Commentaria in Numeros
Chapter the Twenty-seventh. Synopsis of the Chapter
On account of the daughters of Salphaad, God gives a law that, male offspring failing, daughters succeed their parents in the inheritance. Secondly, verse 12, Moses is commanded to behold Chanaan from mount Abarim, and to substitute Josue for himself in the leadership of the people.
1. Then came the daughters of Salphaad, the son of Hepher, the son of Galaad, the son of Machir, the son of Manasses, who was the son of Joseph: and their names are Maala, and Noa, and Hegla, and Melcha, and Thersa. 2. And they stood before Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the people, at the door of the tabernacle of the covenant, and said: 3. Our father died in the desert, and was not in the sedition which was raised against the Lord under Core, but died in his own sin: he had no sons. Why is his name taken away out of his family, because he had no son? Give us a possession among the kinsmen of our father. 4. And Moses referred their cause to the judgment of the Lord, 5. Who said to him: 6. The daughters of Salphaad ask a just thing: give them a possession among their father’s kindred, and let them succeed him in the inheritance; 7. and to the children of Israel thou shalt speak these things: 8. When a man dieth without a son, the inheritance shall pass to his daughter; 9. if he have no daughter, he shall have his brothers his successors; 10. but if he have no brothers, you shall give the inheritance to his father’s brothers; 11. but if he have no uncles by the father’s side, the inheritance shall be given to them that are next akin to him: and this shall be a holy ordinance for ever to the children of Israel, as the Lord hath commanded Moses. 12. And the Lord said to Moses: Go up into this mountain Abarim, and view from thence the land which I will give to the children of Israel. 13. And when thou hast seen it, thou shalt also go to thy people, as thy brother Aaron went: 14. because you offended me in the desert of Sin, in the contradiction of the multitude, and would not sanctify me before them at the waters; these are the waters of contradiction in Cades of the desert of Sin. 15. And Moses answered him: 16. May the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, provide a man that may be over this multitude: 17. and may go out and in before them, and lead them out and bring them in, lest the people of the Lord be as sheep without a shepherd. 18. And the Lord said to him: Take Josue the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and put thy hand upon him. 19. And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest and all the multitude: 20. and thou shalt give him precepts in the sight of all, and part of thy glory, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may hear him. 21. If anything be to be done, Eleazar the priest shall consult the Lord for him. At his word he shall go out and go in, and all the children of Israel with him, and the rest of the multitude. 22. Moses did as the Lord had commanded. And when he had taken Josue, he set him before Eleazar the priest and all the assembly of the people. 23. And laying his hands upon his head, he repeated all that the Lord had commanded.
1 and 2. THEN CAME THE DAUGHTERS OF SALPHAAD, etc., AND THEY STOOD BEFORE MOSES, AND ELEAZAR THE PRIEST, AND ALL THE PRINCES OF THE PEOPLE, AT THE DOOR OF THE TABERNACLE,—Because by the door of the tabernacle was the tent of Moses, and to it, or certainly to the neighbouring court of the tabernacle, the elders of the people assembled, summoned by Moses to council.
HE DIED IN HIS OWN SIN,—namely on account of the sin of murmuring, at the time of the spies, which sin was common to the whole people. For all from the twentieth year and upward, on account of this sin, died in the desert.
Verse 3. HE HAD NO SONS; WHY IS HIS NAME TAKEN AWAY OUT OF HIS FAMILY, BECAUSE HE HAD NO SON? GIVE US A POSSESSION AMONG THE KINSMEN OF OUR FATHER,—as if to say: Give us daughters an inheritance in Chanaan, for our father dead without male offspring, that by this our inheritance the name and family of our father may remain in Israel: for thus our sons, at least some of them, from this inheritance of Salphaad will be named the posterity or family of Salphaad; for some of our sons will follow the name and inheritance of their father, others will follow the name and inheritance of their mother, or of their maternal grandfather, namely ours, and our father’s (for among the Hebrews an inheritance was immovable and perpetual, and consequently the family to which it belonged, and from which it was named, was perpetual). Otherwise, if no inheritance is given us, our sons will take, as their inheritance, so also their name, not from our father but from the husband to whom we shall be married; and so the name and family of our father will perish. So Abulensis. From this place it is gathered that among the Hebrews, if there were any male offspring, he was heir of all, so that daughters could take no part of the inheritance: the reason was that families are named, distinguished and preserved by males, not by females. Now there was, by the providence of God, in the Old Testament so great a care for the preservation and distinction of families, both on account of the rights of primogeniture, and for the certainty of all families, in accordance with the successions of inheritances: namely that it might be certainly established, one family dying out, who were nearest to it in blood, that they might succeed to its inheritance; and also that it might be clearly established that Christ was born of the Jews, and of Juda, as God had promised to Jacob, Genesis xlix, 10. And this was among other causes one why God willed the Blessed Virgin to marry Joseph, namely that to the Jews, who supposed that she had altogether conceived and borne Christ of Joseph, it might be proved that Christ descended from David and Juda. For that Joseph descended from them all the Jews knew.
Verse 4. AND MOSES REFERRED THEIR CAUSE TO THE JUDGMENT OF THE LORD,—as if to say: Moses consulted the Lord on this question, at the door of the tabernacle (for there God spoke by the pillar of cloud), or at the propitiatory in the Holy of Holies.
Verses 5 and 6. WHO (the Lord) SAID TO HIM (Moses): THE DAUGHTERS OF SALPHAAD ASK A JUST THING; GIVE THEM (command that it be given them in Chanaan. For Moses did not enter Chanaan, and consequently could not actually and in fact give any inheritance in it) A POSSESSION AMONG THE KINDRED OF THEIR FATHER.—These daughters, then, were to come into a possession, not by their own right, but by their father’s: whence they are said to succeed their father in the inheritance, namely that which their father would have had in Chanaan had he lived and entered it; for Hebrew women had no right to inheritances except in this one case, namely if their father had died without male offspring, and his name was therefore about to perish: for then the daughters succeeded their father, and were preferred to the brothers and all other kinsmen on the father’s side (as God decrees in the following verse), but so that they had only one lot, their father’s, which was divided equally among all the daughters, whereas the male sons, each from the twentieth year and upward, came by their own right into single possessions in Chanaan and divided them.
I say from the twentieth year, because those under the twentieth year did not come to the inheritance in Chanaan by their own right but by another’s, namely their father’s, if the father had died: whence, as the father, had he lived, would have had a right to one lot only, so these sons, though many, had a right only to the one lot which would have been their father’s, and this that they might have whereon to live, that they might not be a burden to their brothers, and that their name might not perish out of their stock. So Abulensis, Question X.
Each daughter, then, succeeding to her father’s lot, divided and assigned to herself, called one of the sons that were born of her by her father’s name; and he succeeded to his inheritance; but the other sons took the name and inheritance of their husband’s father, and divided it equally. I except the firstborn. For these received a double portion of the inheritance, as is plain from Deuteronomy xxi, 17. This understand of inheritance properly so called, that is, of immovable goods; for of movables the Hebrews could dispose at pleasure, and give them to daughters, not to males, as they commonly assigned dowries to their daughters from them. More on the rights of succession among the Hebrews see in Abulensis here.