After ruling on the case of Zelophehad’s daughters, God now applies the same ruling generally to all the Israelites (verses 7-9). Verse 9 repeats verse 7, with slight variants, thus forming a frame around verse 8. The overriding concern is that any inherited plot of land should stay within the tribe to which God originally gave it (so Olson, page 192), thereby maintaining tribal territorial sovereignty (so Cole, page 561). Good News Translation drastically reduces the Hebrew text in its translation of verse 7 by leaving the first sentence implied. We do not recommend Good News Translation as model here.

The inheritance of the people of Israel shall not be transferred from one tribe to another: The Hebrew does not refer to the inheritance in its totality here, but to any individual plot of inherited land. Therefore New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh provides a better model of this sentence by saying “No inheritance of the Israelites may pass over from one tribe to another.”

For every one of the people of Israel shall cleave to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers: The Hebrew particle ki rendered for is probably an emphatic marker here, so it is better translated “No indeed.” Every one of the people of Israel may be rendered simply “every Israelite” (Good News Translation). Shall cleave to may be translated “will remain attached to” (Good News Translation, Parole de Vie), “must hold on” (Luther), or “must retain” (NET Bible). As in verse 3, fathers may be rendered “ancestors” (TNIV).

Quoted with permission from de Regt, Lénart J. and Wendland, Ernst R. A Handbook on Numbers. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .