Numbers 27:3

Summary

Numbers 27:3 records the words of Zelophehad's daughters explaining to Moses that their father died in the wilderness, but not as part of the rebellion led by Korah against Yehovah. Rather, he died for his own sin, and he had no sons.

Key words

• met ("he died", H4191) — qal perfect, appears twice (positions 3 and 25), marking two distinct completed actions: dying in the wilderness generally, and dying "in his own sin" specifically.
• no'adim ("gathered", H3259) — niphal (reflexive/passive) participle, masculine plural, describing the group that "gathered themselves" against Yehovah; the niphal stem indicates the gathering was a self-organized action of the participants, not something done to them.
• edah ("company", H5712) — feminine singular noun, used twice in the verse (once absolute with the article, once in construct as adat, "company of," referring to Korah's specific faction), distinguishing "the congregation" generally from "the company of Korah" specifically.
• cheto ("his sin", H2399 + H9023) — masculine singular noun in construct with the 3rd person suffix "his," marking the sin as belonging distinctly and personally to the father, contrasted with the collective rebellion mentioned earlier.
• banim ("sons", H1121A) — masculine plural noun, the grammatical subject of the final clause stating that "sons" (plural) did not exist for him, setting up the legal problem the daughters bring before Moses.

What the text says

The verse is built on a contrast introduced by ve-hu ("and he", H9002 + H1931) — the father died in the wilderness, but he himself (emphatic pronoun) was not among those gathered against Yehovah. The niphal participle no'adim ("gathered", H3259) describes this group reflexively: they assembled themselves against Yehovah, and this participial phrase functions attributively, modifying ha-edah ("the company", H5712), i.e., "the congregation, the one that gathered against Yehovah, in the company of Korah." This nested construction (a definite congregation, further specified by a construct phrase naming Korah's faction within it) allows the speakers to deny their father's involvement in that specific defined group.

The particle ki ("for", H3588A) introduces the causal clarification: he died "in his own sin" (be-cheto, preposition + noun + suffix), meaning the cause of death was personal, not tied to the rebellion just excluded. The verb met ("he died", H4191) recurs here, forming a frame around the intervening clause about Korah — first stating simply that he died in the wilderness, then, after the exclusion of rebellion, restating that he died, this time attributing the cause to his own sin.

The final clause, u-vanim lo hayu lo ("and sons were not to him", H1121A + H3808 + H1961 + H9033), uses the plural noun banim ("sons") with a negation and the verb hayu ("they were", H1961), literally "sons did not exist for him" — establishing the absence of male offspring as the stated reason the daughters bring their case forward.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate expands the verse by adding "hic non habuit mares filios. Cur tollitur nomen illius de familia sua, quia non habuit filium? date nobis possessionem inter cognatos patris nostri" — material not present in the Hebrew text of this specific verse as segmented here, nor in the LXX or the other cited versions, which end at "he had no sons."