Our father died in the wilderness, &c.— In these verses we have the petition of the daughters of Zelophehad, who urged that their father dying without male issue in the wilderness, in his own sin, i.e. by a common and ordinary death, (not such a one as they shared who were partakers of the guilt of Korah and his companions,) it was not right that the name of their father should be done away, i.e. rased out of the genealogical tables; for such was the case upon any family being extinct; upon which account they request a possession among the brethren of their father. Houbigant, however, is of opinion, that name is here used for memory, which is easily transmitted from fathers to sons by a paternal inheritance; as, on the contrary, their memory is soon blotted out who leave their inheritance to strangers. Philo gives Zelophehad the appellation of a man of an excellent character, and descended of a very considerable tribe; and Josephus calls him (Antiq. lib. iv. c. 7.) a person of condition and eminence. Philo's account of the petition brought by the daughters is very just and probable: Upon their father's death, says he, fearing lest the paternal estate should go out of the family, inasmuch as estates were to descend by the males, they came, with that decency and reverence which became their sex and age, to the governor of the people; and this not so much out of anxiety and concern for the estate, as from an earnest desire to preserve from extinction the name of their father, and the remembrance of his honourable birth and quality. "Our father," say they, "is dead. He lived a quiet and contemplative life, and did not forfeit it among the multitude who were judicially cut off for their perverseness and rebellion. It is not to be imputed to his sin that he left no male issue. And here we, his daughters, stand before you as humble petitioners. As our father has left us orphans, we hope to find a father in you; for a father of his country stands in a prior and nearest relation to his subjects, than even a natural father to his own family." De Vita Mos. lib. 3:
Related Commentaries of Numbers 27:3
Numbers 27:3-4
3 Our father died in the wilderness, and he was not in the company of them that gathered themselves together against the LORD in the company of Korah; but died in his own sin, and had no sons.
4 Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family, because he hath no son? Give unto us therefore a possession among the brethren of our father.