Numbers 36

1 Then the leaders of the families of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, from the stock of the sons of Joseph, approached and spoke to Moses before the leaders of Israel, and they said:

And the heads of the fathers’ [houses] of the family of the children of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near, and spake before Moses, and before the princes, the heads of the fathers’ [houses] of the children of Israel:

2 “The Lord has instructed you, our ruler, so that you would divide the land by lot to the sons of Israel, and so that you would give to the daughters of Zelophehad, our brother, the possession owed to their father.

and they said, The LORD commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the children of Israel: and my lord was commanded by the LORD to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother unto his daughters.

3 But if men of another tribe receive them as wives, their possession will follow them, and having been transferred to another tribe, there will be a reduction in our inheritance.

And if they be married to any of the sons of the [other] tribes of the children of Israel, then shall their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of our fathers, and shall be added to the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they shall belong: so shall it be taken away from the lot of our inheritance.

4 And so it may be that, when the Jubilee of remission, that is, the fiftieth year, has arrived, the distribution by lots shall be confounded, and the possession of the one shall be transferred to others.”

And when the jubile of the children of Israel shall be, then shall their inheritance be added unto the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they shall belong: so shall their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.

5 Moses answered the sons of Israel, and, at the instruction of the Lord, he said: “The tribe of the sons of Joseph has spoken correctly.

And Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the word of the LORD, saying, The tribe of the sons of Joseph speaketh right.

6 And so, this is the law which has been promulgated by the Lord about the daughters of Zelophehad: Let them marry whomever they may wish, but only among the men of their own tribe,

This is the thing which the LORD doth command concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, Let them marry to whom they think best; only to the family of the tribe of their father shall they marry.

7 lest the possession of the sons of Israel become commingled, from tribe to tribe. For all men shall take wives from their own tribe and kinship;

So shall no inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe: for the children of Israel shall cleave every one to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.

8 and all women shall take husbands from their same tribe, so that the inheritance may remain within the families,

And every daughter, that possesseth an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel, shall be wife unto one of the family of the tribe of her father, that the children of Israel may possess every man the inheritance of his fathers.

9 and so that the tribes may not be mingled together, but may remain such as they were separated by the Lord.”

So shall no inheritance remove from one tribe to another tribe; for the tribes of the children of Israel shall cleave every one to his own inheritance.

10 And the daughters of Zelophehad acted according to what was ordered.

Even as the LORD commanded Moses, so did the daughters of Zelophehad:

11 And Mahlah, and Tirzah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Noa were wed to the sons of their paternal uncle,

for Mahlah, Tirzah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married unto their father’s brothers’ sons.

12 from the family of Manasseh, who was a son of Joseph. And the possession which had been distributed to them remained in the tribe and family of their father.

They were married into the families of the sons of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father.

13 These are the commandments and judgments which the Lord ordered by the hand of Moses to the sons of Israel, in the plains of Moab, above the Jordan, opposite Jericho.

These are the commandments and the judgments, which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.