עַל פִּי֙ הַגּוֹרָ֔ל תֵּחָלֵ֖ק נַחֲלָת֑וֹ בֵּ֥ין רַ֖ב לִמְעָֽט
According to the lot shall their inheritance be divided between the more and the fewer.
World English Bible · Public Domain
Numbers 26:56
Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) Numbers 26:56 appears in the Hebrew Old Testament. The text above is from the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Each word links to its Strong’s number, a concise gloss, and parsing drawn from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology. Click any word for its full Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) entry.
English Translation
According to the lot shall their inheritance be divided between the more and the fewer.
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Compare translations 3
The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.
Each is an independent rendering of the whole verse — the interlinear is not word-aligned to these translations.
Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.
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World English Bible Public Domain
According to the lot shall their inheritance be divided between the more and the fewer.
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King James Version Public Domain
According to the lot shall the possession thereof be divided between many and few.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
His inheritance shall be apportioned in accordance with the mouth of the lot, between the numerous and the small.”
unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).
Show all 18 translations
Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.
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World English Bible Public Domain
According to the lot shall their inheritance be divided between the more and the fewer.
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Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Each inheritance is to be divided by lot among the larger and smaller tribes.”
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Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
Each inheritance is to be divided by lot among the larger and smaller tribes.”
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King James Version Public Domain
According to the lot shall the possession thereof be divided between many and few.
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American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
According to the lot shall their inheritance be divided between the more and the fewer.
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Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
According to the lot shall their inheritance be divided between the more and the fewer.
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Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
According to the lot shall the possession thereof be deuided betweene many and fewe.
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Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
Whatsoever shall fall by lot, that shall be taken by the more, or the fewer.
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Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
according to the lot is their inheritance apportioned between many and few.'
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Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
their inheritance is apportioned according to the lot between many and few.”
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Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
Their inheritance must be divided among the larger and the smaller clans, distributed to them by random lot.”
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
His inheritance shall be apportioned in accordance with the mouth of the lot, between the numerous and the small.”
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Darby Bible Public Domain
according to lot shall his inheritance be divided to each, be they many or few in number.
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World Messianic Bible Public Domain
According to the lot shall their inheritance be divided between the more and the fewer.”
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Webster's Bible Public Domain
According to the lot shall the possession of it be divided between many and few.
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Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
Every allocation of land is to be divided by casting lots among the tribes, whether large or small.”
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Bible in Basic English Public Domain
As it is ordered by the decision of the Lord, let distribution be made between those who are more in number and those who are less.
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JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
According to the lot shall their inheritance be divided between the more and the fewer.'
Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).
Word by word
More ways to search: Search by grammar → Find every occurrence → Compare this word →
Practice this passage: Drill this verse → Learn its vocabulary →
תֵּחָלֵ֖ק
châlaq
H2505
“to divide”
Verb, Niphal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular
- Appears 65× in the Hebrew Bible
- First appears at Genesis 14:15
- Part of Speech
- Verb
- Stem
- Niphal
- Form
- Imperfect
- Person
- 3rd Person
- Gender
- Feminine
- Number
- Singular
Full BDB Definition
to divide, share, plunder, allot, apportion, assign
- (Qal)
- to divide, apportion
- to assign, distribute
- to assign, impart
- to share
- to divide up, plunder
- (Niphal)
- to divide oneself
- to be divided
- to assign, distribute
- (Piel)
- to divide, apportion
- to assign, distribute
- to scatter
- (Pual) to be divided
- (Hiphil) to receive a portion or part
- (Hithpael) to divide among themselves
- to be smooth, slippery, deceitful
- (Qal) to be smooth, slippery
- (Hiphil)
- to be smooth
- to flatter
- עַל ʻal H5921 “upon” Preposition
- פִּי֙ peh H6310 “mouth of” Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct
- הַגּוֹרָ֔ל gôwrâl H1486 “the · lot” Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
- תֵּחָלֵ֖ק châlaq H2505 “to divide” Verb, Niphal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular
- נַחֲלָת֑וֹ nachălâh H5159 “inheritance · his” Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- בֵּ֥ין bêyn H996 “between” Preposition
- רַ֖ב rab H7227 “many” Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
- לִמְעָֽט mᵉʻaṭ H4592 “to/for · few” Preposition + Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
About this verse
These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →
- 8
- words
- 8
- distinct lemmas
- Pentateuch
- section
Grammatical profile
- 1 verb
- 3 nouns
- 2 adjectives
- 2 prepositions
Verb forms
- תֵּחָלֵ֖ק Niphal · Imperfect
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 15 words from the Hebrew and 13 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.
A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.
Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.
In the original languages it is 8 Hebrew tokens and 12 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.
Cross-references
2Topical passages linked to Numbers 26:56 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
- Romans 11:7 What then? That which Israel seeks for, that he didn't obtain, but the chosen ones obtained it, and the rest were hardened.
- 1 Corinthians 12:4 Now there are various kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.
Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).
Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint
The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.
These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.
ἐκ ὁ κλῆρος μερίζω ὁ κληρονομία αὐτός ἀνά μέσος πολύς καί ὀλίγος
You shall divide their inheritance by lot between the many and the few.
LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain
Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →
Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)
The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.
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Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)
עַל פּוּם עַדְבָא תִּתְפְּלֵיג אַחֲסַנְתְּהוֹן בֵּין סַגִיאֵי לִזְעֵירֵי
(no public-domain English translation for this verse)
Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
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Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)
עַל פּוּם עַדְבִין תִּתְפְּלֵג אַחְסַנְתְּהוֹן בֵּין סַגִיאֵי לִזְעִירֵי
Their heritage shall be divided by lots, whether great or small.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Lesson kit
Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.
Numbers, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 8 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is châlaq (“to divide”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Discussion questions
- How does “to divide” (châlaq) shape what this verse is saying?
- How does Romans 11:7, which shares this passage’s theme, read alongside this verse?
- These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
- «תֵּחָלֵ֖ק» is a Niphal Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
- Compare how Joseph Benson's Commentary and Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?
Things to notice
- This verse counts 8 Hebrew ↔ 12 Greek words.
- These translations choose different wording for 14 words in this verse.
- 8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.
Commentary
Notes on Numbers 26:56 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.
Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →
Joseph Benson's Commentary
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Wesley's Explanatory Notes
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Rashi
Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)
Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.