Numbers 26:33

And Zelophehad the son of Hepher had no sons, but daughters: and the names of the daughters of Zelophehad were Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Numbers 26:33. Zelophehad had no sons, but daughters — It is remarkable that in so many heads of families there was only one to whom no sons were born. To what other cause can this be ascribed but to a peculiar providence, whereby many more males than females were born, for the strength and increase of the Jewish nation?

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

26:1-51 Moses did not number the people but when God commanded him. We have here the families registered, as well as the tribes. The total was nearly the same as when numbered at mount Sinai. Notice is here taken of the children of Korah; they died not, as the children of Dathan and Abiram; they seem not to have joined even their own father in rebellion. If we partake not of the sins of sinners, we shall not partake of their plagues.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The children of Korah died not - Compare Numbers 26:58. Samuel the prophet was of this family, and Heman, "the king's seer" 1 Chronicles 6:22, 1 Chronicles 6:33; 1 Chronicles 25:5. Several of the Psalms appear from the titles to have been composed for the sons of Korah: compare titles of Psalm 42:1-11; 44; 45, etc.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12. The sons of Simeon—It is supposed that this tribe had been pre-eminent in the guilt of Baal-peor and had consequently been greatly reduced in numbers.

Thus God's justice and holiness, as well as His truth and faithfulness, were strikingly displayed: His justice and holiness in the sweeping judgments that reduced the ranks of some tribes; and His truth and faithfulness in the extraordinary increase of others so that the posterity of Israel continued a numerous people.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The sons of Joseph, after their families, were Manasseh and Ephraim. Manasseh is here mentioned first, though Ephraim was preferred to him by Jacob, and the standard belonged to him; not because he was the firstborn, but because he had now the greater increase, though he had but one son, Machir, of whom was the family of the Machirites, and a grandson, whose name was Gilead, from whom was the family of the Gileadites, and who had six sons; of whom were the families of the Jeezerite, Halekite, Asrielite, Shechemite, Shemidaite, and Hepherite. Hepher, of whom was the last, had a son named Zelophehad, but he had no son, only five daughters, whose names are given; the number of men in this tribe, of twenty years old and upwards, fit for war, was 52,700, so that the increase was 20,500, a large increase indeed!

Geneva Study Bible

And Zelophehad the son of Hepher had no sons, but daughters: and the names of the daughters of Zelophehad were Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 33. - Zelophehad... had no sons, but daughters. This is mentioned here because the case was to come prominently before the lawgiver and the nation (cf. Numbers 27:1; Numbers 36:1; 1 Chronicles 7:15). Numbers 26:33

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Eight families descended from Manasseh: viz., one from his son Machir, the second from Machir's son or Manasseh's grandson Gilead, and the other six from the six sons of Gilead. The genealogical accounts in Numbers 27:1; Numbers 36:1, and Joshua 17:1., fully harmonize with this, except that Iezer (Numbers 26:30) is called Abiezer in Joshua 17:2; whereas only a part of the names mentioned here occur in the genealogical fragments in 1 Chronicles 2:21-24, and 7:14-29. In Numbers 26:33, a son of Hepher, named Zelophehad, is mentioned. He had no sons, but only daughters, whose names are given here to prepare the way for the legal regulations mentioned in Numbers 27 and 39, to which this fact gave rise.