Deuteronomy 23:21

⁴When you vow a vow to God, don’t defer to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay that which you vow. ⁵It is better that you should not vow, than that you should vow and not pay.

¹³I will come into your temple with burnt offerings. I will pay my vows to you, ¹⁴which my lips promised, and my mouth spoke, when I was in distress.

¹⁸I will pay my vows to the LORD, yes, in the presence of all his people,

¹¹Make vows to the LORD your God, and fulfill them! Let all of his neighbors bring presents to him who is to be feared.

¹²Your vows are on me, God. I will give thank offerings to you.

¹Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the children of Israel, saying, “This is the thing which the LORD has commanded. ²When a man vows a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

³“Also, when a woman vows a vow to the LORD and binds herself by a pledge, being in her father’s house, in her youth, ⁴and her father hears her vow and her pledge with which she has bound her soul, and her father says nothing to her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge with which she has bound her soul shall stand. ⁵But if her father forbids her in the day that he hears, none of her vows or of her pledges with which she has bound her soul, shall stand. The LORD will forgive her, because her father has forbidden her.

⁶“If she has a husband, while her vows are on her, or the rash utterance of her lips with which she has bound her soul, ⁷and her husband hears it, and says nothing to her in the day that he hears it; then her vows shall stand, and her pledges with which she has bound her soul shall stand. ⁸But if her husband forbids her in the day that he hears it, then he makes void her vow which is on her and the rash utterance of her lips, with which she has bound her soul. The LORD will forgive her.

⁹“But the vow of a widow, or of her who is divorced, everything with which she has bound her soul shall stand against her.

¹⁰“If she vowed in her husband’s house or bound her soul by a bond with an oath, ¹¹and her husband heard it, and held his peace at her and didn’t disallow her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge with which she bound her soul shall stand. ¹²But if her husband made them null and void in the day that he heard them, then whatever proceeded out of her lips concerning her vows, or concerning the bond of her soul, shall not stand. Her husband has made them void. The LORD will forgive her. ¹³Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish it, or her husband may make it void. ¹⁴But if her husband says nothing to her from day to day, then he establishes all her vows or all her pledges which are on her. He has established them, because he said nothing to her in the day that he heard them. ¹⁵But if he makes them null and void after he has heard them, then he shall bear her iniquity.”

¹⁶These are the statutes which the LORD commanded Moses, between a man and his wife, between a father and his daughter, being in her youth, in her father’s house.

¹⁶Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.

²⁰Jacob vowed a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and clothing to put on,

¹⁸You shall not bring the hire of a prostitute, or the wages of a male prostitute,^[+] into the house of the LORD your God for any vow; for both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God.

²“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘When a man consecrates a person to the LORD in a vow, according to your valuation, ³your valuation of a male from twenty years old to sixty years old shall be fifty shekels of silver, according to the shekel^[+] of the sanctuary. ⁴If she is a female, then your valuation shall be thirty shekels. ⁵If the person is from five years old to twenty years old, then your valuation shall be for a male twenty shekels, and for a female ten shekels. ⁶If the person is from a month old to five years old, then your valuation shall be for a male five shekels of silver, and for a female your valuation shall be three shekels of silver. ⁷If the person is from sixty years old and upward; if he is a male, then your valuation shall be fifteen shekels, and for a female ten shekels. ⁸But if he is poorer than your valuation, then he shall be set before the priest, and the priest shall assign a value to him. The priest shall assign a value according to his ability to pay.

⁹“‘If it is an animal of which men offer an offering to the LORD, all that any man gives of such to the LORD becomes holy. ¹⁰He shall not alter it, nor exchange it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good. If he shall at all exchange animal for animal, then both it and that for which it is exchanged shall be holy. ¹¹If it is any unclean animal, of which they do not offer as an offering to the LORD, then he shall set the animal before the priest; ¹²and the priest shall evaluate it, whether it is good or bad. As the priest evaluates it, so it shall be. ¹³But if he will indeed redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of it to its valuation.

¹⁴“‘When a man dedicates his house to be holy to the LORD, then the priest shall evaluate it, whether it is good or bad. As the priest evaluates it, so it shall stand. ¹⁵If he who dedicates it will redeem his house, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of your valuation to it, and it shall be his.

¹⁶“‘If a man dedicates to the LORD part of the field of his possession, then your valuation shall be according to the seed for it. The sowing of a homer^[+] of barley shall be valued at fifty shekels^[+] of silver. ¹⁷If he dedicates his field from the Year of Jubilee, according to your valuation it shall stand. ¹⁸But if he dedicates his field after the Jubilee, then the priest shall reckon to him the money according to the years that remain to the Year of Jubilee; and an abatement shall be made from your valuation. ¹⁹If he who dedicated the field will indeed redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of your valuation to it, and it shall remain his. ²⁰If he will not redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more; ²¹but the field, when it goes out in the Jubilee, shall be holy to the LORD, as a devoted field. It shall be owned by the priests.

²²“‘If he dedicates a field to the LORD which he has bought, which is not of the field of his possession, ²³then the priest shall reckon to him the worth of your valuation up to the Year of Jubilee; and he shall give your valuation on that day, as a holy thing to the LORD. ²⁴In the Year of Jubilee the field shall return to him from whom it was bought, even to him to whom the possession of the land belongs. ²⁵All your valuations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs^[+] to the shekel.

²⁶“‘However ^[+] the firstborn among animals, which belongs to the LORD as a firstborn, no man may dedicate, whether an ox or a sheep. It is the LORD’s. ²⁷If it is an unclean animal, then he shall buy it back according to your valuation, and shall add to it the fifth part of it; or if it isn’t redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your valuation.

²⁸“‘Notwithstanding, no devoted thing that a man devotes to the LORD of all that he has, whether of man or animal, or of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed. Everything that is permanently devoted is most holy to the LORD.

²⁹“‘No one devoted to destruction, who shall be devoted from among men, shall be ransomed. He shall surely be put to death.

³⁰“‘All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the LORD’s. It is holy to the LORD. ³¹If a man redeems anything of his tithe, he shall add a fifth part to it. ³²All the tithe of the herds or the flocks, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth shall be holy to the LORD. ³³He shall not examine whether it is good or bad, neither shall he exchange it. If he exchanges it at all, then both it and that for which it is exchanged shall be holy. It shall not be redeemed.’”

³⁴These are the commandments which the LORD commanded Moses for the children of Israel on Mount Sinai.