Numbers 30:3-8

If a woman also, &c.— Two cases are next put, of persons who are under authority, and not entirely at their own disposal; and, by a very equitable law, it is determined, that their vows shall not stand, if disallowed by those under whose authority they are. The same law, founded in natural reason, extends to all under authority; nobody who is subject to another having any right to dispose of those things which are in that other's power. Puffendorf judiciously remarks, that this power was fitly reserved to parents, &c. lest women, in their imprudent years, should ruin themselves by vowing more than their fortunes could bear, and lest the paternal estate should be burdened by such vows. See his Law of Nat. and Nations, book 6: ch. 2 sect. 11.