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Numbers 27 Bible study: They speak right
Five daughters asked why their father's name should be taken away (27:4), and the LORD said they "speak right" (27:7), making their case a law for all Israel (27:11). Told he would die, Moses next asked for a man for the people, so they would not be "as sheep which have no shepherd" (27:17), and the LORD named Joshua (27:18).
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“who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in, that the congregation of the LORD may not be as sheep which have no shepherd.”
Try it · Did you catch it?
“In Numbers 27, Moses asked the LORD to appoint a man, and it was the LORD who named Joshua.”
Is that in Numbers 27, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
Five daughters at the door
The chapter opens with five names: "Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah" (27:1), the daughters of Zelophehad, of the families of Manasseh the son of Joseph. They "stood before Moses, before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes and all the congregation, at the door of the Tent of Meeting" (27:2). Their case is short: "Our father died in the wilderness"; "He had no sons" (27:3). Their question is about a name: "Why should the name of our father be taken away from among his family, because he had no son? Give to us a possession among the brothers of our father" (27:4). The chapter before has just said the land "shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names" (26:53), and it named these five (26:33). Moses doesn't answer them himself: "Moses brought their cause before the LORD" (27:5).
Where it leads to Jesus
Sheep without a shepherd
Numbers 27:17leads toMark 6:34
Moses asked for a man over the congregation, "that the congregation of the LORD may not be as sheep which have no shepherd" (27:17). Mark says of Jesus, "he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things" (Mark 6:34). Mark doesn't cite Numbers 27, so this is a reading: some hear Moses' prayer for a shepherd answered in Jesus, who teaches the crowd and then, in a place his disciples call "deserted" (Mark 6:35), feeds them until "They all ate and were filled" (Mark 6:42); others note that the Old Testament uses the same picture elsewhere, "as sheep that have no shepherd" (1 Kings 22:17) and "They were scattered, because there was no shepherd" (Ezekiel 34:5), and read Mark as using a common picture without pointing to Numbers.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Numbers 27
That was a taste
The rest of Numbers 27 is waiting in Favor
- One family's case becomes a law for all Israel
- See the land, and be gathered
- Joshua, in their sight
- The rest of their story
- Who Joshua was by now
- Going out and coming in
- 15 questions as you read
- 12 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach Numbers 27 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
נַחֲלָהnachalahsay na-kha-LAH
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "possession, property, inheritance". Strong's: "something inherited". The daughters asked for "a possession" (27:4); the LORD answers with that word and this one together, "a possession of an inheritance" (27:7). The noun comes six times in five verses: twice in 27:7, then "his inheritance" in each step of the law (27:8, 27:9, 27:10, 27:11). The chapter before said the land "shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names" (26:53). Numbers ends with the same word, "So shall no inheritance of the children of Israel move from tribe to tribe" (36:7), and in the land the daughters receive "an inheritance among the brothers of their father" (Joshua 17:4).
For your group
Numbers 27 Bible study questions
- 1The daughters brought their question to Moses, and Moses "brought their cause before the LORD" (27:5). What question are you carrying that you could bring before the LORD, or to someone who would bring it there with you?
- 2Told he would not go into the land, Moses asked for someone to lead the people after him (27:12-17). Who will carry on after you, and how are you praying for them?
- 3Joshua was commissioned "before all the congregation" and "in their sight" (27:19). Who has someone publicly stood behind as they stepped into something new, and what difference did it make?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Numbers 27 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
What is Favor?
Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home