Numbers 33:54
וְהִתְנַחַלְתֶּם אֶת־הָאָרֶץ בְּגוֹרָל לְמִשְׁפְּחֹֽתֵיכֶם לָרַב תַּרְבּוּ אֶת־נַחֲלָתוֹ וְלַמְעַט תַּמְעִיט אֶת־נַחֲלָתוֹ אֶל אֲשֶׁר־יֵצֵא לוֹ שָׁמָּה הַגּוֹרָל לוֹ יִהְיֶה לְמַטּוֹת אֲבֹתֵיכֶם תִּתְנֶחָֽלוּ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְהִתְנַחַלְתֶּם֩ אֶת־הָאָ֨רֶץ בְּגוֹרָ֜ל לְמִשְׁפְּחֹֽתֵיכֶ֗ם לָרַ֞ב תַּרְבּ֤וּ אֶת־נַחֲלָתוֹ֙ וְלַמְעַט֙ תַּמְעִ֣יט אֶת־נַחֲלָת֔וֹ אֶל֩ אֲשֶׁר־יֵ֨צֵא ל֥וֹ שָׁ֛מָּה הַגּוֹרָ֖ל ל֣וֹ יִהְיֶ֑ה לְמַטּ֥וֹת אֲבֹתֵיכֶ֖ם תִּתְנֶחָֽלוּ׃
καὶ κατακληρονομήσετε τὴν γῆν αὐτῶν ἐν κλήρῳ κατὰ φυλὰς αὐτῶν· τοῖς πλείοσιν πληθυνεῖτε τὴν κατάσχεσιν αὐτῶν, καὶ τοῖς ἐλάττοσιν ἐλαττώσετε τὴν κατάσχεσιν αὐτῶν· εἰς ὃ ἐὰν ἐξέλθῃ τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ἐκεῖ, αὐτοῦ ἔσται. κατὰ φυλὰς πατριῶν ὑμῶν κληρονομήσετε.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
quam dividetis vobis sorte. Pluribus dabitis latiorem, et paucis angustiorem. Singulis ut sors ceciderit, ita tribuetur hæreditas. Per tribus et familias possessio dividetur.
Repartirán la tierra por sorteo, según sus clanes familiares. A las tribus más grandes les darán una porción mayor de tierra, y a las más pequeñas les darán una porción menor. Cada tribu recibirá la tierra que le toque en el sorteo, según la tribu de sus antepasados.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y heredaréis la tierra por suertes por vuestras familias: á los muchos daréis mucho por su heredad, y á los pocos daréis menos por heredad suya: donde le saliere la suerte, allí la tendrá cada uno: por las tribus de vuestros padres heredaréis.
And you are to divide the land by lot according to your clans. Give a larger inheritance to a larger clan and a smaller inheritance to a smaller one. Whatever falls to each one by lot will be his. You will receive an inheritance according to the tribes of your fathers.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Numbers 33:54 instructs the Israelites to take possession of the land by lot (goral, H1486), distributing larger portions to larger clans and smaller portions to smaller ones. The verse frames this apportionment as both random (by lot) and proportional (by clan size), concluding that inheritance is organized according to ancestral tribes.
Key words
- hitnachaltem ("you will inherit", H5157) — hithpael sequential perfect, a reflexive/reciprocal form suggesting the community actively takes possession for itself, not merely receives.
- goral ("lot", H1486) — appears twice (positions 7 and 32), the mechanism of land division: a cast lot, not human decision.
- tarbu ("you will make great", H7235A) — hiphil causative imperfect, indicating an action performed upon the inheritance (enlarging it), not a state.
- tam'it ("you will make small", H4591) — hiphil causative imperfect, the parallel causative counterpart to tarbu, contracting the inheritance.
- nachalato ("its inheritance", H5159 + suffix) — construct noun with 3ms suffix, repeated twice, anchoring the portion to "his" (each clan's) share specifically.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence chains several clauses with sequential verb forms (ve-hitnachaltem, continuing narrative sequence from prior verses) describing the process of land distribution. The core mechanism is goral ("lot", H1486), a device of chance, but this chance-based allocation is qualified by two causative hiphil verbs, tarbu ("you will make great", H7235A) and tam'it ("you will make small", H4591), both governing the same object nachalato ("its inheritance", H5159) — first for the "many" (rav, H7227A) and then for the "few" (me'at, H4592). This creates a chiastic structure: casting lots (impartial) is balanced against clan-size proportionality (calculated), both expressed through parallel grammatical construction.
The final clause repeats the hithpael verb titnechalu ("you will inherit", H5157), forming an inclusio with the opening hitnachaltem, framing the whole verse as bookended by the same self-reflexive verb of inheriting, now specified as being "to the tribes of your fathers" (le-matot avoteichem, H4294H + H0001G + suffix), grounding the distribution in patrilineal tribal identity rather than individual assignment.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders nachalato ("its inheritance", H5159) as κατάσχεσιν ("possession"), a broader term than the Hebrew's more technical "inheritance." The LXX also adds αὐτῶν ("their") after γῆν ("land"), specifying "their land" where the Hebrew simply has ha'aretz ("the land", H0776G) without a possessive suffix at that point. The Vulgate's sors ("lot") for goral matches the Hebrew's casting-lot sense closely, but the Vulgate compresses the parallel hiphil causatives (tarbu/tam'it) into comparative adjectives ("latiorem"/"angustiorem," "wider"/"narrower") rather than preserving the verbal causative action found in the Hebrew.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.