Numbers 36

1 The family leaders of the clan of Gilead of the tribe of Manasseh went to Moses/me and the other family leaders of the Israeli people.

Now the family heads of the clan of Gilead son of Machir son of Manasseh, one of the clans of Joseph, approached Moses and the leaders who were the heads of the Israelite families and addressed them,

2 They said to Moses/me, “Yahweh commanded you, our leader, to apportion the land to the Israeli tribes by throwing (lots/stones that have been marked) to decide [which group would get which area]. Yahweh also commanded you to give the land that belonged to our fellow Israeli Zelophehad to his daughters.

saying, “When the LORD commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance to the Israelites by lot, He also commanded him to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters.

3 But if his daughters marry men from the other Israeli tribes, that land will no longer belong to our tribe. People of other tribes will get it. So some of our land will no longer belong to us.

But if they marry any of the men from the other tribes of Israel, their inheritance will be withdrawn from the portion of our fathers and added to the tribe into which they marry. So our allotted inheritance would be taken away.

4 When the Year of Celebration comes, [when all the land that has been bought by someone is returned to its original owners], the land that belonged to Zelophehad will belong to the tribes of the men that his daughters marry. So some of our land, the land that we received from our fathers, will be taken from us, [and we will never own it again].”

And when the Jubilee for the Israelites comes, their inheritance will be added to the tribe into which they marry and taken away from the tribe of our fathers.”

5 Yahweh told Moses/me what to reply to them, so Moses/I said this to them: “These men from the tribe of Manasseh are right.

So at the word of the LORD, Moses commanded the Israelites: “The tribe of the sons of Joseph speaks correctly.

6 This is what Yahweh is saying to the daughters of Zelophehad: ‘Each of you may marry anyone you want to, but you must marry only someone from your own tribe.’

This is what the LORD has commanded concerning the daughters of Zelophehad: They may marry anyone they please, provided they marry within a clan of the tribe of their father.

7 In that way, the land that belongs to Israelis will not be passed from one tribe to another tribe. Each Israeli will keep the land in the tribe that belonged to his ancestors.

No inheritance in Israel may be transferred from tribe to tribe, because each of the Israelites is to retain the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.

8 A woman who inherits her father’s land may get married, but she must marry someone from her own tribe. In that way, every Israeli will keep the land that belonged to his ancestors.

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.

9 The land must not be passed from one tribe to another tribe. Each Israeli tribe must keep the land that it received from its ancestors.”

No inheritance may be transferred from one tribe to another, for each tribe of Israel must retain its inheritance.”

10 Zelophehad’s daughters obeyed what Yahweh told Moses/me.

So the daughters of Zelophehad did as the LORD had commanded Moses.

11 The five daughters—Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah and Noah—married their cousins, their father’s relatives.

Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to cousins on their father’s side.

12 The men whom they married were from the tribe of Manasseh, so their land continued to belong to their father’s family and tribe.

They married within the clans of the descendants of Manasseh son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained within the tribe of their father’s clan.

13 Those were the commands [DOU] that Yahweh gave to Moses/me to tell to the Israelis, while they/we were on the plains of the Moab region, close to the Jordan River, across from Jericho.

These are the commandments and ordinances that the LORD gave the Israelites through Moses on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.