נַחֲלָה

inheritance

also: possession, property, heritage fuller range ↓

H5159 Strong's Hebrew

nachălâh Transliteration

/nakh-al-aw'/ Pronunciation

Usage in the Hebrew Bible 222 appearances

Definition — BDB

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

Cite this entry

Strong's H5159 — נחלה (nachălâh), "inheritance". Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB, 1906). Lemma, https://lemma.gebible.app/w/H5159.

Show BibTeX & RIS

BibTeX

@misc{lemma-H5159,
  author       = {Lemma},
  title        = {H5159 נחלה (nachălâh) — inheritance},
  howpublished = {\url{https://lemma.gebible.app/w/H5159}},
  note         = {Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB, 1906). Lemma interlinear Bible study tool}
}

RIS

TY  - GEN
AU  - Lemma
TI  - H5159 — נחלה (nachălâh), "inheritance"
PB  - Lemma
N1  - Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB, 1906)
UR  - https://lemma.gebible.app/w/H5159
ER  -

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See every Construct-state word in the Hebrew Bible →

Grammar key — what these labels mean

Noun: A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.

Common: A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.

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).

Feminine: Grammatically feminine.

Singular: One.
Plural: More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).

71 distinct verses where H5159 appears in the Absolute state, across 15 books. 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.

Genesis 1 verse

Genesis 31:14 וְ/נַחֲלָ֖ה conj + n c fs Rachel and Leah answered him, "Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house?

Numbers 11 verses

Deuteronomy 18 verses

Joshua 16 verses

Judges 1 verse

Judges 18:1 נַֽחֲלָה֙ בְּ/נַחֲלָֽה n c fs prep + n c fs In those days there was no king in Israel: and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to dwell in; for to that day [their] inheritance had not fallen to them among the tribes of Israel.

2 Samuel 1 verse

2 Samuel 20:1 נַֽחֲלָה n c fs There happened to be there a base fellow, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he blew the trumpet, and said, We have no portion in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tents, Israel.

1 Kings 3 verses

2 Chronicles 2 verses

Job 1 verse

Job 42:15 נַחֲלָ֖ה n c fs In all the land were no women found so beautiful as the daughters of Job. Their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.

Psalms 5 verses

Proverbs 2 verses

Ezekiel 7 verses

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

Strong's · 1890

heritage

Modern gloss

inheritance

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.
Genesis 31:14: first appearance; The earliest occurrence is in Genesis 31:14.
Malachi 1:3: last appearance; The latest occurrence is in Malachi 1:3.
#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

Pentateuch 56 · 29%
Historical 69 · 36%
Wisdom 30 · 16%
Prophets 36 · 19%

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:

“Inheritance” 125×
“Heritage” 23×
“Is the inheritance” 10×
“Thee for an inheritance” 8×
“Own inheritance” 3×
“Have we inheritance” 2×
“Inherit” 2×
“Is their inheritance” 2×
“None inheritance” 2×
“Was the inheritance” 2×
“Was their inheritance” 2×

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:

“Inheritance” 118×
“Heritage” 19×
“Is the inheritance” 10×
“Thee for an inheritance” 8×
“Have we inheritance” 3×
“Is their inheritance” 3×
“Is his inheritance” 2×
“Own inheritance” 2×
“Shall no inheritance” 2×
“Was the inheritance” 2×

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:

“Inheritance” 159×
“Heritage” 11×
“Was the inheritance” 10×
“Own inheritance” 8×
“Or inheritance” 6×
“Inheritances” 2×
“Is their inheritance” 2×
“Territory” 2×

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:

“Inheritance” 163×
“Inheritance of” 33×
“And” 5×
“Inheritances” 4×
“Heritage of” 2×
“His” 2×
“Is their inheritance” 2×
“Of” 2×
“Possession” 2×

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.

Part of speech: Noun Feminine TWOT: 1342a

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.

Form	Parsing	Example	Uses
נַחֲלַ֥ת	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	1 Kings 21:3	10
נַחֲלָת֔/וֹ	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Deuteronomy 10:9	9
נַחֲלַ֛ת	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Joshua 15:20	8
נַחֲלָ֑ה	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	Deuteronomy 19:10	8
נַחֲלַ֣ת	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	1 Kings 21:4	7
נַחֲלָ֖ה	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	Deuteronomy 4:20	7
נַחֲלָֽה	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	Deuteronomy 4:21	6
נַחֲלָתֽ/וֹ	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Deuteronomy 32:9	6
וְ/נַחֲלָ֖ה	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	Deuteronomy 10:9	5
נַחֲלָת֑/וֹ	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Jeremiah 51:19	5
נַחֲלָת֖/וֹ	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	1 Samuel 10:1	5
לְ/נַחֲלָ֑ה	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	Ezekiel 36:12	4
לְ/נַחֲלָֽה	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	1 Kings 8:36	4
בְּ/נַחֲלָ֖ה	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	Joshua 13:7	3
בְּ/נַחֲלָֽה	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	Ezekiel 46:16	3
לְֽ/נַחֲלָ֔ה	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	Ezekiel 44:28	3
נַחֲלָתִ֑/י	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Jeremiah 12:7	3
נַחֲלָתֶ֑/ךָ	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Psalms 2:8	3
נַחֲלָתָ֑/ם	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Joshua 13:8	3
בְּֽ/נַחֲלָ֔ה	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	Joshua 13:6	2
וְ/נַחֲלָ֣תְ/ךָ֔	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Deuteronomy 9:26	2
וְֽ/נַחֲלַ֥ת	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Job 27:13	2
לְ/נַחֲלָת֖/וֹ	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Jeremiah 12:15	2
לְ/נַחֲלָתֽ/וֹ	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Joshua 24:28	2
מִ/נַּחֲלַ֣ת	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Ezekiel 46:18	2
נַ֭חֲלָה	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	Proverbs 20:21	2
נַחֲלַ֖ת	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Joshua 19:9	2
נַחֲלַת֩	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Isaiah 54:17	2
נַחֲלַתְ/כֶֽם	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	1 Chronicles 16:18	2
נַחֲלָ֔ה	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	Numbers 26:62	2
נַחֲלָ֗ה	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	Joshua 17:14	2
נַחֲלָ֛ה	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	Joshua 19:49	2
נַחֲלָ֣ה	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	1 Kings 12:16	2
נַחֲלָה֙	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	Deuteronomy 25:19	2
נַחֲלָת/וֹ֙	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Numbers 33:54	2
נַחֲלָתִ֔/י	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	2 Kings 21:14	2
נַחֲלָתֵ֨/נוּ֙	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Lamentations 5:2	2
נַחֲלָתֶֽ/ךָ	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Isaiah 63:17	2
נַחֲלָתָ֔/ן	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Numbers 36:4	2
נַחֲלָתָ֗/ם	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Joshua 18:7	2
נַחֲלָתָֽ/ם	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Joshua 19:9	2
בְ/נַחֲלָ֔ה	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	Ezekiel 47:22	1
בְּ/נַ֣חֲלָת֔/וֹ	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Numbers 36:9	1
בְּ/נַֽחֲלָתָ֑/ם	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Joshua 19:2	1
בְּ/נַחֲלַ֤ת	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	1 Samuel 26:19	1
בְּ/נַחֲלַת֙	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Numbers 36:7	1
בְּ/נַחֲלַתְ/כֶ֑ם	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Numbers 18:26	1
בְּ/נַחֲלָ֗ה	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	Ezekiel 45:1	1
בְּ/נַחֲלָ֛ה	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	Numbers 36:2	1
בְּ/נַחֲלָֽתְ/ךָ֙	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Deuteronomy 19:14	1
בְּ/נַחֲלָה֒	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	Ezekiel 47:22	1
בְּ/נַחֲלָתָֽ/ם	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Genesis 48:6	1
בְּ/נַחֲלָתֽ/וֹ	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Nehemiah 11:20	1
בְּֽ/נַחֲלָתֶ֗/ךָ	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Psalms 79:1	1
בַּֽ/נַּחֲלָ֔ה	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	Jeremiah 12:14	1
הַ/נְּחָלֹ֡ת	Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute	Joshua 19:51	1
הַֽ/נַּחֲלָ֔ה	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	Deuteronomy 12:9	1
וְ/נַחֲלַ֖ת	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct	Job 20:29	1
וְ/נַחֲלָ֜ה	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	Deuteronomy 14:29	1
וְ/נַחֲלָ֥ה	Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute	Deuteronomy 18:2	1

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

נחל nâchal H5157 to inherit

Shares the same root

נחל nachal H5158 wadi

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

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.