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Numbers 36 Bible study: Their inheritance remained
Numbers 27 gave the daughters their father's land; Numbers 36 keeps it in his tribe. By the LORD's word, both sides spoke right (27:7, 36:5): the daughters married "to whom they think best" within their father's tribe (36:6), "Their inheritance remained" (36:12), and the book ends on the plains of Moab, at the edge of the land (36:13).
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“So shall no inheritance of the children of Israel move from tribe to tribe; for the children of Israel shall all keep the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.”
Try it · Did you catch it?
“In Numbers 36, the daughters of Zelophehad keep the inheritance they were given in Numbers 27.”
Is that in Numbers 36, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
The same case, from the other side
Numbers 27 settled that the five daughters of Zelophehad would receive their father's inheritance (27:7). Now the leaders of their own clan come to Moses: "The heads of the fathers’ households of the family of the children of Gilead" (36:1). They begin with what the LORD has already said: "My lord was commanded by the LORD to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters" (36:2). They don't ask for that to be undone. Their worry is what happens next: "If they are married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the children of Israel, then their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of our fathers, and will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they shall belong" (36:3).
Where it leads to Jesus
A question about an inheritance
Numbers 36:1leads toLuke 12:13-15
The heads of Gilead's families bring a question about an inheritance to Moses (36:1-4), and it is settled "according to the LORD’s word" (36:5). In Luke, a man in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me" (Luke 12:13). Jesus answered, "Man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you?" (Luke 12:14), and said, "Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness, for a man’s life doesn’t consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses" (Luke 12:15). Luke doesn't cite Numbers 36, so setting them side by side is a reading. Some hear Jesus taking up the same kind of question, an inheritance, and turning it to what a life is, ending the parable that follows with the man "who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God" (Luke 12:21). Others keep them apart: in Numbers the LORD gives a ruling for all Israel's land (36:8-9), while Jesus declines to rule in one family's case and says nothing about the land or its laws.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Numbers 36
That was a taste
The rest of Numbers 36 is waiting in Favor
- Not even the jubilee
- Both sides speak right
- They did as the LORD commanded
- Two questions, one land
- How Numbers ends
- 13 questions as you read
- 10 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 36 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
דָּבַקdavaqsay da-VAK
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "cling, cleave, keep close". Strong's: "properly, to impinge, i.e. cling or adhere". "The children of Israel shall all keep the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers" (36:7), and "the tribes of the children of Israel shall each keep his own inheritance" (36:9): in Hebrew, each is to cling to his inheritance. These are the verb's only two uses in Numbers. Its first use in the Hebrew Bible is Genesis 2:24, where a man "will join with his wife". Moses uses it of Israel and the LORD, "You shall cling to him" (Deuteronomy 10:20), and it is Ruth's verb when "Ruth stayed with her" (Ruth 1:14).
For your group
Numbers 36 Bible study questions
- 1The daughters were told they "speak right" (27:7), and then the heads of their clan were told the same (36:5). When have you seen a disagreement settled so that both sides were truly heard?
- 2"The daughters of Zelophehad did as the LORD commanded Moses" (36:10). What is one thing you know the LORD has said that you're still working out how to do?
- 3Numbers ends on the edge of the land, with families settling how to keep what they had been given (36:7-9, 36:13). What have you been given that you want to keep and pass on?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Numbers 36 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