Numbers

Marriage of Zelophehad’s Daughters

Chapter 36
1 And the heads of the fathers' houses of the clan of the sons of Gilead son of Machir son of Manasseh, from the clans of the sons of Joseph, approached and spoke before Moses and before the princes, heads of the fathers' houses, to the sons of Israel. 2 And they said, "Our Lord commanded the LORD to give the land as an inheritance by lot to the sons of Israel, and our Lord commanded by the LORD to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters." 3 And they will be wives to one from the sons of the tribes of the sons of Israel, and their inheritance will be removed from the inheritance of our fathers and added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they belong. And it will be removed from the lot of our inheritance. 4 And if the Jubilee comes to the sons of Israel and their inheritance is added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they belong, then their inheritance will be diminished from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers. 5 And Moses commanded the sons of Israel according to the word of the LORD, saying, "Thus the tribe of the sons of Joseph—you have matters." 6 This is the word that the LORD commanded concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, "Let them be wives to whom it seems good in their eyes, but let them be wives within the family of their father's tribe." 7 And no inheritance shall pass from tribe to tribe among the sons of Israel, for the sons of Israel shall cling to the inheritance of the tribe of their fathers, each man. 8 And every daughter inheriting an inheritance from the tribes of the sons of Israel shall be a wife to one from the family of the tribe of her father, so that the sons of Israel may inherit, each man the inheritance of his fathers. 9 And an inheritance shall not go around from one tribe to another, for the tribes of the sons of Israel shall cling to the inheritance of each man. 10 Just as the LORD commanded Moses, so the daughters of Zelophehad did. 11 And Machlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milkah, and Noah, daughters of Zelophehad, were married to the sons of their uncles. 12 From the clan of the sons of Manasseh son of Joseph they were as wives, and their inheritance was upon the staff of the clan of their father. 13 These are the commandments and the judgments which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses to the sons of Israel in the plains of Moab at the Jordan of Jericho.