1. Moses said to the heads of the tribes of Israel: ‘This is what the Lord commands:
2. when a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said.
3. ‘When a young woman still living in her father’s household makes a vow to the Lord or binds herself by a pledge
4. and her father hears about her vow or pledge but says nothing to her, then all her vows and every pledge by which she bound herself will stand.
5. But if her father forbids her when he hears about it, none of her vows or the pledges by which she bound herself will stand; the Lord will release her because her father has forbidden her.