Numbers 26:55

Summary

The verse specifies the method by which the land will be allocated among the tribes: division occurs "by lot" (goral, H1486), while the actual inheritance follows tribal and ancestral names. The verse contrasts a random/procedural mechanism (the lot) with the genealogical framework (names of tribes and fathers) that structures the outcome.

Key words

• 'akh ("only", H0389) — an adverb of restriction/contrast, marking a shift from what precedes (census-based counting in the preceding verses) to the actual method of division.
• goral ("lot", H1486) — singular noun; the instrument or procedure of casting lots, governing the passive verb that follows.
• yechalek ("it will be divided", H2505A) — niphal (passive) imperfect; the land is the grammatical patient, and no human agent is named as the one performing the division — the action simply happens "by lot."
• shemot ("names of", H8034) construct plural — opens a three-word genitive chain (shemot matot avotam, "names of the tribes of their fathers") that identifies the criterion for inheritance.
• yinchalu ("they will inherit", H5157) — qal (active) imperfect, third person plural; here the tribes are the active subject, contrasting with the passive verb used for the land's division.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence pairs two verbs with different grammatical voices around a single process. The land (ha-aretz, H0776G) is grammatically passive — it "will be divided" (yechalek, niphal) — while the tribes are grammatically active — they "will inherit" (yinchalu, qal). This voice pairing separates the mechanism (lot-casting, agentless) from the recipients (tribes, acting to receive). The particle 'akh at the sentence's opening signals a restrictive or contrastive nuance, tying this verse to the census-based numerical allocation described in the preceding verses: whatever the numbers determine, the specific plots are assigned "only by lot."

The three-word construct chain shemot matot avotam ("names of the tribes of their fathers") stacks genitives to specify that inheritance is organized by ancestral tribal lineage, not by individual reckoning.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew niphal yechalek ("it will be divided," passive, no stated agent) is rendered in the LXX with a matching passive, meristhēsetai ("will be divided"). The Vulgate diverges by making sors ("the lot") the grammatical subject of an active verb, dividat ("[the lot] divides"), explicitly naming the lot as agent where the Hebrew leaves the actor unspecified.