Commentary on Harmony of the Law Volume 1 Complete John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
but lest they should be tormented by secret remorse, He removes every scruple, declaring that He will forgive, if the performance of the vow shall have been prevented in any other quarter. When the dissent of the father or the husband is required on the same day, it is tantamount to saying that what they have once approved of cannot be disallowed. Further, to "hold his peace" to a wife or daughter, signifies that he does not oppose, but give by silence a token of consent.
9. But every vow of a widow. I have stated why widows are expressly named, viz., lest a woman should think that by a second marriage she would escape, as being no longer free, and again under the yoke; since by such subtle excuses people often extricate themselves. No other subject is referred to down to the end of the last verse but one; for they have made a very gross mistake, who interpret it as applying to a family and its master. 669 The subject itself certainly does not admit of such an explanation; and the words of Moses forbid it: so that it is the more surprising that persons skilled in the Hebrew language have not seen the matter clearly.
Ver. 10,ואם-.אישה ביתLiterally, "And if the house of her husband." C. and A.V. follow LXX. in assuming that the preposition in should be supplied before the house. S.M., on the other hand, translates the word,ביתfamily, which is undeniably allowable; but says in a note, "By family, is to be understood the wife here, as the chief personage in it after its master." To this treatment of the text C. here adverts, as strange on the part of one so skillful in the Hebrew tongue. — W