Numbers 36
1 The family heads of the clan of the descendants of Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manasseh, from the clans of the descendants of Joseph, came forward. They spoke before Moses and the leaders, the family heads of the Israelites.
2 They said, “The LORD commanded my lord to give the land to the Israelites as an inheritance by lot, and my lord was commanded by the LORD to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters.
3 If they marry men from the tribes of the Israelites, their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our ancestors and added to the inheritance of the tribe they join. In this way, it will be taken from the lot of our inheritance.
4 When the jubilee of the Israelites comes, their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe they join. Thus their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of the tribe of our ancestors.”
5 Moses commanded the Israelites according to the LORD’s command: “The tribe of the descendants of Joseph is right in what it says.
6 This is what the LORD has commanded concerning the daughters of Zelophehad: ‘They may marry whomever they think best, but they must marry within a clan of their father’s tribe.
7 So the inheritance of the Israelites will not pass from one tribe to another, because each Israelite will remain bound to the inheritance of the tribe of their ancestors.
8 Every daughter who receives an inheritance in one of the tribes of the Israelites must marry someone from a clan of her father’s tribe, so that the Israelites may each possess the inheritance of their ancestors.
9 In this way, the inheritance will not pass from one tribe to another, because each of the tribes of the Israelites will remain bound to its own inheritance.’”
10 The daughters of Zelophehad did as the LORD had commanded Moses.
11 Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, married their cousins.
12 They married within the clans of the descendants of Manasseh, son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of their father’s clan.
13 These are the commandments and regulations that the LORD commanded the Israelites through Moses on the plains of Moab, beside the Jordan, across from Jericho.
Read and listen to this chapter in the Shalem app, free: narration, chapter video and reading progress. Get the app