An Israelite vow was a voluntary promise to worship Yahweh with a certain dedicated offering in the future.  This vow was motivated by gratitude for Yahweh’s grace in their lives, so that it was one of the highest personal forms of Israelite worship.  Today, we think of marriage vows and religious vows.  Vows can prove to be a very beneficial and significant turning point in the lives of people.  However, there were no details on how the Israelites should make these vows.  Perhaps vow-making was so common in the ancient Near East that this was unnecessary.  The real problem was what to do if the Israelites broke their vows.  There were economic costly penalties for breaking a voluntary vow.  There were many Old Testament texts dealing with vows.  A vow made was a vow kept.  They should keep their word about vows as quickly as possible.  However, they did not commit a sin or be found guilty, if they did not fulfill their vow.  They should have been more careful when they made their vows.  In fact, there were some false vows.  Some vows may have been sincere, but then were forgotten, regretted, or not fulfilled.  When they made a vow to Yahweh, they should not be late in paying it.  However, they should be cautious about making vows, not foolishly rush into them, because there were costly economic consequences or sanctions.  When the Israelites failed to keep their vows, they also caused other humans to become doubtful of all promises.  This disregard of vows caused people to doubt all commitments, even Yahweh’s.  For the Israelites to take their vows lightly was to negate the impact that Yahweh’s promises of blessing or cursing was intended to have as an incentive to faithfulness and obedience.  These vows were binding.  In most cases when vows were made, the individuals were sincere and intended to keep that vow.  However, over time, people might think that the vow was excessive, and start looking for a way out of keeping their promises.  They should not have made hasty vows.  Have you ever made a vow to God?