🔢WEB · Numbers 26:55
What does Numbers 26:55 mean?
"Notwithstanding, the land shall be divided by lot. According to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit."
— Numbers 26:55 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
“To these the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names.
To the more you shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer you shall give the less inheritance. To everyone according to those who were counted of him shall his inheritance be given.
Notwithstanding, the land shall be divided by lot. According to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit.
According to the lot shall their inheritance be divided between the more and the fewer.”
These are those who were counted of the Levites after their families: of Gershon, the family of the Gershonites; of Kohath, the family of the Kohathites; of Merari, the family of the Merarites.
These are the families of Levi: the family of the Libnites, the family of the Hebronites, the family of the Mahlites, the family of the Mushites, the family of the Korahites. Kohath became the father of Amram.
Explanation
Numbers 26:55 states a simple but significant principle for how the Promised Land would be distributed among the twelve tribes of Israel: the actual boundaries and specific plots would be determined "by lot," while the amount of land each tribe received would be based on the size of that tribe according to its family lines ("the names of the tribes of their fathers"). In other words, two factors worked together—population size determined how much land a tribe got, and casting lots determined which particular territory they received.
This verse comes at the close of the second wilderness census, conducted by Moses and Eleazar the priest on the plains of Moab, just before Israel crossed into Canaan (Numbers 26:1-4, 63-65). The first census, taken forty years earlier at Sinai, counted the generation that had left Egypt—a generation that, because of unbelief and rebellion, was condemned to die in the wilderness (Numbers 14:26-35). This second census counted their children, the new generation about to actually enter and possess the land God had promised. The chapter carefully lists trib
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