Numbers
Summary
Numbers Chapter 36 is the final chapter of the book, addressing the inheritance for the daughters of Zelophehad. The leaders of the tribe of Manasseh raised a concern: if these women married into other tribes, their land would eventually pass to those tribes, reducing Manasseh's territory. Moses provided a wise solution: the daughters could marry whoever they wished, but only within their own ancestral tribe. This ensured that no land would ever transfer from one tribe to another. The book of Numbers thus concludes on a note of balanced justice and tribal order as the nation waits on the plains of Moab to enter the land.
The family heads of the clan of Gilead son of Makir, the son of Manasseh, who were from the clans of the descendants of Joseph, came and spoke before Moses and the leaders, the heads of the Israelite families.
"When the LORD commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance to the Israelites by lot, he ordered you to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters.
Now suppose they marry men from other Israelite tribes; then their inheritance will be taken from our ancestral inheritance and added to that of the tribe they marry into. And so part of the inheritance allotted to us will be taken away.
When the Year of Jubilee for the Israelites comes, their inheritance will be added to that of the tribe into which they marry, and their property will be taken from the inheritance of our ancestral tribe."
Then at the LORD’s command Moses gave this order to the Israelites: "What the tribe of the descendants of Joseph is saying is right.
This is what the LORD commands for Zelophehad’s daughters: They may marry anyone they please as long as they marry within their own ancestral tribal clan.
No inheritance in Israel is to pass from tribe to tribe, for every Israelite shall keep the tribal inheritance of their ancestors.
Every daughter who inherits land in any Israelite tribe must marry someone in her ancestral tribal clan, so that every Israelite will possess the inheritance of their ancestors.
No inheritance may pass from one tribe to another, for every Israelite tribe is to keep its own land."
So Zelophehad’s daughters did as the LORD commanded Moses.
Zelophehad’s daughters, Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milkah and Noah, married their cousins on their father’s side.
They married within the clans of the descendants of Manasseh son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in their father’s clan and tribe.
These are the commands and regulations the LORD gave through Moses to the Israelites on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.