This verse deals with the vows of a widow or divorced woman. There is no man in her life to assume legal responsibility for her. Such a woman did not return to her premarital state, when her father could annul her vows. The fact that the widow and divorcee are classified together implies that in the functional relationship, the divorcee’s former husband is viewed as if he were dead, like the late husband of the widow (so Cole, page 485). So the unbreakable vows of widows and divorced women parallel those of men in general as discussed in verse 2 (see the chart in the introductory comments on this section).

But renders well the Hebrew waw conjunction since the case of the widow or divorced woman stands in contrast to the previous cases (where there is a man who has the responsibility). New Revised Standard Version places parentheses around this verse (similarly New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh with long dashes) to indicate that it interrupts the case of the woman who has just married, which for New Revised Standard Version and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh continues in verses 10-15 (see the comments on verse 10).

Any vow of a widow or of a divorced woman: For vow see verse 2. As A Handbook on Leviticus mentions at Lev 21.7, in some languages divorced woman is rendered “driven out woman” or “sent away woman,” which is very similar to the actual Hebrew word here. In other languages the nature of the divorce may need to be specified in relation to the prevailing sociocultural setting; for example, Chewa says “set free woman” since the families of both the husband and the wife give the permission for the divorce. The concept of “divorce” is a good example of the problem of cognitive frame mismatches across languages and cultures. Being “sent away” (by the husband) and “set free” (by mutual agreement of the families) are two very different social practices, but a translator may have no choice but to use the common term available for divorced woman and then either add a footnote or depend on the context to clarify the text’s intended meaning.

Anything by which she has bound herself: See verse 2.

Shall stand against her emphasizes the woman’s obligation to fulfil her vow. If she fails to fulfil it, this phrase implies that God will punish her. For shall stand, see verse 4. This whole phrase may be rendered “will be binding on her” (New International Readers Version).

Quoted with permission from de Regt, Lénart J. and Wendland, Ernst R. A Handbook on Numbers. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .