Numbers 27:9

Study note

Setting — Moses addresses the Israelite assembly at the plains of Moab, establishing a statutory sequence for property transfer after the daughters of Zelophehad petition for their father’s estate. The verse operates as the second tier in a legal hierarchy triggered when a man dies without a son.

The words — אֵ֥ין בַּ֑ת ('ein bat) literally means “not a daughter,” while נַחֲלָת֖/וֹ (nachalato) denotes “his inheritance.” These terms form the conditional trigger that shifts the transfer from direct offspring to collateral male relatives.

The thread — The verse directly follows Numbers 27:8, which mandates transfer to a daughter when no son exists, and precedes Numbers 27:10, which extends the inheritance to the father’s brothers when no brothers remain. This creates a closed, sequential list within the same passage.

Why it lands — The text requires readers to apply a fixed, tiered protocol for estate distribution that moves from son to daughter to brothers before looking further. It demands strict compliance with statutory boundaries rather than discretionary or familial preference.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.