Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons [shall be] for the LORD by thy estimation.
Ver. 2. When a man shall make a singular vow.] Votum eximium, as Vatablus renders it, a personal, particular, voluntary vow; which, drawn by some peculiar reason, a man promiseth to God of his own accord. It is a binding of one's self to God by a holy and religious promise, to do or not to do something lawful, possible, useful for our increase in godliness. As here of persons, afterwards of things: all which might be redeemed, under such exception as the law provideth, by the estimation of the priest for certain shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary: this was double to the ordinary shekel. The aim and intent of these personal vows was, say some, that the price of their redemption might be employed either for the maintenance of the priests, Num 18:14 or for the repair of the sanctuary. 2Ki 12:4-5 Neither by such vows do we cast any new snares upon ourselves, but rather a new tie to the payment of an old debt.