Numbers 27: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The five daughters of Zelophehad ask Moses for a share of land, since their father died without sons, and the LORD rules that they should receive their father's inheritance. This becomes a standing law setting out who inherits when a man dies without a son. The LORD then tells Moses to climb Mount Abarim to see the land, after which he will die as Aaron did, because both rebelled at the waters of Meribah. Moses asks for a leader to replace him, and the LORD names Joshua son of Nun, whom Moses commissions before Eleazar the priest and the whole community.

Claim by Claim

1. 27:1
   • The daughters of Zelophehad came forward.
   • Zelophehad was the son of Hepher.
   • Hepher was the son of Gilead.
   • Gilead was the son of Machir.
   • Machir was the son of Manasseh.
   • The daughters belonged to the clans of Manasseh son of Joseph.
   • The names of Zelophehad's daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.
   • Zelophehad had five daughters.
2. 27:2
   • They stood before Moses.
   • They stood before Eleazar the priest.
   • They stood before the chiefs of the people.
   • They stood before the whole congregation.
   • They stood at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
   • They spoke.
3. 27:3
   • They said their father died in the wilderness.
   • They said he was not among the company that gathered together against the LORD in the company of Korah.
   • They said he died for his own sin.
   • They said he had no sons.
4. 27:4
   • They asked why their father's name should be taken away from his clan because he had no son.
   • They asked to be given a holding among their father's brothers.
5. 27:5
   • Moses brought their case before the LORD.
6. 27:6
   • The LORD spoke to Moses.
7. 27:7
   • The LORD said the daughters of Zelophehad speak rightly.
   • The LORD commanded Moses to give them a holding as an inheritance among their father's brothers.
   • The LORD commanded Moses to transfer their father's inheritance to them.
8. 27:8
   • The LORD commanded Moses to speak to the children of Israel.
   • If a man dies and has no son, his inheritance is to be transferred to his daughter.
9. 27:9
   • If he has no daughter, his inheritance is to be given to his brothers.
10. 27:10
    • If he has no brothers, his inheritance is to be given to his father's brothers.
11. 27:11
    • If his father has no brothers, his inheritance is to be given to the nearest relative of his clan.
    • That relative shall take possession of the inheritance.
    • This is to be a binding statute of judgment for the children of Israel.
    • This is as the LORD commanded Moses.
12. 27:12
    • The LORD said to Moses to go up this mountain of Abarim.
    • The LORD told Moses to see the land.
    • The LORD said he had given that land to the children of Israel.
13. 27:13
    • The LORD said that when Moses had seen the land, Moses too would be gathered to his people.
    • The LORD said Moses would be gathered as Aaron his brother was gathered.
    • Aaron was Moses' brother.
14. 27:14
    • The LORD said they rebelled against his command in the wilderness of Zin.
    • The rebellion occurred during the strife of the congregation.
    • The rebellion was against the command to show the LORD holy at the waters before the eyes of the congregation.
    • Those waters are the waters of Meribah at Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.
15. 27:15
    • Moses spoke to the LORD.
16. 27:16
    • Moses asked the LORD to appoint a man over the congregation.
    • Moses addressed the LORD as the God of the spirits of all flesh.
17. 27:17
    • Moses asked for a man who would go out before them.
    • Moses asked for a man who would come in before them.
    • Moses asked for a man who would lead them out.
    • Moses asked for a man who would bring them in.
    • Moses asked this so the congregation of the LORD would not be like sheep that have no shepherd.
18. 27:18
    • The LORD said to Moses to take Joshua son of Nun.
    • The LORD said Joshua is a man in whom there is spirit.
    • The LORD told Moses to lay his hand on Joshua.
19. 27:19
    • The LORD told Moses to set Joshua before Eleazar the priest.
    • The LORD told Moses to set Joshua before the whole congregation.
    • The LORD told Moses to commission Joshua in their sight.
20. 27:20
    • The LORD told Moses to put some of his honor upon Joshua.
    • The purpose was that the whole congregation of the children of Israel would obey.
21. 27:21
    • Joshua shall stand before Eleazar the priest.
    • Eleazar shall inquire for Joshua by the judgment of the Urim before the LORD.
    • At his word they shall go out and at his word they shall come in, and the text does not make clear whether the word is the LORD's or Eleazar's.
    • Those who go out and come in are Joshua and all the children of Israel with him, the whole congregation.
22. 27:22
    • Moses did as the LORD commanded him.
    • Moses took Joshua.
    • Moses set Joshua before Eleazar the priest and before the whole congregation.
23. 27:23
    • Moses laid his hands on Joshua.
    • Moses commissioned Joshua.
    • Moses did this as the LORD had spoken by the hand of Moses.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

27:1

The list of fathers is not decoration: land in Israel was held permanently by family lines within a tribe, so a claim to land had to be traced through a named ancestry. Naming Hepher, Gilead, Machir and Manasseh identifies exactly which tribe's territory and which clan's share these women are asking for. The Hebrew word rendered "family group" (mishpachah) means a clan, a group of related households between the size of a family and a tribe.

27:2

Eleazar was Aaron's son, who had taken over as chief priest after Aaron's death. The "leaders" are the heads of tribes and clans. The entrance of the tent was where legal cases and disputes were formally heard, so the daughters are bringing a lawsuit in the recognized public court, not making a private request.

27:3

Korah led a revolt against Moses' and Aaron's authority in which the rebels and their households were destroyed (told earlier, in Numbers 16). The daughters mention it because the property of men executed for that rebellion would have been forfeit; they are establishing that their father's line was not disqualified that way. "He died because of his own sin" is deliberately unspecific in the Hebrew and has been understood two ways: either he simply died an ordinary death like the rest of that generation, who were condemned to die in the desert, or he died for some fault of his own that carried no penalty against his heirs.

27:4

An Israelite man's "name" continuing meant his household keeping its own permanently held plot of land and being counted as a unit within the clan. If the land passed to relatives it was absorbed into their holdings and the dead man's household ceased to exist as a separate line. The daughters are not asking for cash or goods but for a share of territory.

27:5

No existing law covered the situation, so Moses does not improvise. He takes the case to God for a ruling, the ancient equivalent of referring a question to a higher court because there is no precedent to apply.

27:7

"Inheritance" throughout this chapter means a family's allotted piece of land, held permanently and not meant to be sold off for good. Transferring it to the daughters is what keeps their father's household on the map.

27:8

The ruling in the sisters' individual case is now turned into general law for everyone. In most of the ancient Near East daughters did not inherit land at all, so this is a real change. A later chapter adds one restriction: daughters who inherit must marry inside their own tribe, so that the land does not transfer to another tribe with them (Numbers 36).

27:11

"A binding legal rule" translates a phrase meaning a fixed procedural statute, a ruling on this one case that from now on settles every case like it. The chapter is presenting itself as the origin of a standing law of inheritance.

27:12

The Abarim are a range of hills east of the Dead Sea, in what is now Jordan, facing the land west of the Jordan River. Their high points, including Mount Nebo, look across at the territory Israel was about to enter, so Moses is being told to view from a distance the land he will not cross into.

27:13

"Gathered to your people" is the standard Hebrew phrase for dying and being laid with one's ancestors; it is about joining the family dead, not about a journey to a particular afterlife. Aaron had died on Mount Hor shortly before this, in the same manner: shown his end in advance, on a mountain, outside the land.

27:14

This refers back to the incident at Kadesh where the people quarreled over lack of water and Moses struck a rock to bring water out (Numbers 20). "Meribah" is a Hebrew word meaning quarreling or lawsuit, so the place-name itself records the argument. The exact nature of Moses' and Aaron's failure is left unstated in the Hebrew and has been argued over ever since.

27:16

"The God of the spirits of all flesh" is a rare Hebrew title. The word translated "spirit" also means breath and wind; "all flesh" means every living creature. The phrase presents God as the one who knows and holds the inner life of every person, which is the point of the request, since Moses is asking God to pick the right individual.

27:17

"Go out and come in" is a set Hebrew expression for leading an army out on campaign and bringing it home again; it describes a military commander's job, not a walking route. "Shepherd" was the ordinary ancient title for a king or ruler across the whole region, so "sheep with no shepherd" means a people with no one in command, not a comment on their character.

27:18

The Hebrew says only "a man in whom is spirit," which can mean the divine spirit that equips a leader or simply that Joshua has the capacity and drive for the job; the text does not settle which. Placing hands on someone was the recognized gesture for formally designating a person for an office or a purpose, in front of witnesses who could later confirm it happened.

27:19

"Give him his orders" translates a formal term for installing someone in office with a public statement of duties, a commissioning ceremony, done in the open so that no one can later dispute that it took place.

27:20

The Hebrew word is "majesty" or "dignity", the visible standing that made people obey. Note that Joshua receives *some* of it, not all: he is being given real authority, but the text stops short of making him Moses' equal.

27:21

The Urim (usually paired with the Thummim) were objects kept in the chief priest's chest-piece and used to put questions to God and get an answer, apparently of a yes-or-no or either-or kind; how they worked is never described anywhere in the Bible. The point here is a change in procedure: Moses had spoken with God directly, but Joshua will have to go through a priest and this device, so military and national decisions now pass through the priesthood.

27:23

Putting your hands on someone was like handing over a job. Everyone watching could see who was chosen.