Numbers 36

The Inheritance of Zelophehad’s Daughters

1The heads of the ancestral houses of the clan of the descendants of Gilead son of Machir, son of Manasseh, from the clans of the descendants of Joseph, came near and spoke before Moses and before the leaders, the heads of the ancestral houses of the Israelites. 2They said, “The LORD commanded my lord to give the land as inheritance by lot to the Israelites, and my lord was commanded by the LORD to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters. 3But if they marry men from other tribes of the Israelites, their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our fathers and added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry; so it will be taken from the lot of our inheritance. 4And when the Jubilee comes for the Israelites, their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry, and their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our ancestral tribe.”

The Daughters May Marry Within Their Tribe

5Moses commanded the Israelites according to the word of the LORD, saying, “The tribe of the descendants of Joseph speaks rightly. 6This is the thing that the LORD commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad: Let them marry whomever is good in their eyes, only they shall marry within a clan of their ancestral tribe. 7No inheritance of the Israelites shall pass from tribe to tribe, for every Israelite shall hold to the inheritance of their ancestral tribe. 8Every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the Israelites shall become the wife of someone from a clan of her father’s tribe, so that every Israelite may possess the inheritance of their ancestors. 9No inheritance shall pass from one tribe to another, for each of the tribes of the Israelites shall hold to its own inheritance.”

Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah Obey

10Just as the LORD commanded Moses, so the daughters of Zelophehad did. 11Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, married sons of their father’s brothers. 12They married within the clans of the descendants of Manasseh son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained with the tribe of their father’s clan.

The Commands in the Plains of Moab

13These are the commandments and the ordinances that the LORD commanded through Moses to the Israelites in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.