Numbers 26:19-27:23, John 3:1-21

Thought from Today’s Old Testament Passage: The Law of Inheritance. 27:1-11. Verse 4: Give unto us therefore a possession among the brethren of our father. The Manassite Zelophehad had five daughters and no sons. These daughters pointed out that if they, as daughters, could not inherit land, then their father’s inheritance would be lost. God confirmed to Moses the well-known provision by which daughters might inherit land (Josh. 17:3-6). But the next in line of inheritance were to be paternal brothers of the deceased, then paternal uncles, and then the nearest kinsman. However, the daughters were to be free to marry, and their children would continue their father’s genealogy and inherit his land. … Similar to this was the law of levirate marriage, by which a widow without children married the nearest kin of her husband, that his name and inheritance might not be cut off. Both of these laws were based on the principle that the land which the Lord gave to a family should never be sold or allowed to pass out of that family (Lev. 25:23). … The Hebrews usually followed their ancestral tradition by which an inheritance passed from father to sons (Dent 25:5-10). But in Egypt, where they had spent many years, inheritance passed through mothers. Under an extenuating circumstance, that is what is being allowed in the text. (Charles F. Pfeiffer, Everett F. Harrison, eds., The Wycliffe Bible Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press) 1962, p. 146)