What Does Numbers 30:15 Mean in the King James?
But if he shall any ways make them void after that he hath heard them; then he shall bear her iniquity.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The one who cancels a vow after hearing it does not erase its weight; he takes it onto himself.
THE MEANING
A promise can be overturned after you have heard it, but the authority to cancel does not make its weight disappear. The crookedness attached to the broken vow rests on the one who nullifies it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that authority to cancel a promise leaves the cost with the person who made it dissolves here: the one who overrides it bears the iniquity.
THE ROOT
וְנָשָׂא
venasa
GROWS FROM
נשא
nasa
Lift, carry, take up.
“bear” in this verse is venasa. The same root can name both carrying and what is carried as a burden. Here, the man who nullifies the vow takes up the liability attached to it.
ALSO GROWS
massa: A burden or load.
מַשָּׂא
The burden is what is taken up and carried, making the verse’s accountability feel weighty rather than abstract.
nose: One who carries; a bearer.
נֹשֵׂא
This form names the carrier, showing how the verse places the burden on the person who nullifies the vow.
עֲוֹנָהּ
avonah
GROWS FROM
עון
avon
Crookedness, with the guilt or liability that comes with it.
The word translated “iniquity” can also carry the sense of crookedness and its resulting liability. The verse links the act of nullifying the vow with a burden that the man himself must carry.
ALSO GROWS
avon: Crookedness, guilt, or the liability of wrongdoing.
עָוֹן
This is the underlying noun in the verse, giving “iniquity” the sense of a bent condition and its consequence.
avonot: Iniquities; the plural form of the same noun.
עֲוֹנוֹת
The plural form keeps the same link between crookedness and the liability it brings.
THE PATTERN
Hearing a binding word makes later action answerable: to undo it is to take up its consequence.
When thou shalt vow a vow unto the LORD thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it: for the LORD thy God will surely require it of thee; and it would be sin in thee.He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.For every man shall bear his own burden.THE THREAD
And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear.“Bear” in both verses comes from the Hebrew root נשא (nasa), meaning to lift or carry. Cain names punishment as a weight he cannot carry; here, the man who nullifies the vow takes its liability onto himself.
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