Vows are important. You should do what you said, just because you said it; but especially when you have taken a specific vow, deliberately binding yourself with a solemn promise. So “When a man makes a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth” (Numbers 30:3).

That sounds about as serious as things can get. Along the same lines: “When you make a vow to God, do not delay fulfilling it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Fulfill what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not fulfill it” (Ecclesiastes 5:4-5). You need to fulfill what you have promised.

As strong as this is, though, it turns out not to be an absolute. In today’s text an exception is made for women, at least some of the time. A woman’s father or husband could overrule her vow, if he took action as soon as he heard of it; but if he delayed by more than a day, her vow would stand (Numbers 30:4-9). We might suppose that this escape clause applies only to women; but in Proverbs we see a similar situation in which a young man is urged that if he has made a foolish vow, he must hasten to plead his way out of it (Proverbs 6:1-5).

The Bible takes vows very seriously; and yet it recognizes that sometimes we make foolish vows. If we have failed to consider the consequences and have made a stupid promise, it will only make matters worse if we go ahead and do the stupid thing we declared we would do. Jephthah’s foolish vow serves as a wrenching example of how bad it can be when you go ahead and fulfill a stupid promise (Judges 11:30-40).

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O Lord: it’s true that sometimes we make ill-considered promises that need to be revised; but we have taken those rare exceptions and turned them into an excuse for such laxness regarding keeping our word. We break promises with almost no hesitation. Teach us to consider our words carefully, and to be diligent to fulfill what we have said we will do.