Numbers 27:9

9 if he hath no daughter, he shall have (as) his heirs his brethren; (if he hath no daughter, his brothers shall be his heirs;)

Numbers 27:9 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 27:9

And if he have no daughter
Dies without any issue:

then ye shall give his inheritance unto his brethren;
and the children descending from them; that is, if his father was dead; otherwise, if he was living, he was to be preferred to them, according to the Jewish writers; though, according to our law, no estate in fee simple ascends lineally, or goes from a son, who has made a purchase of it, to a father: in the Misnah it is said F24, the order of inheritances is thus,

``if a man dies and has no son, then they cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter; a son is before a daughter, and all that descend from the son are before the daughter; the daughter is before the brethren (of her father), and those that descend from the daughter are before the brethren; the brethren (of a man) are before his father's brethren (or his uncles); and they that descend from his brethren are before his father's brethren: this is the general rule, everyone that is before in the inheritance, those that descend from him are before others, and a father is before all that descend from him.''


FOOTNOTES:

F24 Ut supra, (Bava Bathra, c. 8.) sect. 2.

Numbers 27:9 In-Context

7 The daughters of Zelophehad ask a just thing; give thou possession to them among their father's kinsmen, and be they successors to him into heritage. (The daughters of Zelophehad ask for a just thing; give thou them some property among their father's kinsmen, and let them be the successors of his inheritance.)
8 Forsooth thou shalt speak these things to the sons of Israel, When a man is dead without son, the heritage shall go to his daughter; (And thou shalt speak these words to the Israelites, When a man is dead without a son, the inheritance shall go to his daughter;)
9 if he hath no daughter, he shall have (as) his heirs his brethren; (if he hath no daughter, his brothers shall be his heirs;)
10 that and if brethren be not, ye shall give the heritage to the brethren of his father; (and if he hath no brothers, ye shall give the inheritance to his father's brothers;)
11 soothly if he have no brethren of his father, the heritage shall be given to them that be next to him. And this shall be holy by everlasting law to the sons of Israel, as the Lord commanded to Moses. (and if his father hath no brothers, the inheritance shall be given to them who be next to him. And this shall be holy by an everlasting law to the Israelites, as the Lord commanded to Moses.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.