What Does Numbers 27:8 Mean in the King James?
And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a man die, and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew verb for “pass” pictures the inheritance crossing over into the daughter’s hands.
THE MEANING
When there is no son, the daughter receives the inheritance as the explicitly named heir. The family’s portion continues across a life’s ending and reaches her.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that only a son can carry a father’s inheritance forward: here, the daughter is named as the heir when there is no son.
THE ROOT
הַעֲבַרְתֶּם
haʿavartem
GROWS FROM
עבר
Cross over; pass from one side or state to another.
“pass” in this verse is haʿavartem. The inheritance is described with a verb of crossing. Its transfer reaches across the absence of a son and arrives with the daughter, who is named as its recipient.
ALSO GROWS
ʿābar: To pass over or cross.
עָבַר
This is the verb’s root form: the inheritance’s passage is pictured as crossing over.
maʿāvar: A passage or crossing.
מַעֲבָר
This related noun makes the movement itself visible: the inheritance passes through to its next holder.
נַחֲלָה
naḥalah
GROWS FROM
נחל
To inherit or receive a possession as a portion.
The inheritance is not merely an object being moved; the same root names the act of receiving a portion. The verse joins the share that continues with the person who receives it.
ALSO GROWS
nāḥal: To inherit or take possession.
נָחַל
The related verb names the receiving action contained in the inheritance.
naḥalah: An inheritance or allotted possession.
נַחֲלָה
This is the portion that crosses over to the daughter in the verse.
THE PATTERN
A portion outlives its holder by being carried forward to those named as heirs.
And every daughter, that possesseth an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel, shall be wife unto one of the family of the tribe of her father, that the children of Israel may enjoy every man the inheritance of his fathers.And they came near before Eleazar the priest, and before Joshua the son of Nun, and before the princes, saying, The LORD commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brethren. Therefore according to the commandment of the LORD he gave them an inheritance among the brethren of their father.And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.THE THREAD
The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.The inheritance given to the daughter is נַחֲלָה (naḥalah, nahalah), an inherited portion; Psalm 16:6 uses the same root for “heritage.” The shared word links the portion passed onward here with a portion received as goodly.
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