Questions · Family
Updated 2026-07-31 · Sources: 4
The straight answer
Yes, and Scripture is unusually direct about it: a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. Planning what happens to your things is treated as an ordinary part of loving the people who outlive you. Hezekiah is told to set his house in order. The daughters of Zelophehad get a legal ruling that changes inheritance law so that a family without sons is not erased. Provision is not morbid in the Bible; it is administration.
The warnings are about the people, not the paperwork. An inheritance gained hastily at the beginning will not be blessed at the end. A younger son takes his share early and destroys it. Jesus refuses to referee two brothers dividing an estate and warns them about greed instead. Ecclesiastes is honest to the point of bleakness that you cannot know whether your heir will be wise or foolish.
Which points at the practical answer. Write the will: dying without one hands the decision to a court and hands the conflict to your children. Name beneficiaries on every account, since those override the will. Say out loud, while you are alive, what you intend and why. And prepare the heirs as deliberately as you prepare the estate: character is the only part of an inheritance that keeps the rest from doing harm.
Printed in full from the public-domain World English Bible, resolved from a local copy of that text before this page was built. Read them before you take our summary on trust, and see how we read Scripture on money for the ten rules every page here follows.
A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored for the righteous.Proverbs 13:22 · World English Bible, public domain
Leaving an inheritance to grandchildren is named as the mark of a good man. Long-range provision, stated plainly.
1Then the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of Manasseh the son of Joseph came near. These are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Tirzah. 2They stood before Moses, and before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes and all the congregation, at the door of the Tent of Meeting, saying, 3“Our father died in the wilderness. He was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against Yahweh in the company of Korah, but he died in his own sin. He had no sons. 4Why should the name of our father be taken away from among his family, because he had no son? Give to us a possession among the brothers of our father.” 5Moses brought their cause before Yahweh. 6Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 7“The daughters of Zelophehad speak right. You shall surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father’s brothers. You shall cause the inheritance of their father to pass to them. 8You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘If a man dies, and has no son, then you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter. 9If he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers. 10If he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father’s brothers. 11If his father has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his kinsman who is next to him of his family, and he shall possess it. This shall be a statute and ordinance for the children of Israel, as Yahweh commanded Moses.’”Numbers 27:1-11 · World English Bible, public domain
Five sisters petition for their father's inheritance, and the law is settled in their favour.
In those days was Hezekiah sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Set your house in order, for you will die, and not live.’”Isaiah 38:1 · World English Bible, public domain
Set your house in order: spoken to a king told he is about to die, which is why the instruction is urgent rather than routine. The application is that the paperwork should not wait for the news.
An inheritance quickly gained at the beginning, won’t be blessed in the end.Proverbs 20:21 · World English Bible, public domain
An inheritance gained hastily at the beginning will not be blessed at the end.
13One of the multitude said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” 15He said to them, “Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness, for a man’s life doesn’t consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses.”Luke 12:13-15 · World English Bible, public domain
The estate dispute Jesus refuses to arbitrate, and the warning he gives both brothers instead.
What happens when there is not one.
The forms that override the will.
Check what is actually in place.
The whole biblical picture, including what cannot be inherited.
What is actually being handed on, beyond the balance.