The Targum's version of (Numbers 30) adds specific ages to the Torah's vow laws, transforming abstract principles into concrete legal thresholds. A male becomes bound by his vows at thirteen years old. A female becomes bound at twelve. These ages, which the Torah never states, reflect the rabbinic tradition of bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah—and the Targum embeds them directly into the biblical text, centuries before they were formally codified.
The Targum also introduces a safety valve the Torah does not mention. A man who vows "shall not be allowed to relax his word at his own will; nevertheless, the beth din—the court—can absolve him." No individual can undo their own oath, but a rabbinical court has the authority to release them. This is a dramatic legal innovation woven into the translation itself.
The laws governing a father's power over his daughter's vows receive careful expansion. If he hears her vow and says nothing, the Targum specifies that his silence constitutes consent—"being acquiescent"—and the vow stands permanently. But if he "prohibits her on the day that he hears," and the Targum adds "not being prepared to confirm," the vow is annulled. Timing is everything. He has one day.
A married woman's vows involve a more complex chain of authority. If she made a vow while still in her father's house and "her father had not absolved her while unmarried," the vow transfers intact to her married life, and her husband must then decide whether to confirm or nullify it. The Targum traces the vow through each stage of a woman's life—from her father's house to her husband's—showing how legal obligations tracked with domestic transitions.
The widow and the divorcee stand apart. "The vow of a widow, or a divorced woman, whatever has bound her soul, shall be confirmed upon her." With no father or husband to intervene, she bears full legal responsibility for her own words. The Targum presents this not as a burden but as a recognition of her autonomous standing before God.
And Mosheh spake to the sons of Israel, according to all that the Lord had commanded Mosheh.
AND Mosheh spake with the chiefs of the Tribes of the Beni Israel, saying: This is the Word which the Lord hath spoken, saying:
A man, a son of thirteen when he shall have vowed a vow before the Lord, or have sworn an oath, saying, I will withhold from such a thing which is permitted to me, shall not be allowed to relax his word (at his own will): nevertheless, the house of judgment (beth dina) can absolve him; but if they absolve him not, whatsoever hath gone out of his mouth he shall perform.
And a female who hath not passed twelve years when she hath vowed a vow before the Lord, and hath bound herself in her father's house until her thirteenth year;
and her father hear her vow, and whatever bond she hath bound upon her soul, and her father be acquiescent, and speak not to her; then every vow and every bond which she hath bound upon her soul shall be confirmed.
But if her father prohibit her on the day that he heareth, or, not being prepared to confirm, annulleth after he hath heard, (then) no vow or bond that she hath bound upon her soul shall be confirmed; but is remitted and forgiven her before the Lord, because her father hath made her free from the authority of the vow, (or, nullified to her the power of the vow.)
And if when she hath been taken by a husband a vow be upon her, or her lips have expressed that which is binding upon her soul while in her father's house, and her father had not absolved her while unmarried, then, when she hath been married, it shall be confirmed.
But if after she is married she make a vow, and her husband hear it, and on the day that he heareth it he is minded to confirm it, and is silent to her, then the vow and the bond which she hath bound upon her soul shall be ratified.
But if her husband prohibit her on the day that he heareth, then the vow which is upon her, and the utterance of her lips which bound her soul, are remitted and forgiven her.
Yet the vow of a widow, or a divorced, whatever hath bound her soul, shall be confirmed upon her.
But if, while she was in her husband's house, or while she had not attained to marriage years, she had vowed, or bound her soul with the bond of an oath
which her husband had heard of, and had neither spoken nor prohibited her, or had died before she was married, then all her vows shall be confirmed, and all the obligations with which she had bound her soul be ratified, and her father shall have no power to absolve her.
But if her husband released her on the day that he heard, then, whatever her lips had pronounced to be a vow, or a bond upon her soul, shall not be confirmed; and if her husband had annulled them, and she, not knowing, had performed, it shall be forgiven her before the Lord.
Every vow, every oath-bond to chasten the soul, her husband may ratify or annul.
But if her husband was silent and consented when he heard from one day to the next, then all her vows and all the bonds upon her are ratified; by his silence he hath confirmed them; for be was silent to her on the day, and consented, and absolved her not on the day that he heard.
But if, absolving, he would absolve her one day after he had heard, there is no force in the absolution; and if he then nullify the word, her husband or her father shall bear her sin.
These are the publications of the statutes which the Lord commanded Mosheh (on these matters) between a man and his wife, and a father and his daughter in the day of her youth in her father's house; but not in the time of her youth, and she be in the house of her husband.
