Numbers 27:9

9 and if he have no daughter, then ye have given his inheritance to his brethren;

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 `Rightly are the daughters of Zelophehad speaking; thou dost certainly give to them a possession of an inheritance in the midst of their father's brethren, and hast caused to pass over the inheritance of their father to them.
8 `And unto the sons of Israel thou dost speak, saying, When a man dieth, and hath no son, then ye have caused his inheritance to pass over to his daughter;
9 and if he have no daughter, then ye have given his inheritance to his brethren;
10 and if he have no brethren, then ye have given his inheritance to his father's brethren;
11 and if his father have no brethren, then ye have given his inheritance to his relation who is near unto him of his family, and he hath possessed it;' and it hath been to the sons of Israel for a statute of judgment, as Jehovah hath commanded Moses.
Young's Literal Translation is in the public domain.