowed in her husband's house, or bound her soul by a bond with an oath;
¹¹ And her husband heard it, and held his peace at her, and disallowed her not: then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she bound her soul shall stand.
¹² But if her husband hath utterly made them void on the day he heard them; then whatsoever proceeded out of her lips concerning her vows, or concerning the bond of her soul, shall not stand: her husband hath made them void; and the LORD shall forgive her.
¹³ Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish it, or her husband may make it void.
¹⁴ But if her husband altogether hold his peace at her from day to day; then he establisheth all her vows, or all her bonds, which are upon her: he confirmeth them, because he held his peace at her in the day that he heard them.
¹⁵ But if he shall any ways make them void after that he hath heard them; then he shall bear her iniquity.
¹⁶ These are the statutes, which the LORD commanded Moses, between a man and his wife, between the father and his daughter, being yet in her youth in her father's house.
It is here taken for granted that all such persons as are sui juris—at their own disposal, and are likewise of sound understanding and memory, are bound to perform whatever they vow that is lawful and possible; but, if the person vowing be under the dominion and at the disposal of another, the case is different. Two cases much alike are here put and determined:—
I. The case of a daughter in her father's house: and some think, probably enough, that it extends to a son likewise, while he is at home with his father, and under tutors and governors. Whether the exception may thus be stretched I cannot say. Non est distinguendum, ubi lex non distinguit—We are not allowed to make distinctions which the law does not. The rule is general, If a man vow, he must pay. But for a daughter it is express: her vow is nugatory or in suspense till her father knows it, and (it is supposed) knows it from her; for, when it comes to his knowledge, it is in his power either to ratify or nullify it. But in favour of the vow, 1. Even his silence shall suffice to ratify it: If he hold his peace, her vows shall stand, Nu 30:4. Qui tacet, consentire videtur—Silence gives consent. Hereby he allows his daughter the liberty she has assumed, and, as long as he says nothing against her vow, she shall be bound by it. But, 2. His protestation against it shall perfectly disannul it, because it is possible that such vow may by prejudicial to the affairs of the family, break the father's measures, perplex the provision made for his table if the vow related to meats, or lessen the provision made for his children if the vow would be more expensive than his estate would bear; however, it was certain that it was an infringement of his authority over his child, and therefore, if he disallow it, she is discharged, and the Lord shall forgive her, that is, she shall not be charged with the guilt of violating her vow; she showed her good-will in making the vow, and, if her intentions therein were sincere, she shall be accounted better than sacrifice. This shows how great a deference children owe to their parents, and how much they ought to honour them and be obedient to them. It is for the interest of the public that the paternal authority be supported; for, when children are countenanced in their disobedience to their parents (as they were by the tradition of the elders, Mt 15:5,6), they soon become in other things children of Belial. If this law be not to be extended to children's marrying without their parents' consent so far as to put it in parents' power to annul the marriage and dissolve the obligation (as some have thought it does), yet certainly it proves the sinfulness of it, and obliges the children that have thus done foolishly to repent and humble themselves before God and their parents.
II. The case of a wife is much the same. As for a woman that is a widow or divorced, she has neither father nor husband to control her, so that, whatever vows she binds her soul with, they shall stand against her (Nu 30:9), it is at her peril if she run back; but a wife, who has nothing that she can strictly call her own, but with her husband's allowance, cannot, without that, make any such vow. 1. The law is plain in case of a wife that continues so long after the vow. If her husband allow her vow, though only by silence, it must stand, Nu 30:6,7. If he disallow it, since her obligation to that which she had vowed arose purely from her own act, and not from any prior command of God, her obligation to her husband shall take place of it, for to him she ought to be in subjection as unto the Lord; and now it is so far from being her duty to fulfil her vow that it would be her sin to disobey her husband, whose consent perhaps she ought to have asked before she made the vow; therefore she needs forgiveness, Nu 30:8. 2. The law is the same in case of a wife that soon after becomes a widow, or is put away. Though, if she return to her father's house, she does not therefore so come again under his authority as that he has power to disannul her vows (Nu 30:9), yet if the vow was made while she was in the house of her husband, and her husband disallowed it, it was made void and of no effect for ever, and she does not return under the law of her vow when she is loosed from the law of her husband. This seems to be the distinct meaning of Nu 30:10-14, which otherwise would be but a repetition of Nu 30:6-8. But it is added (Nu 30:15) that, if the husband make void the vows of his wife, he shall bear her iniquity; that is, if the thing she had vowed was really good, for the honour of God and the prosperity of her own soul, and the husband disallowed it out of covetousness, or humour, or to show his authority, though she be discharged from the obligation of her vow, yet he will have a great deal to answer for. Now here it is very observable how carefully the divine law consults the good order of families, and preserves the power of superior relations, and the duty and reverence of inferiors. It is fit that every man should bear rule in his own house, and have his wife and children in subjection with all gravity; and rather than this great rule should be broken, or any encouragement given to inferior relations to break those bonds asunder, God himself would quit his right, and release the obligations even of a solemn vow; so much does religion strengthen the ties of all relations, and secure the welfare of all societiesd, that in it the families of the earth are blessed.
本章记载了关于许愿的律法，此事在前章末尾已被提及。I. 此处立下一条通则——一切所许的愿都必须谨慎履行（民 30:1、2）。II. 此通则的若干特殊例外——1. 女儿所许的愿若未经父亲允准，便不具约束力（民 30:3-5）；2. 妻子所许的愿若未经丈夫允准，也不具约束力（民 30:6-16 等等）。