A woman's vow, her husband's veto

If a woman makes a vow to the LORD and her husband hears of it and says nothing, her vow stands. But if her husband makes it null and void on the day he hears it, her vow shall not stand. A woman's direct religious commitment to God can be overridden by her father or her husband.

Numbers 30:3–15 lays out a legal framework in which a woman's vow to God stands only if the male head of her household does not veto it on the day he learns of it. An unmarried daughter's vow is subject to her father. A married woman's vow is subject to her husband. Only a widow's or divorced woman's vow stands without male review. The assumption is that a woman's direct relationship with God routes through a male legal guarantor. The passage survives into the rabbinic tradition as the source of extensive Mishnaic regulation (tractate Nedarim) and is the clearest Hebrew Bible text placing women's religious agency under male authority by statute.