Numbers 36:2

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) Numbers 36:2 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.
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Numbers 36:2 (World English Bible). Public Domain. Lemma interlinear Bible study tool, https://lemma.gebible.app/v/numbers/36/2.

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and they said, Yahweh commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the children of Israel: and my lord was commanded by Yahweh to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters.
World English Bible · Public Domain
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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.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    and they said, Yahweh commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the children of Israel: and my lord was commanded by Yahweh to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters.
  • King James Version Public Domain
    And they said, The LORD commanded my lord to give the land for an inheritance by lot to the children of Israel: and my lord was commanded by the LORD to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother unto his daughters.
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    And they said, “Yahweh commanded my master to give the land as an inheritance by lot to the sons of Israel, and my master was commanded by Yahweh to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters.

unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).

Versions to compare (up to 4)

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Show all 18 translations

Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    and they said, Yahweh commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the children of Israel: and my lord was commanded by Yahweh to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters.
  • Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
    saying, “When the LORD commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance to the Israelites by lot, He also commanded him to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters.
  • Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
    saying, “When the LORD commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance to the Israelites by lot, He also commanded him to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters.
  • King James Version Public Domain
    And they said, The LORD commanded my lord to give the land for an inheritance by lot to the children of Israel: and my lord was commanded by the LORD to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother unto his daughters.
  • American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
    and they said, Jehovah commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the children of Israel: and my lord was commanded by Jehovah to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother unto his daughters.
  • Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
    and they said, The LORD commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the children of Israel: and my lord was commanded by the LORD to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother unto his daughters.
  • Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
    And saide, The Lord commanded my lord to giue the land to inherit by lot to the children of Israel: and my lord was commanded by the Lord, to giue the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother vnto his daughters.
  • Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
    The Lord hath commanded thee, my lord, that thou shouldst divide the land by lot to the children of Israel, and that thou shouldst give to the daughters of Salphaad our brother the possession due to their father:
  • Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
    and say, Jehovah commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the sons of Israel, and my lord hath been commanded by Jehovah to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters.
  • Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    and say, “YHWH commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the sons of Israel, and my lord has been commanded by YHWH to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters.
  • Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
    They said, “Yahweh commanded you, our master, to give a share of land by lot to the people of Israel. You were commanded by Yahweh to give the share of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters.
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    And they said, “Yahweh commanded my master to give the land as an inheritance by lot to the sons of Israel, and my master was commanded by Yahweh to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters.
  • Darby Bible Public Domain
    and they said, Jehovah commanded my lord to give the land for an inheritance by lot to the children of Israel; and my lord was commanded by Jehovah to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters.
  • World Messianic Bible Public Domain
    They said, “The LORD commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the children of Israel. My lord was commanded by the LORD to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters.
  • Webster's Bible Public Domain
    And they said, The LORD commanded my lord to give the land for an inheritance by lot to the children of Israel: and my lord was commanded by the LORD to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters.
  • Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    They said, “When the Lord ordered you, my lord, to allocate land ownership to the Israelites by lot, he also ordered you to give our brother Zelophehad's share to his daughters.
  • Bible in Basic English Public Domain
    And said, The Lord gave orders to my lord to make distribution of the land as their heritage to the children of Israel: and my lord was ordered by the Lord to give the heritage of Zelophehad, our brother, to his daughters.
  • JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
    and they said: 'The LORD commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the children of Israel; and my lord was commanded by the LORD to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother unto his daughters.

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

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צְלָפְחָ֥ד
Tsᵉlophchâd
H6765
“Zelophehad”
Noun, Proper
Part of Speech
Noun
Type
Proper
Full BDB Definition

Origin: from the same as H6764 and H259

TWOT: None

Zelophehad = "first-born" - a Manassite, son of Hepher and grandson of Gilead; came out of Egypt with Moses and died in the wilderness leaving only five daughters as heirs; their right to the inheritance was confirmed by divine direction
  1. וַיֹּאמְר֗וּ ʼâmar H559 “and · to say” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural
  2. אֶת ʼêth H853 “-” Particle, Direct Object
  3. אֲדֹנִי֙ ʼâdôwn H113 “lord · my” Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular
  4. צִוָּ֣ה tsâvâh H6680 “to command” Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
  5. יְהוָ֔ה Yᵉhôvâh H3068 “LORD” Noun, Proper
  6. לָתֵ֨ת nâthan H5414 “to give” Preposition + Verb, Qal, Infinitive Construct
  7. אֶת ʼêth H853 “-” Particle, Direct Object
  8. הָאָ֧רֶץ ʼerets H776 “the · land” Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Absolute
  9. בְּנַחֲלָ֛ה nachălâh H5159 “in/at · inheritance” Preposition + Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute
  10. בְּגוֹרָ֖ל gôwrâl H1486 “in/at · lot” Preposition + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
  11. לִבְנֵ֣י bên H1121 “to/for · sons of” Preposition + Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct
  12. יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל Yisrâʼêl H3478 “Israel” Noun, Proper
  13. וַֽאדֹנִי֙ ʼâdôwn H113 “and · lord · my” Conjunction + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular
  14. צֻוָּ֣ה tsâvâh H6680 “to command” Verb, Pual, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
  15. בַֽיהוָ֔ה Yᵉhôvâh H3068 “in/at · LORD” Preposition + Noun, Proper
  16. לָתֵ֗ת nâthan H5414 “to give” Preposition + Verb, Qal, Infinitive Construct
  17. אֶֽת ʼêth H853 “-” Particle, Direct Object
  18. נַחֲלַ֛ת nachălâh H5159 “inheritance of” Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct
  19. אָחִ֖ינוּ ʼâch H251 “brother · our” Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Plural
  20. לִבְנֹתָֽיו bath H1323 “to/for · daughters · his” Preposition + Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular

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 →

21
words
14
distinct lemmas
Pentateuch
section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is צְלָפְחָ֥ד Zelophehad H6765 — appearing just 11 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

צְלָפְחָ֥ד Zelophehad H6765 occurs in 9 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

  • 5 verbs
  • 13 nouns
  • 3 particles

Verb forms

  • וַיֹּאמְר֗וּ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
  • צִוָּ֣ה Piel · Perfect
  • לָתֵ֨ת Qal · Infinitive Construct
  • צֻוָּ֣ה Pual · Perfect
  • לָתֵ֗ת Qal · Infinitive Construct

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

  • אֲדֹנִי֙ lord H113 ×2
  • צִוָּ֣ה to command H6680 ×2
  • יְהוָ֔ה LORD H3068 ×2
  • לָתֵ֨ת to give H5414 ×2
  • בְּנַחֲלָ֛ה inheritance H5159 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 38 words from the Hebrew and 38 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 21 Hebrew tokens and 32 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

7

Topical passages linked to Numbers 36:2 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

  • Numbers 27:1–7 Then drew near the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of Manasseh the son of Joseph; and these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Tirzah.
  • Numbers 33:54 You shall inherit the land by lot according to your families; to the more you shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer you shall give the less inheritance: wherever the lot falls to any man, that shall be his; according to the tribes of your fathers shall you inherit.
  • Joshua 17:3–6 But Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but daughters: and these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.
  • Numbers 26:55–56 Notwithstanding, the land shall be divided by lot: according to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit.
  • Joshua 13:6 all the inhabitants of the hill-country from Lebanon to Misrephoth Maim, even all the Sidonians; them will I drive out from before the children of Israel: only allot you it to Israel for an inheritance, as I have commanded you.
  • Joshua 14:1–2 These are the inheritances which the children of Israel took in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers' [houses] of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed to them,
  • Job 42:15 In all the land were no women found so beautiful as the daughters of Job. Their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.

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.

Hebrew Numbers 36:2 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיֹּאמְר֗וּ אֶת אֲדֹנִי֙ צִוָּ֣ה יְהוָ֔ה לָתֵ֨ת אֶת הָאָ֧רֶץ בְּנַחֲלָ֛ה בְּגוֹרָ֖ל לִבְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וַֽאדֹנִי֙ צֻוָּ֣ה בַֽיהוָ֔ה לָתֵ֗ת אֶֽת נַחֲלַ֛ת צְלָפְחָ֥ד אָחִ֖ינוּ לִבְנֹתָֽיו

and they said, Yahweh commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the children of Israel: and my lord was commanded by Yahweh to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 36:2 Septuagint · lemma form

καί εἶπον ὁ κύριος ἐγώ ἐντέλλομαι κύριος ἀποδίδωμι ὁ γῆ ὁ κληρονομία ἐν κλῆρος ὁ υἱός ἰσραήλ καί ὁ κύριος συντάσσω κύριος δίδωμι ὁ κληρονομία σαλπααδ ὁ ἀδελφός ἐγώ ὁ θυγάτηρ αὐτός

and they said, The Lord commanded our lord to render the land of inheritance by lot to the children of Israel; and the Lord appointed our lord to give the inheritance of Salpaad our brother to his daughters.

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)

2

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.

  1. Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)
    וַאֲמָרוּ יָת רִבּוֹנִי פַּקִיד יְיָ לְמִתַּן יָת אַרְעָא בְאַחֲסָנָא בְּעַדְבָא לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְרִבּוֹנִי אִתְפַּקֵד בְּמֵימְרָא דַיְיָ לְמִתַּן יָת אַחֲסָנַת צְלָפְחָד אָחוּנָא לִבְנָתֵהּ

    (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.

  2. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)
    וַאֲמָרוּ יַת רִבּוֹנִי פַּקֵיד יְיָ לְמִתַּן יַת אַרְעָא בְּאַחְסַנְתָּא בְּעַדְבָא לִבְנֵי יִשְרָאֵל וְרִבּוֹנִי אִתְפַּקֵיד מִן קֳדָם יְיָ לְמִתַּן יַת אַחְסָנַת צְלָפְחָד אָחוּנָא לִבְנָתֵיהּ

    and said: The Lord commanded Rabboni {our lord} to give the land an inheritance by lot to the children of Israel, and Rabboni was commanded before the Lord to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters.

    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 36:2 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 →

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Meaning, Moses.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 2. To give the inheritance of Zelophehad - unto his daughters.] See this case spoken of at large on Nu 27:1-11.

Either the first eleven verses of Nu 27:1-11 should come in before this chapter, or this chapter should come in immediately after those eleven verses; they certainly both make parts of the same subject.

Here Moses determines that heiresses should marry in their own tribe, that no part of the ancient inheritance might be alienated from the original family.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And they said,.... One in the name of the rest:

the Lord commanded my lord; that is, Moses, whom they address in a very respectable manner, being the chief governor of the nation under God:

to give the land for an inheritance by lot to the children of Israel; which command may be seen, in Num 26:53,

and my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother; or kinsman, being of the same tribe:

unto his daughters; who sued for it, and upon Moses's consulting the Lord about it, it was ordered they should have it, Num 27:1 and which these princes observed was likely to be attended with the following inconvenience.

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

Our brother, i.e. our kinsman, one of our tribe, Jos 17:2,3.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

My lord. ynidoa. The singular form is constantly used in Hebrew, as in other languages, together with the plural personal pronoun. (see at Gen_23:6) The deference now paid to Moses (cf. Num_32:25, Num_32:27) is in marked contrast to the treatment he had received from the former generation. Only Aaron (and that under the influence of terror Exo_32:22 Num_12:11) and Joshua (Jos_11:23) had addressed him as Adoni before.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Our brother - Our kinsman.

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 21 words (14 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Tsᵉlophchâd (“Zelophehad”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

  1. The word Tsᵉlophchâd carries the sense “Zelophehad.” How does it shape the verse?
  2. How does Numbers 26:33, which shares the word «Zelophehad», read alongside this verse?
  3. What does the repetition of “lord” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
  4. These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
  5. «וַיֹּאמְר֗וּ» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
  6. Compare how Geneva Bible (1599) and Adam Clarke's Commentary read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

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Old Testament edition

Read the OT as the Masoretic Hebrew (MT) or the Greek Septuagint (LXX).

English shown for the Greek Septuagint (in the Hebrew ↔ Greek comparison).

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