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The law of inheritance: for daughters on defect of sons; and on defect of them to the brother; and if there be none, to the next kinsman, Numbers 27:1-11. God commands Moses to go up into a mountain to view the land of Canaan, and die there: the reason, Numbers 27:12-14. Moses prays to the Lord to appoint an able successor, Numbers 27:15-17. Joshua chose, and confirmed in his office by imposition of hands before all the people, Numbers 27:18-23.

Perceiving that the males only were numbered, and that the land was to be divided to them only, they put in their claim for a share in their father’s inheritance.

Nigh unto

the door of the tabernacle of the congregation it seems was the place where Moses and the chief rulers assembled for the administration of public affairs, which also was very convenient, because they had frequent occasion of recourse to God for his assistance and direction therein.

He was not in the company of Korah, nor in any other rebellion of the people, which must be understood, because all of them are opposed to

his own sin, in which alone he is said to die. But they mention this only either,

1. Because he might possibly be accused to be guilty of this. Or,

2. Because he, being an eminent person, might be thought guilty of that rather than of any other, because the great and famous men were more concerned in that rebellion than others. Or,

3. To gain the favour of Moses, against whom that rebellion was more particularly directed, and more desperately prosecuted than any other. Or,

4. Because peradventure he died about that time, and therefore might be presumed guilty of that crime. Or rather,

5. Because that sin, and, as it may seem, that only of all the sins committed in the wilderness, was of such a flagitious nature, that God thought fit to extend the punishment not only to the persons of those rebels, but also to their children and families, Numbers 16:27,32, as was usual in like cases, as Deu 13:15 Joshua 7:24; whence it is noted as a singular privilege granted to the children of Korah, that they died not, Numbers 26:11, whereas the children of their confederates died with them. And this makes their argument here more proper and powerful, that he did not die in that sin for which his posterity were to be cut off, and to lose either their lives or their inheritances, and therefore their claim was more just.

In his own sin; either,

1. For that sin mentioned Num 14, which they call his own sin, in opposition not to the rest of the people, for it was a common sin, but to his children, i.e. the sin for which he alone was to suffer in his person and not in his posterity, as God had appointed, Numbers 14:33. Or rather,

2. For his own personal sins; for,

3. These were more properly his own sins.

4. It was a truth, and that believed by the Jews, that death was a punishment for men’s own sins.

5. The punishment of that common sin was not directly and properly death, but exclusion from the land of Canaan, and death only by way of consequence upon that.

Be done away; as it will be, if it be not preserved by an inheritance given to us in his name and for his sake. Hence some gather that the first son of each of these heiresses was called by their father’s name, by virtue of that law, Deu 25:6, whereby the brother’s first son was to bear the name of his elder brother, whose widow he married.

A possession in the land of Canaan upon the division of it, which, though not yet conquered, they concluded would certainly be so, and thereby gave glory to God by believing.

i.e. Into the tabernacle, where God was pleased to speak with Moses upon occasions, Exodus 25:22 Numbers 7:89. For it was a hard case; and though their plea seemed reasonable, yet Moses showed his humility and modesty, that he would not determine it himself without God’s particular direction.

No text from Poole on this verse.

Give them: in Hebrew it is of the masculine gender, to show that women in this case should enjoy the man’s privilege, and that the heavenly Canaan, whereof this was a type, did belong no less to women than to men, Galatians 3:28.

The inheritance of their fathers, i.e. which belonged to their fathers in case they had lived.

No text from Poole on this verse.