Numbers 27:10

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

If he have no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father's brothers.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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נַחֲלָת֖וֹ

nachălâh

H5159

“inheritance · his”

Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular

Appears 222× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 31:14

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H5157 (in its usual sense)

TWOT: 1342a

possession, property, inheritance, heritage - property - portion, share - inheritance, portion

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 →

9: words
7: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Grammatical profile

1 verb
4 nouns
1 preposition
1 conjunction
2 particles

Verb forms

וּנְתַתֶּ֥ם Qal · Sequential Perfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

אַחִ֑ים brother H251 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 15 words from the Hebrew and 15 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the same length.

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 9 Hebrew tokens and 14 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.

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.

Hebrew Numbers 27:10 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְאִם אֵ֥ין ל֖וֹ אַחִ֑ים וּנְתַתֶּ֥ם אֶת נַחֲלָת֖וֹ לַאֲחֵ֥י אָבִֽיו

If he have no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father's brothers.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 27:10 Septuagint · lemma form

ἐάν δέ μή εἰμί αὐτός ἀδελφός δίδωμι ὁ κληρονομία ὁ ἀδελφός ὁ πατήρ αὐτός

And if he have no brethren, you⌃ shall give his inheritance to his father's brother.

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.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְאִם לֵית לֵיהּ אַחִין וְתִתְּנוּן יָת אַחֲסַנְתֵּיהּ לְאֲחֵי אֲבוּהִי

(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.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְאִין לֵית לֵיהּ אָחִין וְתִתְּנוּן יַת אַחְסַנְתֵּיהּ לְאָחוֹי מִן אָבוֹי

if he have no brothers, you shall give his possession to the brethren of his father:

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.

Commentary

Notes on Numbers 27:10 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

Num 27:10-11. No brethren — Nor sisters, as appears from Num 27:8. A statute of judgment — A standing law or rule, whereby to judge of succession to inheritances in all future times, and whereby the magistrates should give judgment in such cases.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And if his father have no brethren,.... Nor any descending from them:

then ye shall give his inheritance unto his kinsman that is next to him of his family: that is nearest of kin to him, though ever so remote; that is, of his father's family, not his mother's, which was no family:

and he shall possess it: here the Jews have a saying, that an Israelite is never without heirs (y):

and it shall be unto the children of Israel a statute of judgment; a judicial law, that should ever remain firm, and sure, and unalterable:

as the Lord commanded Moses; and therefore no man could dispose of his estate or inheritance by will, otherwise than is set forth by this command.

(y) Maimon. Hilchot Nechalot, c. 1. sect. 3.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

No brethren, nor sisters, as appears from Num 27:8.

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

No brethren -- nor sisters, as appears from ver. 8.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

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 9 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is nachălâh (“inheritance”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “inheritance” (nachălâh) contribute to the verse as a whole?
“brother” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
The verb «וּנְתַתֶּ֥ם» is Qal Sequential Perfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Joseph Benson's Commentary and John Gill's Exposition read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 14 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 8 words in this verse.
“brother” occurs 2× in this single verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.