Numbers 27:8 - Exposition

If a man die, and have no son. On this particular case a general rule of much wider incidence was founded. The Mosaic law of succession followed the same lines as the feudal law of Europe, equally disallowing disposition by will, and discouraging, if not disallowing, alienation by grant. Upon the land was to rest the whole social fabric of Israel, and all that was valued and permanent in family life and feeling was to be tied as it were to the landed inheritance. Hence the land was in every case so to pass that the name and fame, the privilege and duty, of the deceased owner might be as far as possible perpetuated. Unto his daughter. Not for her maintenance, but in order that her husband might represent her father. In most cases he would take her name, and be counted as one of her father's family. This had no doubt already become customary among the Jews, as among almost all nations. Compare the cases of Sheshan and Jarha ( 1 Chronicles 2:34 , 1 Chronicles 2:35 ), of Jair ( Numbers 32:41 ), and subsequently of the Levitical "sons of Barzillai" ( Ezra 2:61 ). The question, however, would only become of public importance at the time when Israel became a nation of landed proprietors.