Numbers 36:9

Summary

The verse states that an inheritance must not pass from one tribe to another, because each Israelite is to remain attached to the inheritance of his own tribe. It closes the legal case opened earlier in Numbers 36 concerning the daughters of Zelophehad and land tenure among the tribes of Israel.

Key words

• tiSov ("it will go about", H5437) — qal imperfect, 3rd feminine singular, agreeing with nachalah ("inheritance"); describes the inheritance itself as the subject that "circulates" or "turns" from one tribe to another.
• nachalah ("an inheritance", H5159) — feminine singular noun, the grammatical subject of the first clause; the same root appears again later as nachalato ("his inheritance", H5159 + H9023) with a possessive suffix.
• ish ("everyone", H0376) — masculine singular noun functioning distributively ("each one"), yet paired with a plural verb later in the clause.
• yidbeku ("they will hold", H1692) — qal imperfect, 3rd masculine plural; despite the singular ish preceding it, the verb is plural, agreeing with the true subject mattot ("tribes of...", H4294) that follows.
• matteh...le-matteh ("tribe...to tribe", H4294) — the same masculine singular noun repeated for both source and destination, emphasizing that no boundary distinguishes one tribe from another in this prohibition.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built in two parts joined by ki ("for", H3588A), which here functions causally rather than conditionally, explaining the reason for the prohibition just stated. The first clause treats nachalah ("inheritance") as an active subject that "will not go about" (tiSov) between tribes — the verb's feminine singular form matches the feminine noun, and the repeated matteh...matteh structure mirrors the back-and-forth motion being forbidden.

The second clause shifts grammatical subject. Ish ("each man") appears grammatically singular, but the finite verb yidbeku ("they will hold fast") is plural, and its true grammatical agreement is with the later noun mattot ("tribes of..."), which stands in construct with bene Yisra'el ("sons of Israel"). This means the sentence describes individual attachment (ish, distributively "each one") while the verb formally agrees with the collective plural subject, "the tribes of the sons of Israel." The preposition be- before nachalato ("in his inheritance") marks the sphere within which each person remains attached, using the same root nachalah as the earlier clause but now with a 3rd-person singular possessive suffix.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders tiSov ("will go about") with περιστραφήσεται ("will be turned/circled"), keeping the image of circulating land close to the Hebrew. The Vulgate, however, replaces this image entirely: "nec sibi misceantur tribus, sed ita maneant" ("nor shall the tribes be mixed among themselves, but thus remain"), omitting the noun corresponding to nachalah ("inheritance") and using "misceantur" ("be mixed") instead of language tied to motion or turning found in the Hebrew and the LXX.