Numbers 20:8

20:8 “Take the staff and assemble the community, you and Aaron your brother, and then speak ¹  to the rock before their eyes. It will pour forth ²  its water, and you will bring water out of the rock for them, and so you will give the community and their beasts water to drink.”

Numbers 30:5

30:5 But if her father overrules her when he hears ³  about it, then none ⁴  of her vows or her obligations which she has pledged for herself will stand. And the Lord will release ⁵  her from it, because her father overruled her.

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¹ tn The verb is the Piel perfect with vav (ו) consecutive, following the two imperatives in the verse. Here is the focus of the instruction for Moses.

² tn Heb “give.” The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive, as are the next two in the verse. These are not now equal to the imperatives, but imperfects, showing the results of speaking to the rock: “speak…and it will…and so you will….”

³ tn The idiom is “in the day of,” but it is used in place of a preposition before the infinitive construct with its suffixed subjective genitive. The clause is temporal.

⁴ tn The Hebrew “all will not stand” is best rendered “none will stand.”

⁵ tn The verb has often been translated “forgive” (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV, NLT), but that would suggest a sin that needed forgiving. The idea of “release from obligation” is better; the idea is like that of having a debt “forgiven” or “retired.” In other words, she is free from the vow she had made. The Lord will not hold the woman responsible to do what she vowed.