Chapter Twenty-Seven

The law concerning the inheritance of a land portion. – A revelation to Moses concerning his approaching death. – God’s command concerning Moses’s successor.

Numbers 27:1. Then the daughters of Zelophehad the son of Hepher, son of Gilead, son of Makir, son of Manasseh, of the families of Manasseh the son of Joseph, came forward. The names of his daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah; Numbers 27:2. and they stood before Moses and before Eleazar the priest and before the leaders and all the congregation, at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and they said: Numbers 27:3. Our father died in the wilderness. He was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Korah, but died for his own sin. And he had no sons. Numbers 27:4. Why should the name of our father be taken away from his clan because he had no son? Give to us a possession among our father’s brothers. “But for his own sin,” a sin common to the old generation, “he died” in the wilderness (Num 14:21-23).

Numbers 27:5. And Moses brought their case before the Lord. Numbers 27:6. And the Lord said to Moses: Numbers 27:7. The daughters of Zelophehad are right. You shall give them a possession of an inheritance among their father’s brothers and cause the inheritance of their father to pass to them. Numbers 27:8. And you shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, If a man dies and has no son, then you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter. Numbers 27:9. And if he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers. Numbers 27:10. And if he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father’s brothers. Numbers 27:11. And if his father has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his nearest kinsman in his clan, and he shall possess it. And it shall be for the sons of Israel a statute and rule, as the Lord commanded Moses. At the division of the land, land plots were to be distributed “according to the number of names” of male persons and to bear the names of their owners, so that under these names they would pass from generation to generation, as a material consolidation in the people of the “name” of one family or another. Naturally, given the existence of such a legislative principle, the nearest heirs of the landowner were none other than his sons, the bearers of his name, the keepers of his lineage. In the event of the absence of sons or the inability of the latter to be the continuers of their lineage, the land inheritance could pass to a daughter – but with the absolute condition that in case of her marriage the children should be the continuers of their lineage and bearers of the name of their grandfather on the mother’s side. In the absence of daughters, the nearest kinsman of the deceased is the heir to the land plot.

Numbers 27:12. The Lord said to Moses, “Go up into this mountain of Abarim [which is on this side of the Jordan, to this mountain Nebo,] and see the land [of Canaan] which I give to the sons of Israel [for a possession]; Nebo (or Navab) is one of the heights of the mountain range of Abarim.

Numbers 27:15. And Moses said to the Lord, saying: Numbers 27:16. Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, Numbers 27:17. who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep without a shepherd. The concern of all Moses’s life was the people of Israel. In difficult moments of God’s anger against those who sinned, the leader was ready to take upon himself personally all the weight of punishing righteousness, so as to preserve the life and well-being of his tormentor. And now, learning of the approaching day of his death, Moses is first of all troubled by care “so that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep without a shepherd.”

Numbers 27:18. And the Lord said to Moses, Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand upon him, The laying on of hands is a visible sign of the communication of rights and authority.

Numbers 27:19. and set him before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation, and commission him in their sight, Setting him before the people and commissioning him is an act of announcing the succession and at the same time an act of public recognition of the successor.

Numbers 27:20. and give him some of your authority, so that all the congregation of the sons of Israel may obey him. What is in view is the allowance of Joshua to exercise some of his rights even during Moses’s lifetime.

Numbers 27:21. And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord. At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he and all the sons of Israel with him and all the congregation. No one among the chosen men of the Old Testament was granted such close communion with the Godhead as Moses had (Num 12:6-8). The successor of Moses will inquire of the Lord through the mysterious Urim and Thummim, which were on the breastplate of the high priest (Exod 28:30).

Numbers 27:22. And Moses did as the Lord commanded him [God,] and took Joshua and set him before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation; The final, public transfer of the rights of a Hebrew leader to Joshua took place later (Deut 31:23).