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In the OT, when a woman took a vow that her husband did not know about, when he found out, he could either let it go or disallow it, freeing her from the vow.

The man is the head of the marriage and Ephesians 5 and 1 Corinthians 11 support this. He is responsible for the marriage and family and accountable to God for fulfilling that role, just as God held Adam responsible for the Fall. Sin entered the world through him by God’s reckoning in Romans 5. Yes, Eve ate first but Adam failed in his role as provider and protector in many ways.

Numbers 30:3-16 3 If a woman also vow a vow unto the Lord, and bind herself by a bond, being in her father’s house in her youth;

4 And 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.

5 But 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.

6 And if she had at all an husband, when she vowed, or uttered ought out of her lips, wherewith she bound her soul;

7 And 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.

8 But 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.

9 But every vow of a widow, and of her that is divorced, wherewith they have bound their souls, shall stand against her.

10 And if she vowed in her husband’s house, or bound her soul by a bond with an oath;

11 And 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.

12 But 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.

13 Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish it, or her husband may make it void.

14 But 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.

15 But if he shall any ways make them void after that he hath heard them; then he shall bear her iniquity.

16 These 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.

Of course the marriage we are reading about has no bearing with any semblance of a Christian marriage. Many women(Christian or not Christian) though are bound to their husbands in spirit as described in Genesis 3:16”16 To the woman He said:

“I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;
In pain you shall bring forth children;
Your desire shall be [e]for your husband,
And he shall rule over you.”

Thus I can understand a not overly wise or a woman with little Christian training not being able to overcome a brutish husband’s wishes. The curse laid down on men and women from the Garden would work against her in this instance.There is the spiritual binding and there is chemical binding.
Oxytocin releases during marital passion can bind a woman chemically to a man, its the same chemical released during the first suckling of a child to the mother causing the “bonding” between mother and child.

Thus we have positive scientific support for the “desire for the husband and he shall rule over you” verse in Genesis 3:16.