² “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When a person makes an explicit vow to the Lord concerning the equivalent for a human being,

² “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When either men or women make a special vow, the vow of a nazirite, to separate themselves to the Lord,^(A)

²⁸ Therefore I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he is given to the Lord.” And they worshiped the Lord there.^(A)

¹¹ She made this vow: “O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants,^[a] and no razor shall touch his head.”^(A)

³⁹ At the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to the vow he had made. She had never slept with a man. So there arose an Israelite custom that

³⁰ And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, ³¹ then whatever^[a] comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be the Lord’s, to be offered up by me as a burnt offering.”

²¹ “If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not postpone fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you would incur guilt.^{(A) 22} But if you refrain from vowing, you will not incur guilt. ²³ Whatever your lips utter you must diligently perform, just as you have freely vowed to the Lord your God with your own mouth.

⁴ When you make a vow to God, do not delay fulfilling it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Fulfill what you vow.^{(A) 5} It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not fulfill it.^(B)

³ “When a woman makes a vow to the Lord or binds herself by a pledge while within her father’s house, in her youth,

² Then Israel made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will indeed give this people into our hands, then we will utterly destroy their towns.”