BAMIDBAR

IN THE WILDERNESS

54 And ye shall divide the land by lot [ distribute HaAretz by goral] for an inheritance among your families [mishpekhot]: and to the more [numerous] ye shall give the more inheritance [larger nachalah], and to the fewer ye shall give the less inheritance [smaller nachalah]: every man's [nachalah] shall be in the place where his lot [goral] falleth; according to the tribes of your fathers [mattot (tribes of) Avoteichem] ye shall inherit.

The division was not to be by caprice or partiality or favour.

"Every man's inheritance shall be in the place where his lot falleth."

This injunction was fully carried out when the conquest of the land had been effected. It is one of the most interesting of the transactions recorded in the division of the land, though at first the driest looking. It would be far from a dry business to those who, after 40 years' weary wilderness life, were waiting to know the spot on which they were to settle. The description of the process occupies seven or eight whole chapters in Joshua.

Law of Moses Ch 8.