נָחַל
na.chal
to inherit
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# The Hebrew Word נָחַל (Nachal): Inheritance and Possession The Hebrew verb נָחַל (nachal) carries the fundamental meaning of "to inherit," appearing 59 times throughout the biblical text. This frequency suggests that inheritance—the transfer of property, rights, or status from one person to another—was a concept of considerable importance in ancient Hebrew thought and law. The word specifically denotes the act of receiving or taking possession of something that belongs to one by right of succession or divine allocation. The prevalence of this term across 59 biblical occurrences indicates that the notion of inheriting was woven throughout various contexts in Scripture, from legal and familial matters to theological concepts about covenant promises and divine provision. The word's consistent usage across these many instances suggests it functioned as a standard, recognizable term for a fundamental social and spiritual reality in ancient Israel. Without access to the specific contexts of each occurrence, we can observe that the biblical writers employed this single verb to express the concept of inheritance broadly, making it a key term for understanding how ancient Hebrew speakers conceptualized the passing of property, land, promises, and identity across generations.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
59 total occurrences across the text — showing 50
so am I made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me.
Psalms 69:36The children also of his servants shall inherit it. Those who love his name shall dwell therein.
Psalms 82:8Arise, God, judge the earth, for you inherit all of the nations.
Psalms 119:111I have taken your testimonies as a heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart.
Proverbs 3:35The wise will inherit glory, but shame will be the promotion of fools.
Proverbs 8:21that I may give wealth to those who love me. I fill their treasuries.
Proverbs 11:29He who troubles his own house shall inherit the wind. The foolish shall be servant to the wise of heart.
Proverbs 13:22A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored for the righteous.
Proverbs 14:18The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.
Proverbs 28:10Whoever causes the upright to go astray in an evil way, he will fall into his own trap; but the blameless will inherit good.
Numbers 18:23But the Levites shall do the service of the Tent of Meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. Among the children of Israel, they shall have no inheritance.
Isaiah 14:2The peoples will take them, and bring them to their place. The house of Israel will possess them in Yahweh’s land for servants and for handmaids. They will take as captives those whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
Isaiah 49:8Yahweh says, “I have answered you in an acceptable time. I have helped you in a day of salvation. I will preserve you and give you for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritage,
Isaiah 57:13When you cry, let those whom you have gathered deliver you; but the wind will take them. a breath will carry them all away: but he who takes refuge in me will possess the land, and will inherit my holy mountain.”
Jeremiah 3:18In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance to your fathers.
Jeremiah 12:14Yahweh says, “Concerning all my evil neighbors, who touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit: Behold, I will pluck them up from off their land, and will pluck up the house of Judah from among them.
Jeremiah 16:19Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth, and will say, “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, vanity and things in which there is no profit.
Ezekiel 46:18Moreover the prince shall not take of the people’s inheritance, to thrust them out of their possession. He shall give inheritance to his sons out of his own possession, that my people not each be scattered from his possession.” ’ ”
Ezekiel 47:13The Lord Yahweh says: “This shall be the border, by which you shall divide the land for inheritance according to the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph shall have two portions.
Ezekiel 47:14You shall inherit it, one as well as another; for I swore to give it to your fathers. This land will fall to you for inheritance.
Zephaniah 2:9Therefore as I live, says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, surely Moab will be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, a possession of nettles, and salt pits, and a perpetual desolation. The remnant of my people will plunder them, and the survivors of my nation will inherit them.
Zechariah 2:12Yahweh will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.
Zechariah 8:12“For the seed of peace and the vine will yield its fruit, and the ground will give its increase, and the heavens will give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit all these things.
Exodus 23:30Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and inherit the land.
Exodus 32:13Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ”
Exodus 34:9He said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, Lord, please let the Lord go among us, even though this is a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”
Numbers 18:24For the tithe of the children of Israel, which they offer as a wave offering to Yahweh, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore I have said to them, ‘Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.’ ”
Leviticus 25:46You may make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession. Of them you may take your slaves forever, but over your brothers the children of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness.
Numbers 18:20Yahweh said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel.
Numbers 26:55Notwithstanding, the land shall be divided by lot. According to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit.
Numbers 32:18We will not return to our houses until the children of Israel have all received their inheritance.
Numbers 32:19For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has come to us on this side of the Jordan eastward.”
Numbers 33:54You shall inherit the land by lot according to your families; to the more you shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer you shall give the less inheritance. Wherever the lot falls to any man, that shall be his. You shall inherit according to the tribes of your fathers.
Numbers 33:54You shall inherit the land by lot according to your families; to the more you shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer you shall give the less inheritance. Wherever the lot falls to any man, that shall be his. You shall inherit according to the tribes of your fathers.
Numbers 34:13Moses commanded the children of Israel, saying, “This is the land which you shall inherit by lot, which Yahweh has commanded to give to the nine tribes, and to the half-tribe;
Numbers 34:17“These are the names of the men who shall divide the land to you for inheritance: Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun.
Numbers 34:18You shall take one prince of every tribe, to divide the land for inheritance.
Numbers 34:29These are they whom Yahweh commanded to divide the inheritance to the children of Israel in the land of Canaan.
Numbers 35:8Concerning the cities which you shall give of the possession of the children of Israel, from the many you shall take many, and from the few you shall take few. Everyone according to his inheritance which he inherits shall give some of his cities to the Levites.”
Deuteronomy 1:38Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, shall go in there. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.
Deuteronomy 3:28But commission Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you shall see.”
Deuteronomy 12:10But when you go over the Jordan and dwell in the land which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you, so that you dwell in safety,
Deuteronomy 19:3You shall prepare the way, and divide the borders of your land which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit into three parts, that every man slayer may flee there.
Deuteronomy 19:14You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which they of old time have set, in your inheritance which you shall inherit, in the land that Yahweh your God gives you to possess.
Deuteronomy 21:16then it shall be, in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not give the son of the beloved the rights of the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn;
Deuteronomy 31:7Moses called to Joshua, and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land which Yahweh has sworn to their fathers to give them; and you shall cause them to inherit it.
Deuteronomy 32:8When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of men, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.
Joshua 1:6“Be strong and courageous; for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
Joshua 13:32These are the inheritances which Moses distributed in the plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan at Jericho, eastward.
Joshua 14:1These are the inheritances which the children of Israel took in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed to them,