Numbers 27:10

_AND THE LORD SPAKE UNTO MOSES, SAYING,_ No JFB commentary on these verses....

1-11 The five daughters of Zelophehad considered themselves as left destitute, having neither father nor brother to inherit any land. Their believing expectation that the word of the Lord would be performed in due season, and their desire of an interest in the promised inheritance; and the modest, candid manner in which they asked, without secret murmurs or discontents, are a good example. They ask for a possession in the land of Canaan. Herein they discovered, 1. Strong faith in the power and promise of God, concerning the giving of the land of Canaan to Israel. 2. And earnest desire of a place and name in the land of promise, which was a type of heaven. 3. Respect and honour for their father, whose name was dear to them now he was gone. He never had done any thing that might bar his children's claim. It is a comfort to parents when they come to die, if though they have smarted for the...

EXPOSITION THE DAUGHTERS OF ZELOPHEHAD (Numbers 27:1). NUMBERS 27:1 THE DAUGHTERS OF ZELOPHEHAD. The genealogy here given agrees with those in Numbers 26:29-4 and in Joshua 17:3. These women would appear to have been in the eighth generation from Jacob, which hardly accords with the 470 years required by the narrative; some links, however, may have been dropped. NUMBERS 27:2 BY...

AND IF HE HAVE NO BRETHREN,.... Nor any descendants from them: THEN YE SHALL GIVE HIS INHERITANCE UNTO HIS FATHER'S BRETHREN; that is, to his uncles, and to their children....

4. THE DAUGHTERS OF ZELOPHEHAD, THE DEATH OF MOSES AND HIS SUCCESSOR ANNOUNCED CHAPTER 27 _ 1. The daughters of Zelophehad (Numbers 27:1)_ 2. Moses' death announced and his request (Numbers 27:12) 3. Joshua appointed (Numbers 27:18) The question of the daughters of Zelophehad was concerning their inheritance. Their father had died in the wilderness and there were no sons. They expected and claimed a possession among the brethren of their father. They fully counted on the Lord and His goodness, though their case was not met by the previous instructions. “It is impossible for God to be like a poor man, who says, ‘You expect more good than I am prepared to bestow.' God could not m

THE RIGHT OF DAUGHTERS TO INHERIT, IN DEFAULT OF MALE ISSUE. To guard against the alienation of property from a family through the absence of male heirs by natural descent, the system of the Levirate marriage was instituted (Deuteronomy 25:5 *, p. 109); and that law, which assumed that only males could inherit, is here supplemented by another law allowing daughters, in default of sons, to become heirs. For a qualification of the present law, see Numbers 36; and for the fulfilment of the claim made by Zelophehad's daughters, see Joshua 17:3 f *. NUMBERS 27:3. The denial that Zelophehad (a Manassite) was implicated in the rebellion of Korah presumes that Korah led a movement of the secular tribes against the

_A law on the inheritance of property_. The Hebrews always adhered firmly to the principle that landed property must not be alienated from the tribe or family to which it belonged. In early days, inheritance by daughters was not contemplated. If a man died without children, his widow might be married to his brother in order to bear sons who should inherit the property (Deuteronomy 25:5-10; cf. Matthew 22:24). Or if a man wished to sell land, his next-of-kin had the first right of purchase (Jeremiah 32:8). And the same principle underlies the law of the Jubile (Leviticus 25:10;...

THE DAUGHTERS OF ZELOPHEHAD SPEAK RIGHT— God, approving their petition, passes their special case into a general law hereafter to be observed. These daughters of Zelophehad were to enjoy what would have fallen to their father's share had he been alive, because they stood in his place, and represented his person: and accordingly we find, that they had their portion in the land. Joshua 1:3. While, for the future, it is provided, that the inheritance should always pass to the next of kin, whether male or female, of the family of him who is deceased. This is ordained Numbers 27:11 _to be a statute of judgment unto the children of Israel; i.e._ a standing law whereby to judge of succession to inheritance in all future times. We may just observe, that the Hebrew text speaks here of the daughters in the masculine,

G. THE PLEA OF ZELOPHEHAD'S DAUGHTERS, AND GOD'S ANSWER (NUMBERS 27:1-11) TEXT Numbers 27:1. Then came the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of Manasseh the son of Joseph: and these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Tirzah. 2. And they stood before Moses, and before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes and all the congregation, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, 3. Our father died in the wilderness, and he was not in the company of them that gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Korah; but died in his own sin, and had no sons. 4. Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family, because he hat

THE LAW OF THE INHERITANCE OF DAUGHTERS. JOSHUA APPOINTED AS THE SUCCESS OR OF MOSES 1-11. According to Numbers 26:53 (Cp. Numbers 27:2) the land was to be apportioned to the males. Zelophehad, of the tribe of Manasseh, had died leaving no sons (Numbers 26:33); and his daughters, fearing that they would have no inheritance, request that they and their sons should succeed to the inheritance of their father, and thus perpetuate his name. Their claim is pronounced to be just, and it is enacted that daughters should inherit where there are no sons, and, failing daughters, the nearest relatives of the father. It was afterwards further enacted (Numbe