Zelophehad’s Daughters Marry
1 The heads of each household in the Gilead family (the descendants of Machir, who were the descendants of Manasseh, who were the descendants of Joseph), went to speak to Moses and the leaders, the heads of household among each Israelite family.
2 They said, “The Lord commanded my master to give the inheritance of land by lot to the Israelites. My master was commanded by the Lord to give our brother Zelophehad’s grant of land to his daughters. 3 If the women are married to any of the descendants of other Israelite tribes, then their tracts of land will be taken away from the land of our patriarchs, and will be added to the land of the tribe to which they married into. So it will be taken away from our inheritance of land. 4 When the jubilee of the Israelites comes, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they married into. So their inheritance will be taken from the land grant of our ancestral tribe.”
An Addendum for the Daughters
5 Moses pronounced to the Israelites according to the Lord’s command, “The tribe of Joseph is right in what they are saying. 6 This is what the Lord commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, ‘Let them be married to whom they think best, the only exception being that they must marry into the family of their ancestral tribe. 7 Therefore, no tract of land of the Israelites will move from tribe to tribe, for the Israelites shall each keep the inheritance of land of their ancestral tribe. 8 Every woman who possesses a tract of land in any Israelite tribe must marry into her own ancestral tribe so that the Israelites may each retain their inheritance of land. 9 Therefore, tracts of land will not transfer from one tribe to another tribe. The tribes of the Israelites shall each retain their own inheritance.’ ”
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 cousins. 12 They were married into the Manasseh family, descendants of Joseph. Their inheritance remained with their ancestral tribe.
13 These are the commandments and the ordinances which the Lord commanded through Moses to the Israelites in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.