Numbers 26 · a question people ask
Was the land divided by size or by lot?
The LORD commands both. By size: "To the more you shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer you shall give the less inheritance" (26:54). By lot: "Notwithstanding, the land shall be divided by lot" (26:55), and "According to the lot shall their inheritance be divided between the more and the fewer" (26:56). Numbers later puts both in one verse: "You shall inherit the land by lot according to your families; to the larger groups you shall give a larger inheritance, and to the smaller you shall give a smaller inheritance. Wherever the lot falls to any man, that shall be his" (33:54). The text doesn't spell out how the two worked together. When the land was shared out, it was "by the lot of their inheritance, as the LORD commanded by Moses" (Joshua 14:2).
The verses
“To the more you shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer you shall give the less inheritance. To everyone according to those who were counted of him shall his inheritance be given. Notwithstanding, the land shall be divided by lot. According to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit. According to the lot shall their inheritance be divided between the more and the fewer.””
“You shall inherit the land by lot according to your families; to the larger groups you shall give a larger inheritance, and to the smaller you shall give a smaller inheritance. Wherever the lot falls to any man, that shall be his. You shall inherit according to the tribes of your fathers.”
“These are the inheritances which the children of Israel took in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed to them, by the lot of their inheritance, as the LORD commanded by Moses, for the nine tribes, and for the half-tribe.”