Numbers 36. Marriage of Female Heirs

Marriage of Female Heirs

The heads of the fathers’ houses of the clan of the people of Gilead the son of Machir, son of Manasseh, from the clans of the people of Joseph, came near and spoke before Moses and before the chiefs, the heads of the fathers’ houses of the people of Israel. ² They said, “The Lord commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the people of Israel, and my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters. ³ But if they are married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the people of Israel, then their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our fathers and added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry. So it will be taken away from the lot of our inheritance. ⁴ And when the jubilee of the people of Israel comes, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry, and their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.”

• The Zelophehad story continues!
• Leaders from the Gilead family (Manasseh) approach Moses.
• They worry that if Zelophehad’s daughters (who were granted their father’s inheritance in Numbers 27) marry outside the tribe, their land will transfer to another tribe.
• Jubilee: Remember that the year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25) restores property to its rightful owner, but what happens if the land is potentially transferred through marriage?

⁵ And Moses commanded the people of Israel according to the word of the Lord, saying, “The tribe of the people of Joseph is right. ⁶ This is what the Lord commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad: ‘Let them marry whom they think best, only they shall marry within the clan of the tribe of their father. ⁷ The inheritance of the people of Israel shall not be transferred from one tribe to another, for every one of the people of Israel shall hold on to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. ⁸ And every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the people of Israel shall be wife to one of the clan of the tribe of her father, so that every one of the people of Israel may possess the inheritance of his fathers. ⁹ So no inheritance shall be transferred from one tribe to another, for each of the tribes of the people of Israel shall hold on to its own inheritance.’”

• They must marry within their father’s tribe so that their land stays in Manasseh.
• This becomes a rule that any daughter who inherits land must marry within her own tribe, so tribal inheritances remain fixed.
• Can they choose to marry outside the tribe and lose the land?

¹⁰ The daughters of Zelophehad did as the Lord commanded Moses, ¹¹ for Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to sons of their father’s brothers. ¹² They were married into the clans of the people of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of their father’s clan.

• Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah (Zelophehad’s daughters) all obey and marry their cousins/distant relatives within the tribe of Manasseh

¹³ These are the commandments and the rules that the Lord commanded through Moses to the people of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.