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VowsThe traditional wedding vow if one is married in the church in America: Bob, do you take Linda to be your wedded wife to live together in marriage? Do you promise to love, comfort, honor and keep her for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. And forsaking all others, be faithful to her so long as you both shall live? What does the Scripture say about vows. It is interesting to note that the man's vow and the women's vow are treated differently. This goes all the way back to the garden of Eden, and I believe is confirmed by Paul in the New Testament:
But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
1 Corinthians 11:3 Also, this is discussed in 1 Timothy 2:12-14:
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
1 Timothy 2:12-14 In Genesis 3, we see that the LORD curses the serpent (3:14-15), the woman (3:16), and the ground from which the man will work (3:17-19). I believe that woman are naturally more susceptible to being deceived, and were thus put under the authority of the man. However, I also believe that the picture of the husband and the wife is a picture of the Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:25). Although the law is a "shadow of good things... and not the very image of the things" (Hebrews 10:1), we can learn from it the knowledge of sin. Paul says "I had not known sin, but by the law..." (Romans 7:7). We look now into what the law says about vows, in Numbers 30: To the men (married or unmarried)
If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.
Numbers 30:2 To the unmarried women
3If a woman also vow a vow unto the LORD, and bind herself by a bond, [being] in her father's house in her youth; 4And her father hear her vow, and her bond wherewith she hath bound her soul, and her father shall hold his peace at her: then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she hath bound her soul shall stand. 5But if her father disallow her in the day that he heareth; not any of her vows, or of her bonds wherewith she hath bound her soul, shall stand: and the LORD shall forgive her, because her father disallowed her.
Numbers 30:3-5 To the widows and divorced womenNote: The "divorced" women here can only refer to those women put away according to Deuteronomy 24:1.
9But every vow of a widow, and of her that is divorced, wherewith they have bound their souls, shall stand against her.
Numbers 30:9 To the married women
6And if she had at all an husband, when she vowed, or uttered ought out of her lips, wherewith she bound her soul; 7And her husband heard [it,] and held his peace at her in the day that he heard [it]: then her vows shall stand, and her bonds wherewith she bound her soul shall stand. 8But if her husband disallowed her on the day that he heard [it]; then he shall make her vow which she vowed, and that which she uttered with her lips, wherewith she bound her soul, of none effect: and the LORD shall forgive her.
Numbers 30:6-8
10And 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] disallowed her not: then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she bound her soul shall stand. 12But if her husband hath utterly made them void on the day he heard [them; then] whatsoever proceeded out of her lips concerning her vows, or concerning the bond of her soul, shall not stand: her husband hath made them void; and the LORD shall 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 altogether hold his peace at her from day to day; then he establisheth all her vows, or all her bonds, which [are] upon her: he confirmeth them, because he held his peace at her in the day that he heard [them]. 15But if he shall any ways make them void after that he hath heard [them]; then he shall bear her iniquity. 16These [are] the statutes, which the LORD commanded Moses, between a man and his wife, between the father and his daughter, [being yet] in her youth in her father's house.
Numbers 30:10-15 What does this have to do with marriage and divorce? If a woman that is already married to a husband, leaves the husband against the husband's will, and marries another, I believe her second vow "shall not stand" before the Lord, and is made "of none effect". Her first husband may either "establish it... or make it void". 
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