Reference: Heir
Easton
Under the patriarchs the property of a father was divided among the sons of his legitimate wives (Ge 21:10; 24:36; 25:5), the eldest son getting a larger portion than the rest. The Mosaic law made specific regulations regarding the transmission of real property, which are given in detail in De 21:17; Nu 27:8; 36:6; 27:9-11. Succession to property was a matter of right and not of favour. Christ is the "heir of all things" (Heb 1:2; Col 1:15). Believers are heirs of the "promise," "of righteousness," "of the kingdom," "of the world," "of God," "joint heirs" with Christ (Ga 3:29; Heb 6:17; 11:7; Jas 2:5; Ro 4:13; 8:17).
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Then she said unto Abraham, "Put away this bondmaid and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son Isaac."
And Sara my master's wife bare him a son, when she was old: and unto him hath he given all that he hath.
But Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac.
And speak unto the children of Israel saying, 'If a man die and have no son, ye shall turn his inheritance unto his daughter. If he have no daughter, ye shall give his inheritance unto his brethren. read more. If he have no brethren, ye shall give his inheritance unto his father's brethren. If he have no father's brethren, ye shall give his inheritance unto him that is next to him of his kindred, and let him possess it. And this shall be unto the children of Israel an ordinance, and a law, as the LORD hath commanded Moses.'"
This, therefore, doeth the LORD: 'Command the daughters of Zelophehad, saying: let them be wives to whom they themself think best, but in the kindred of the tribe of their fathers shall they marry,
But he shall know the son of the hated for his firstborn, that he give him double of all that he hath. For he is the first of his strength, and to him belongeth the right of the firstbornship.
For the promise that he should be heir of the world was not given to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law: but through the righteousness which cometh of faith.
If we be sons, we are also heirs: the heirs, I mean, of God: and heirs annexed with Christ. If so be that we suffer together, that we may be glorified together.
If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs by promise.
which is the image of the invisible God, first begotten of all creatures:
but in these last days he hath spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath made heir of all things: by whom also he made the world.
So God, willing very abundantly to show, unto the heirs of promise, the stableness of his counsel; he added an oath,
By faith Noah honoured God, after that he was warned of things which were not seen, and prepared the ark to the saving of his household, through the which ark he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which cometh by faith.
Hearken, my dear beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world, which are rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom, which he promised to them that love him?
Fausets
(Heir, (See BIRTHRIGHT; INHERITANCE,) refers exclusively to land.) The Mosaic law enforced a strict entail; the property was divided among the sons, the oldest receiving a double portion (the father not having the right, as the patriarchs had, of giving a special portion to a favorite son: Ge 48:22), the rest equal shares (De 21:17). If there were no sons it went to the daughters, on condition that they married in their own tribe; otherwise they forfeited the inheritance (Nu 27:8 ff; Nu 36:6 ff). The son of an heiress, as with the Athenians, bore the name not of his father but of his maternal grandfather. If there were no daughters the property went to the brother; if no brother, to the paternal uncle; lastly, to the next of kin. The aim was to keep the land in the family and tribe. Succession thus was a matter of right, not of favor; the Hebrew yarash, "to inherit," means possession and even forcible possession (De 2:12; Jg 11:24).
A distribution of goods ("personal", ousia) was sometimes made in the father's lifetime (Lu 15:11-13); the land ("real property", kleeronomia) could only be divided after the father's death (Lu 12:13). If a brother died childless the surviving brother should wed his widow and raise seed to his brother. The Mosaic law herein adopted existing usages, which also prevail still in S. Africa, Arabia, among the Druses and tribes of the Caucasus (Ge 38:8-9; De 25:5-10; Mt 22:23-25). Childlessness was regarded as such a calamity that the ordinary laws of forbidden degrees of affinity in marriage (Le 18:16) were set aside.
Moses allowed the obligation to be evaded, if the brother-in-law preferred the indignity of the widow loosing his shoe off his foot, in token of forfeiting all right over the wife and property of the deceased, as casting the shoe over a place implies taking possession of it (Ps 60:8; 108:9); also the indignity of her spitting in his face, so that his name becomes a byword as the barefooted one, implying abject meanness. The office then devolved on the nearest kinsman (Ru 2:20; 3:9-13; 4:1-12). Naomi, being past age of marriage, Boaz takes Ruth her daughter-in-law, and has also to redeem the sold inheritance of Elimelech, Naomi's husband. The child born is reckoned that of Naomi and Elimelech (Ru 4:17), Chilion being passed over. Naomi, not Ruth, sells the land (Ru 4:3). A Jew could never wholly alienate his land by sale (Le 25:23-24).
A kinsman, or the owner, could at any time redeem it at a regulated charge (Le 25:23-27). At the year of Jubilee it reverted without charge (Le 25:28). Jer 32:6-9; Elimelech's nearest kinsman would not exercise his right of redemption, lest he should mar his own inheritance; namely, if he should have but one son by her, that son would be Elimelech's legal son, not his; so the succession of his own name would be endangered. The inalienability of land made Naboth reject as impious Ahab's proposal (1Ki 21:3); typifying Christ's inalienable inheritance of a name more excellent than that of the angels (Heb 1:4). Houses in walled towns (not in unwalled villages, as being connected with the land) and movables could be alienated for ever; a wise law, essential to progress and marking the superiority of Jewish legislation to that of most nations.
Wills were unknown among the Jews until Herod made one. The subdivision of land by the absence of the law of primogeniture, and the equal division among sons except double to the oldest, suited a country like Palestine of hills and valleys, not admitting much horse labour and agricultural machinery on the large scale which large farms require. Small farms suited the hand labour required for the terraces reaching to the tops of the hills. The numerous towns in Galilee, moreover, had their wants best supplied by numerous petty farms. Subdivision tends also to the multiplication of population, and so to repairing the waste of life caused by wars. It attaches large numbers to their country, as proprietors, eager to defend the soil which is their own, and on which each ate of his own vine and fig tree (Isa 36:16).
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Then said Judah unto Onan, go in to thy brother's wife and marry her, and stir up seed unto thy brother. And when Onan perceived that the seed should not be his: therefore when he went into his brother's wife, he spilled it on the ground, because he would not give seed unto his brother.
Moreover, I give unto thee a portion of land above thy brethren which I gat out of the hands of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow."
Thou shalt not unhele the privity of thy brother's wife, for that is thy brother's privity.
Wherefore the land shall not be sold forever, because that the land is mine, and ye but strangers and sojourners with me:
Wherefore the land shall not be sold forever, because that the land is mine, and ye but strangers and sojourners with me: and ye shall, throughout all the land of your possession, let the land go home free again.
and ye shall, throughout all the land of your possession, let the land go home free again. "'When thy brother is waxed poor and hath sold away of his possession: if any of his kin come to redeem it, he shall buy out that which his brother sold. read more. And though he have no man to redeem it for him, yet if his hand can get sufficient to buy it out again, then let him count how long it hath been sold, and deliver the rest unto him to whom he sold it, and so he shall return unto his possession again. But and if his hand can not get sufficient to restore it to him again, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it, until the horn year: and in the horn year it shall come out, and he shall return unto his possession again.
And speak unto the children of Israel saying, 'If a man die and have no son, ye shall turn his inheritance unto his daughter.
This, therefore, doeth the LORD: 'Command the daughters of Zelophehad, saying: let them be wives to whom they themself think best, but in the kindred of the tribe of their fathers shall they marry,
In like manner the Horites dwelt in Seir, before time: which the children of Esau cast out, and destroyed them before them, and dwelt there in their stead: as Israel did in the land of his possession which the LORD gave them.
But he shall know the son of the hated for his firstborn, that he give him double of all that he hath. For he is the first of his strength, and to him belongeth the right of the firstbornship.
When brethren dwell together and one of them die and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not be given out unto a stranger: but her brother-in-law shall go in unto her and take her to wife and marry her. And the eldest son which she beareth, shall stand up in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out in Israel. read more. But and if the man will not take his sister-in-law, then let her go to the gate unto the elders and say, 'My brother-in-law refuseth to stir up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not marry me.' Then let the elders of his city call unto him and commune with him. If he stand and say, 'I will not take her,' then let his sister-in-law go unto him in the presence of the elders and loose his shoe off his foot and spit in his face and answer and say, 'So shall it be done unto that man that will not build his brother's house.' And his name shall be called in Israel, the unshoed house.
Nay, but what people Chemosh thy god driveth out, that land possess thou. But whatsoever nations the LORD our God expelleth, that land ought we to enjoy.
Then said Naomi unto her daughter-in-law, "Blessed be he, for he ceaseth not to do the same goodness to the dead that he did to the living." And Naomi said unto her, "The man is nigh unto us, even of our next kin."
Then he said, "What art thou?" And she answered, "I am Ruth, thine handmaid. Spread thy mantle over thine handmaid, for thou art the next of the kin." And then he said, "Blessed be thou in the LORD my daughter, for thou hast showed more goodness in the latter end, than at the beginning; inasmuch as thou followedst not young men, whether they were poor or rich. read more. And now my daughter, fear not. I will do to thee all that thou requirest, for all the gates of my people know that thou art a woman of virtue. And it is true that I am of thy next kin: howbeit, there is one nigher than I. Tarry all night. And when morning is come, if he will marry thee: it is good, so let him do. But if he will not have thee, as sure as the LORD liveth I will have thee. Lie still until the morning."
Then went Boaz unto the gate and sat him down there. And behold, the kinsman of which Boaz spake came by. Unto whom he said, "Come and sit down here, and called him by his name." And he turned in and sat down. Then he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, "Sit ye down here." And they sat down. read more. Then he said unto the kinsman, "Naomi, that is come again out of the country of Moab, will sell a parcel of land which was our brother Elimelech's.
Then he said unto the kinsman, "Naomi, that is come again out of the country of Moab, will sell a parcel of land which was our brother Elimelech's. And I thought to do thee to know, and bid thee buy it before the inhabiters and elders of my people, if thou be disposed to challenge it: but and if thou wilt not purchase it, then tell me that I may know it. For there is none to challenge it save thou, and I next after thee." And the other answered, "I will purchase it." read more. Then said Boaz, "What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must take also Ruth the Moabite the wife of the dead, to stir up the name of the dead upon his inheritance." Then said the kinsman, "I cannot purchase it for marrying of mine own inheritance: take thou my right to thee, for I cannot purchase it." Now this was the manner of old time in Israel concerning purchase and changing, for to establish all things: that a man must pluck off his shoe and give it his neighbour, and this was a witness in Israel. And the kinsman said to Boaz, "Buy it thou": and so drew off his shoe. Then said Boaz unto the elders and unto all the people, "Ye are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech's, and all that was Chilion's and Mahlon's, of the hand of Naomi. And moreover, Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, do I take unto me to wife to stir up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that his name be not put out from among his brethren, and from the gate of his city: ye are witnesses this day." And all the people that were in the gate, and the elders, said "We are witnesses: the LORD make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and Lea, which twain did build the house of Israel: that she may do virtuously in Ephrata, and be famous in Bethlehem, and that thine house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bare unto Judah, even of the seed which the LORD shall give thee of this young woman."
And her neighbours gave it a name saying, "There is a child borne to Naomi, and called it Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David.
But Naboth said to Ahab, "The LORD forbid that from me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee."
Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I stretch out my shoe; Philistia shall be glad of me.
Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I stretch out my shoe; upon Philistia will I triumph."
But thus sayeth the king of Assyria, 'Obtain my favour, incline to me: so may every man enjoy his vineyards and fig trees, and drink the water of his cistern:
And Jeremiah said, "Thus hath the LORD spoken unto me, 'Behold, Hananel the son of Shallum thine Uncle's son shall come unto thee, and require thee to redeem the land, that lieth in Anathoth unto thyself: for by reason of kindred it is thy part to redeem it, and to buy it out.' read more. And so, Hananel mine uncle's son came to me in the court of the prison, according to the word of the LORD - and said unto me, 'Buy my land, I pray thee, that lieth in Anathoth in the country of Benjamin: for by heritage thou hast right to loose it out for thyself; therefore redeem it.' Then I perceived, that this was the commandment of the LORD, and so I loosed the land from Hananel of Anathoth, mine Uncle's son, and weighed him there the money: even seven sicles, and ten silver pence.
The same day the Sadducees came to him, which say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him, saying, "Master, Moses bade, if a man die having no children, that the brother marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. read more. There were with us seven brethren, and the first married and deceased without issue, and left his wife unto his brother.
One of the company said unto him, "Master, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me."
And he said, "A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, father, give me my part of the goods that to me belongeth. And he divided unto them his substance. read more. And not long after, the younger son gathered all that he had together, and took his journey into a far country, and there he wasted his goods with riotous living.
and is more excellent than the angels, inasmuch as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than have they.
Hastings
Morish
This is used in various applications as of one coming into a possession. It is applied to the Lord when He came to Israel seeking fruit. They said in effect, "This is the heir: come let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours." Mr 12:7. Christ is appointed by God to be heir of all things. Heb 1:2. Believers are by grace made sons through Christ, hence heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. Ro 8:17; Ga 4:7; cf. Joh 17:22.
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But the tenants said amongst themselves, 'This is the heir: come, let us kill him and the inheritance shall be ours.'
And that glory that thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one, as we are one.
If we be sons, we are also heirs: the heirs, I mean, of God: and heirs annexed with Christ. If so be that we suffer together, that we may be glorified together.
Wherefore now art thou not a servant, but a son. If thou be the son, thou art also the heir of God through Christ.
but in these last days he hath spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath made heir of all things: by whom also he made the world.
Smith
Heir.
The Hebrew institutions relative to inheritance were of a very simple character. Under the patriarchal system the property was divided among the sons of the legitimate wives,
a larger portion being assigned to one, generally the eldest, on whom devolved the duty of maintaining the females of the family. The sons of concubines were portioned off with presents.
At a later period the exclusion of the sons of concubines was rigidly enforced.
ff. Daughters had no share in the patrimony,
but received a marriage portion. The Mosaic law regulated the succession to real property thus: it has to be divided among the sons, the eldest receiving a double portion,
De 21:17
the others equal shares; if there were no sons, it went to the daughters,
on the condition that they did not marry out of their own tribe,
ff.; otherwise the patrimony was forfeited. If there were no daughters it went to the brother of the deceased; if no brother, to the paternal uncle; and, failing these to the next of kin.
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Then she said unto Abraham, "Put away this bondmaid and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son Isaac."
And Abraham rose up early in the morning and took bread and a bottle with water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulders with the lad also, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered up and down in the wilderness of Beersheba.
And Sara my master's wife bare him a son, when she was old: and unto him hath he given all that he hath.
But Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. And unto the sons of his concubines he gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son - while he yet lived - eastward, unto the east country.
And speak unto the children of Israel saying, 'If a man die and have no son, ye shall turn his inheritance unto his daughter. If he have no daughter, ye shall give his inheritance unto his brethren. read more. If he have no brethren, ye shall give his inheritance unto his father's brethren. If he have no father's brethren, ye shall give his inheritance unto him that is next to him of his kindred, and let him possess it. And this shall be unto the children of Israel an ordinance, and a law, as the LORD hath commanded Moses.'"
This, therefore, doeth the LORD: 'Command the daughters of Zelophehad, saying: let them be wives to whom they themself think best, but in the kindred of the tribe of their fathers shall they marry,
But he shall know the son of the hated for his firstborn, that he give him double of all that he hath. For he is the first of his strength, and to him belongeth the right of the firstbornship.
And there was one Jephthah a Gileadite, a strong man, which was the son of a harlot: Howbeit Gilead begat Jephthah.