Numbers 36:1-13

The heads of the ancestral houses of the clans of the descendants of Gilead son of Machir son of Manasseh, of the Josephite clans, came forward and spoke in the presence of Moses and the leaders, the heads of the ancestral houses of the Israelites; they said, “The Lord commanded¹ my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the Israelites; and my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters. But if they are married into another Israelite tribe, then their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our ancestors and added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry; so it will be taken away from the allotted portion of our inheritance.² And when the jubilee of the Israelites comes,³ then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they have married; and their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our ancestral tribe.”

Then Moses commanded the Israelites according to the word of the Lord, saying, “The descendants of the tribe of Joseph are right in what they are saying. This is what the Lord commands⁴ concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, 'Let them marry whom they think best; only it must be into a clan of their father’s tribe that they are married,⁵ so that no inheritance of the Israelites shall be transferred from one tribe to another; for all Israelites shall retain the inheritance of their ancestral tribes. Every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the Israelites shall marry one from the clan of her father’s tribe,⁶ so that all Israelites may continue to possess their ancestral inheritance. No inheritance shall be transferred from one tribe to another; for each of the tribes of the Israelites shall retain its own inheritance.'”⁷

The daughters of Zelophehad did as the Lord had commanded Moses. Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, married sons of their father’s brothers. They were married into the clans of the descendants of Manasseh son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of their father’s clan.⁸

These are the commandments and the ordinances that the Lord commanded through Moses to the Israelites in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.⁹

1 Emphasizing God's place in setting these commands.

2 That each tribe should keep its originally allotted amount is assumed to be sacrosanct. The tribalism possible here is worrysome.

3 Good reference to the Jubilee.

4 Moses says, “This is what the Lord commands”, though there was no reference to going to God.

5 Their inheritance limits their marriage options.

6 The specific case is broadened into a general rule.

7 An even more general rule is declared (though the heads who brought the matter implicitly assumed it)

8 The obedience that must have come at some point in the future is made explicit.

9 This line closes chapters 26-36, though ignoring previous events in the book.


Take-home: Numbers ends with a legal addendum, emphasizing that all the land God is about to give the tribes of Israel must stay within the originally designated tribe.