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 Construct-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).
25 verses where H5159 appears in the Construct state in the Book of Numbers. 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.
Numbers
- Numbers 16:14 נַחֲלַ֖ת n c fs cs Moreover you haven't brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: will you put out the eyes of these men? we won't come up.
- Numbers 18:20 וְ/נַחֲלָ֣תְ/ךָ֔ conj + n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms Yahweh said to Aaron, You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them: I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel.
- Numbers 18:26 בְּ/נַחֲלַתְ/כֶ֑ם prep + n c fs cs + sfx pers 2mp Moreover you shall speak to the Levites, and tell them, When you take of the children of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall offer up a heave-offering of it for Yahweh, a tithe of the tithe.
- Numbers 26:54 נַחֲלָת֔/וֹ נַחֲלָת֑/וֹ נַחֲלָתֽ/וֹ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms 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 numbered of him shall his inheritance be given.
- Numbers 26:56 נַחֲלָת֑/וֹ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms According to the lot shall their inheritance be divided between the more and the fewer.
- Numbers 27:7 נַחֲלָ֔ה נַחֲלַ֥ת n c fs n c fs cs The daughters of Zelophehad speak right: you shall surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father's brothers; and you shall cause the inheritance of their father to pass to them.
- Numbers 27:8 נַחֲלָת֖/וֹ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, If a man die, and have no son, then you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter.
- Numbers 27:9 נַחֲלָת֖/וֹ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms If he have no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers.
- Numbers 27:10 נַחֲלָת֖/וֹ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms If he have no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father's brothers.
- Numbers 27:11 נַחֲלָת֗/וֹ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms If his father have no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his kinsman who is next to him of his family, and he shall possess it: and it shall be to the children of Israel a statute [and] ordinance, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
- Numbers 32:18 נַחֲלָתֽ/וֹ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms We will not return to our houses, until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance.
- Numbers 32:19 נַחֲלָתֵ֨/נוּ֙ n c fs cs + sfx pers 1cp For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan, and forward; because our inheritance is fallen to us on this side of the Jordan eastward.
- Numbers 32:32 נַחֲלָתֵ֔/נוּ n c fs cs + sfx pers 1cp We will pass over armed before Yahweh into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance [shall remain] with us beyond the Jordan.
- Numbers 33:54 נַחֲלָת/וֹ֙ נַחֲלָת֔/וֹ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms 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.
- Numbers 34:14 נַחֲלָתָֽ/ם n c fs cs + sfx pers 3mp for the tribe of the children of Reuben according to their fathers' houses, and the tribe of the children of Gad according to their fathers' houses, have received, and the half-tribe of Manasseh have received, their inheritance:
- Numbers 34:15 נַחֲלָתָ֗/ם n c fs cs + sfx pers 3mp the two tribes and the half-tribe have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, toward the sunrise.
- Numbers 35:2 מִֽ/נַּחֲלַ֛ת prep + n c fs cs Command the children of Israel that they give to the Levites of the inheritance of their possession cities to dwell in; and suburbs for the cities round about them shall you give to the Levites.
- Numbers 35:8 נַחֲלָת/וֹ֙ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms Concerning the cities which you shall give of the possession of the children of Israel, from the many you shall take many; and from the few you shall take few: everyone according to his inheritance which he inherits shall give of his cities to the Levites.
- Numbers 36:2 בְּ/נַחֲלָ֛ה נַחֲלַ֛ת prep + n c fs n c fs cs 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.
- Numbers 36:3 נַחֲלָתָ/ן֙ מִ/נַּחֲלַ֣ת נַחֲלַ֣ת נַחֲלָתֵ֖/נוּ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3fp prep + n c fs cs n c fs cs n c fs cs + sfx pers 1cp If they be married to any of the sons of the [other] tribes of the children of Israel, then will their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of our fathers, and will be added to the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they shall belong: so will it be taken away from the lot of our inheritance.
- Numbers 36:4 נַחֲלָתָ֔/ן נַחֲלַ֣ת וּ/מִֽ/נַּחֲלַת֙ נַחֲלָתָֽ/ן n c fs cs + sfx pers 3fp n c fs cs conj + prep + n c fs cs n c fs cs + sfx pers 3fp When the jubilee of the children of Israel shall be, then will their inheritance be added to the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they shall belong: so will their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.
- Numbers 36:7 נַחֲלָה֙ בְּ/נַחֲלַת֙ n c fs prep + n c fs cs So shall no inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe; for the children of Israel shall cleave everyone to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.
- Numbers 36:8 נַחֲלָ֗ה נַחֲלַ֥ת n c fs n c fs cs Every daughter, who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel, shall be wife to one of the family of the tribe of her father, that the children of Israel may possess every man the inheritance of his fathers.
- Numbers 36:9 נַחֲלָ֛ה בְּ/נַ֣חֲלָת֔/וֹ n c fs prep + n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms So shall no inheritance remove from one tribe to another tribe; for the tribes of the children of Israel shall cleave everyone to his own inheritance.
- Numbers 36:12 נַחֲלָתָ֔/ן n c fs cs + sfx pers 3fp They were married into the families of the sons of Manasseh the son of Joseph; and their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father.
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.
