Numbers 36

1 The family heads of the descendants of Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manasseh, one of the tribes of Joseph, came and spoke before Moses and the Israelite leaders, the heads of families.

And the chief fathers of the families of the children of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near, and spoke before Moses, and before the princes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel:

2 They said, “When the Lord ordered you, my lord, to allocate land ownership to the Israelites by lot, he also ordered you to give our brother Zelophehad's share to his daughters.

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

3 However, if they marry men from the other tribes of Israel, their allocation would be taken away our fathers' share and added to the tribe of the men they marry. That part of our allocation would be lost to us.

And if they shall be married to any of the sons of the [other] tribes of the children of Israel, then will their inheritance be taken from the inheritance of our fathers, and will be put to the inheritance of the tribe into which they are received: so it will be taken from the lot of our inheritance.

4 So when the Jubilee for the Israelites comes around, their allocation would be added to the tribe into which they marry, and taken away from our fathers' tribe.”

And when the jubilee of the children of Israel shall be, then will their inheritance be put to the inheritance of the tribe into which they are received: so shall their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.

5 Following what the Lord told him, Moses gave these orders to the Israelites, “What the tribe of the sons of Joseph says is right.

And Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the word of the LORD, saying, The tribe of the sons of Joseph hath said well.

6 This is what the Lord has ordered in regard to Zelophehad's daughters: They can marry anyone they want as long as they marry within a family that belongs to their father's 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 No land allocation in Israel may be passed from tribe to tribe, because every Israelite is to hold onto the allocation of his father's tribe.

So shall not the inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe: for every one of the children of Israel shall keep himself to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.

8 Every daughter who possesses an inheritance from any Israelite tribe must marry within a clan of the tribe of her father, so that every Israelite will possess the inheritance of his fathers.

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

9 No land allocation may be passed from one tribe to another, for each Israelite tribe must hold onto its own allocation.”

Neither shall the inheritance remove from [one] tribe to another tribe; but every one of the tribes of the children of Israel shall keep himself to his own inheritance.

10 Zelophehad's daughters followed the Lord's orders through Moses.

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

11 Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, Zelophehad's daughters, married cousins on their father's side.

For Mahlah, Tirzah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to their father's brothers' sons:

12 They married within the families of the descendants of Manasseh, son of Joseph, and their land allocation stayed within their father's tribe.

[And] 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 orders and regulations that the Lord gave the Israelites through Moses on the plains of Moab beside the Jordan opposite Jericho.

These [are] the commandments and the judgments, which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses to the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan [near] Jericho.