Numbers 27:9

9 If he has no daughter, give his inheritance to his brothers.

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.''

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Numbers 27:9 In-Context

7 “The daughters of Zelophehad speak correctly. You certainly must give them property as an inheritance among their father’s brothers and transfer their father’s inheritance to them.

8 Furthermore, you shall say to the Israelites, ‘If a man dies and leaves no son, you are to transfer his inheritance to his daughter.

9 If he has no daughter, give his inheritance to his brothers.

10 If he has no brothers, give his inheritance to his father’s brothers.

11 And if his father has no brothers, give his inheritance to the next of kin from his clan, that he may take possession of it. This is to be a statutory ordinance for the Israelites, as the LORD has commanded Moses.’”