1Then 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, drew near and spoke before Moses and before the leaders, the heads of the fathers’ houses of the sons of Israel.
2They said, “Yahweh commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance by lot to the sons of Israel, and my lord was commanded by Yahweh to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters.
3But if they become wives to any of the sons of the tribes of the sons of Israel, then their inheritance will be withdrawn from the inheritance of our fathers and added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry; so it will be withdrawn from the allotment of our inheritance.
4And when the Jubilee of the sons of Israel comes, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry, and their inheritance will be withdrawn from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.”
5So Moses commanded the sons of Israel according to the word of Yahweh, saying, “The tribe of the sons of Joseph is speaking rightly.
6This is the thing that Yahweh has commanded concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying: Let them be wives to whoever is good in their eyes, only they must marry within a clan of the tribe of their father.
7So no inheritance of the sons of Israel shall pass from tribe to tribe, for the sons of Israel shall each cling to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.
8And every daughter who takes possession of an inheritance from the tribes of the sons of Israel shall become wife to someone from a clan of the tribe of her father, so that the sons of Israel may each possess the inheritance of his fathers.
9So no inheritance shall pass from one tribe to another tribe, for the tribes of the sons of Israel shall each cling to its own inheritance.
10Just as Yahweh commanded Moses, so the daughters of Zelophehad did.
11So Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, became wives to the sons of their uncles.
12They became wives within the clans of the sons of Manasseh son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained within the tribe of the clan of their father.
13These are the commandments and the judgments that Yahweh commanded through Moses to the sons of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho.
Open in the interactive reader →