נַחֲלָה
inheritance
also: possession, property, heritage fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Absolute-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
18 verses where H5159 appears in the Absolute state in the Book of Deuteronomy. Filtered view — show all forms. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Deuteronomy
- Deuteronomy 4:20 נַחֲלָ֖ה n c fs But Yahweh has taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as at this day.
- Deuteronomy 4:21 נַחֲלָֽה n c fs Furthermore Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go over the Jordan, and that I should not go in to that good land, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance:
- Deuteronomy 4:38 נַחֲלָ֖ה n c fs to drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as at this day.
- Deuteronomy 10:9 וְ/נַחֲלָ֖ה נַחֲלָת֔/וֹ conj + n c fs n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brothers; Yahweh is his inheritance, according as Yahweh your God spoke to him.)
- Deuteronomy 12:9 הַֽ/נַּחֲלָ֔ה ptcl def.art + n c fs for you haven't yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which Yahweh your God gives you.
- Deuteronomy 12:12 וְ/נַחֲלָ֖ה conj + n c fs You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you, and your sons, and your daughters, and your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you.
- Deuteronomy 14:27 וְ/נַחֲלָ֖ה conj + n c fs The Levite who is within your gates, you shall not forsake him; for he has no portion nor inheritance with you.
- Deuteronomy 14:29 וְ/נַחֲלָ֜ה conj + n c fs and the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the foreigner living among you, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.
- Deuteronomy 15:4 נַחֲלָ֖ה n c fs However there shall be no poor with you; (for Yahweh will surely bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it;)
- Deuteronomy 18:1 וְ/נַחֲלָ֖ה וְ/נַחֲלָת֖/וֹ conj + n c fs conj + n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms The priests the Levites, [even] all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion nor inheritance with Israel: they shall eat the offerings of Yahweh made by fire, and his inheritance.
- Deuteronomy 18:2 וְ/נַחֲלָ֥ה נַחֲלָת֔/וֹ conj + n c fs n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms They shall have no inheritance among their brothers: Yahweh is their inheritance, as he has spoken to them.
- Deuteronomy 19:10 נַחֲלָ֑ה n c fs that innocent blood not be shed in the midst of your land, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, and so blood be on you.
- Deuteronomy 20:16 נַחֲלָ֑ה n c fs But of the cities of these peoples, that Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes;
- Deuteronomy 21:23 נַחֲלָֽה n c fs his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day; for he who is hanged is accursed of God; that you don't defile your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.
- Deuteronomy 24:4 נַחֲלָֽה n c fs her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before Yahweh: and you shall not cause the land to sin, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.
- Deuteronomy 25:19 נַחֲלָה֙ n c fs Therefore it shall be, when Yahweh your God has given you rest from all your enemies round about, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, that you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky; you shall not forget.
- Deuteronomy 26:1 נַחֲלָ֑ה n c fs It shall be, when you are come in to the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, and possess it, and dwell therein,
- Deuteronomy 29:8 לְ/נַחֲלָ֔ה prep + n c fs and we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of the Manassites.
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
נחלה (nachălâh) is a Hebrew noun most often rendered “inheritance.” Beyond “inheritance” it also covers “possession”, “property”, and “heritage” — see its full sense range. With 191 verses in 25 books, it is a common word in the Hebrew Bible. First canonically at Genesis 31:14, it enters the text early. It clusters with נחל and נחל under a shared root. See the sense tree, 191-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H5159 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 191
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 191 distinct verses.
- 25 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 25 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #213
- by frequency
- Top 250 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 213 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 191 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Joshua 43 verses 23%
- Numbers 31 verses 16%
- Deuteronomy 22 verses 12%
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 191 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 97 verses · 51%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 56 verses · 29%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 38 verses · 20%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Inheritance 125×, Heritage 23×, Is the inheritance 10×
- American Standard Version: Inheritance 118×, Heritage 19×, Is the inheritance 10×
- Berean Standard Bible: Inheritance 159×, Heritage 11×, Was the inheritance 10×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Inheritance 163×, Inheritance of 33×, And 5×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H5159 across 222 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 41 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H5159 across 221 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 52 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H5159 across 216 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 16 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 6 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H5159 across 232 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 17 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
10 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 10 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
- 1. property:
- a. in Canaan given by י׳ to Israel, †נחלת ישׂראל Ju 20:6; †נ׳ יעקב Is 58:14, especially †אֲשֶׁר נֹתֵן לְךָ נַחֲלָה Dt 4:21; 15:4; 19:10; 20:16; 21:23; 24:4; 25:19; 26:1 (all D); הנחלה אשׁר הנחלתי את עמי Je 12:14. e.g. Judges 20:6
- b. distrib. among tribes: נתן נ׳ לְ Nu 16:14; 36:2 Jos 14:3 (restore לְ), 17:4, 14; 19:49 (all P); נתן לנ׳ לְ Dt 29:7 Jos 11:23; 14:13 (all D2); נָֽחֲלוּ נחלה Jos 17:6 (J); תֵּחָלֵק בנ׳ Nu 26:53, 56 (P); נפל בנחלה Nu 34:2 (P), Ju 18:1 Ez 47:22; הפיל בנ׳ Jos 13:6; 23:4 (D2), Ez 45:1; 47:22, also v 29 (Co reads ב for מ). e.g. Numbers 16:14
- c. nations as possession of the people, ψ 111:6; of the king 2:8. e.g. Psalms 111:6
- d. Levites have no property in the land Nu 18:23, 24 Dt 10:9; 12:12; their possession is י׳ Nu 18:20 (P); י׳ הוּא נחלתו Dt 10:9; 18:2 Jos 13:14, 33 (all D); the tithes Nu 18:21, 24, 26 (P). e.g. Numbers 18:23
- e. †י׳ takes Isr. as his property, 1 S 10:1 1 K 8:53 2 K 21:14 Is 19:25 Mi 7:18 ψ 33:12; 68:10; 106:5; עם נחלה Dt 4:20 (D2); עַמְּךָ וְנַחֲלָֽתְךָ Dt 9:26, 29 (D), 1 K 8:51; ‖ עַם Is 47:6 Jo 2:17; 4:2 Mi 7:14 ψ 28:9; 78:62, 71; 94:5, 14; 106:40; נחלת י׳ 1 S 26:19 2 S 20:19; 21:3; נ׳ אלהים 2 S 14:16; יעקב חבל נ׳ Dt 32:9; שׁבט נ׳ Je 10:16 = 51:19, ψ 74:2; שׁבטי נ׳ Is 63:17; also, the holy mt. Ex 15:17 (song), temple Je 12:7 ψ 79:1, land Je 2:7; 12:8, 9; 16:18; 50:11. e.g. 1 Samuel 10:1
- 2. portion, share:
- a. assigned by God, Is 54:17 ψ 37:18; 127:3; elsewhere ‖ חֵלָק Jb 20:29; 27:13; 31:2. e.g. Isaiah 54:17
- b. by choice, ‖ חֵלֶק, לא נ׳ לנו בבן ישׁי 2 S 20:1 we have no share in the son of Jesse = 1 K 12:16 = 2 Ch 10:16. e.g. 2 Samuel 20:1
- 3. inheritance (45 times) חֵלָק וְנַחֲלָה בְּבֵית אָבִינוּ Gn 31:14 (E) portion or inheritance in the house of our father; העביר נ׳ לְ Nu 27:7, 8 (P) cause the inheritance to pass unto; נתן נ׳ לְ Nu 27:9, 10, 11 (P), Jb 42:15; †נחלת אבוה Nu 36:3, 8 1 K 21:3, 4 Pr 19:14; נ׳ לבניו תהיה Ez 46:16. e.g. Genesis 31:14
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
n.f. possession, property, inheritance (orig. gift; NH = BH);—נ׳ Nu 18:23 +; נַחֲלָת ψ 16:6 (Ges§ 80 g), read נַחֲלָתִי Ew SS We Köii 1, 425; cstr. נַחֲלַת Jos 13:23; sf. נַחֲלָתִי Ru 4:6; נַחֲלַתְכֶם ψ 105:11; pl. נְחָלוֹת Is 49:8, נְחָלֹת Jos 19:51;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from נחל (nâchal) (H5157) — to inherit.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
נַחֲלָה
- [turn, lot,] inheritance, right of succession. B. Bath. VIII, 4 אחד הבן ואחד הבת בנ׳ the same law of succession applies to sons and (eventually) to daughters (v. ib. 122ᵇ). Bekh. VIII, 1, v. בְּכוֹר. Midr. Till. to Ps. V, 1 (play on נחילות ib.) על הנ׳ שנחלתם וכ׳ for the possession which you took from me, and for the possession which I took from you; a. fr.—Trnsf. the central sanctuary at Shiloh or at Jerusalem. Tosef. Zeb. XIII, 20; Zeb. 119ᵃ, sq.; Meg. 10ᵃ, contrad. to מְנוּחָה.—Pl. נַחֲלוֹת. B. Bath. VIII, 2 סדר נ׳ וכ׳ the following is the order of succession (among relatives). Ib. 117ᵃ משונה נחלה זו מכל נ׳ שבעולם this division of inheritance (after the conquest of Canaan) is different from all other successions; a. fr.—Yalk. Ps. 629, v. נְחִילָה.
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 117 distinct written forms H5159 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 57 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H5159, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 182 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 191 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- Genesis 31:14
- Exodus 15:17
- Numbers 16:14
- Deuteronomy 4:20
- Joshua 11:23
- Judges 2:6
- Ruth 4:5
- 1 Samuel 10:1
- 2 Samuel 14:16
- 1 Kings 8:36
- 2 Kings 21:14
- 1 Chronicles 16:18
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
