“Adonai said to Moshe, “The land is to be parceled out among these as a possession to be inherited, according to the number of names. To those families with more persons you are to give a greater inheritance, and to those with fewer you are to give a smaller inheritance — each family’s inheritance is to be given according to the number counted in it. However, the land is to be awarded by lot. They will inherit according to the names of the tribes of their ancestors, but the inheritance is to be parceled out by lot between the families with more and those with fewer.”-Numbers 26:52-56
One of the main reasons for the census in Numbers 26 was to determine how exactly the land was to be divided up among the tribes.
From verse 52, we’re given the following two criteria by which the land is to be divided.
-The size of a piece of land to be given will be based on the size of the tribe
…and…
-land territories will be portioned out by lot.
Now right here we run into a problem.
How in the heck can the land be both portioned out based on both the size of the tribe and also by lot?
Since choosing by lots is like gambling, a game that is left up to chance, how is this method going to take into account the population numbers of each tribe?
Or was divine providence going to intervene and actually control the results of the lots so that the size of each tribe miraculously matched the size of the territory they received?
I mean gosh darn it, which one is it?!?!?!
Okay, here’s the solution and we can thank the ancient sages for giving us the answer to this conundrum.
The general location of where each tribe would be situated within the land of Canaan was determined by lot.
However, the actual size of the territory was determined by the tribe’s population size.
Got it?
Also, keep in mind that quite unlike the infertile and desert expanse the Israelites were currently residing in, the land of Canaan was quite varied.
Some areas were very fertile, other areas weren’t.
Some territory was located along the coast making it perfect for shipping and fishing.
Other areas were hilly making it perfect for grazing.
There was territory along safe and well-travelled trade routes for merchants.
And there were areas were bordered right next to dangerous enemies.
All of these factors had to be taken into consideration when portioning out the land.
Again, just know that the drawing of lots only determined the region where a given tribe would be located.
Afterwards, Moses would decide how much the region’s borders would expand based on the tribe’s size.
Leave a Reply