Numbers 26:54

54 Give the larger tribes more land and the smaller tribes less land, each group receiving a grant in proportion to the size of its population.

Numbers 26:54 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 26:54

To many thou shalt give the more inheritance, and to few thou
shalt give the less inheritance
To a tribe more numerous, and consisting of more and larger families, a greater part of the land was to be given to them to possess; and to a smaller tribe, and of the fewer families and persons in them, a lesser share of it: this direction is given to Moses, but is not designed for him personally, for he never entered the land, but died before Israel went into it; but for the chief ruler that would be then in being, namely, Joshua, his successor:

to everyone shall his inheritance be given, according to those that
were numbered of him;
that is, to every tribe, and so to every family in it, according to the number of men in it, that were of the above age when the sum of them was taken: because it is in the original text, "to a man according to those numbered of him" ^F17; hence the Jewish writers ^F18 gather, that the land was distributed not to women, but to men only.

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FOOTNOTES:

F17 (vya) "viro", Montanus.
F18 Vid. T. Bab. Bava. Bathra, fol. 122. 1.

Numbers 26:54 In-Context

52 Then the LORD said to Moses,

53 “Divide the land among the tribes, and distribute the grants of land in proportion to the tribes’ populations, as indicated by the number of names on the list.

54 Give the larger tribes more land and the smaller tribes less land, each group receiving a grant in proportion to the size of its population.

55 But you must assign the land by lot, and give land to each ancestral tribe according to the number of names on the list.

56 Each grant of land must be assigned by lot among the larger and smaller tribal groups.”