A sin is borne: clearing up the law of women's vows (Numbers 30)

The priestly law of women’s vows (Num 30:2–17), which is well understood overall, contains a three-verse section that poses a multitude of structural and substantive problems (vv. 14–16). The section culminates in the phrase וְנָשָׂא אֶת עֲוֹנָהּ (v. 16b), translated as “he will bear her sin” and understood as presenting the possibility of the woman’s male guardian incurring her guilt. I propose to solve all the problems by assuming that וְנָשָׂא אֶת עֲוֹנָהּ expresses an indefinite subject, a common but underappreciated grammatical phenomenon in Biblical Hebrew, and should be read “her sin will be lifted.” It thus becomes clear that the section is a summary of the pericope and that the phrase in question simply restates what has already been said three times with the words וַה׳ יִסְלַח לָהּ, “and Yhwh will forgive her” (vv. 6, 9, 13): that a woman whose vow was nullified is not culpable for her non-fulfillment of the vow.