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Numbers 36
International Children’s Bible
Numbers 36
International Children’s Bible
Land for Zelophehad’s Daughters
36 The leaders of Gilead’s family group went to talk to Moses and the leaders of the families of Israel. (Gilead was the son of Makir. Makir was Manasseh’s son, and Manasseh was Joseph’s son.) 2 They said, “The Lord commanded you, our master, to give the land to the Israelites by throwing lots. And the Lord commanded you to give the land of Zelophehad, our brother, to his daughters. 3 His daughters may marry men from other tribes of Israel. Then that land will leave our family. The people of the other tribes will get that land. So we will lose some of our land. 4 The time of Jubilee will come for the Israelites. Then their land will go to other tribes. It will go to the tribes of the people they marry. So their land will be taken away from us. And that was land we received from our fathers.”
5 Then Moses gave the Israelites this command from the Lord: “These men from the tribe of Joseph are right. 6 This is the Lord’s command to Zelophehad’s daughters: You may marry anyone you wish from your own tribe. 7 In this way the Israelites’ land will not pass from tribe to tribe. Each Israelite will keep the land in the tribe that belonged to his ancestors. 8 A woman who inherits her father’s land may marry. But she must marry someone from her own tribe. In this way every Israelite will keep the land that belonged to his ancestors. 9 The land must not pass from tribe to tribe. Each Israelite tribe will keep the land it received from its ancestors.”
10 Zelophehad’s daughters obeyed the Lord’s command to Moses.
11 So Zelophehad’s daughters—Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah and Noah—married their cousins. These were their father’s relatives. 12 Their husbands were from the tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph. So their land stayed in their father’s family group and tribe.
13 These were the laws and commands that the Lord gave to the Israelites. He gave them through Moses. The Israelites were on the plains of Moab by the Jordan River, across from Jericho.
Numbers 36
EasyEnglish Bible
Numbers 36
EasyEnglish Bible
A family's land may belong to women
36 The leaders of the families in Gilead's clan went to Moses and to the other leaders of the Israelites' clans. (Gilead was the descendant of Makir, who was the descendant of Manasseh. Manasseh was Joseph's son.) 2 [a] They said, ‘The Lord told you, sir, that you should decide which parts of the land to give to each Israelite family. You used special stones to do that. The Lord told you to give Zelophehad's land to his daughters. Zelophehad was in our clan. 3 But if his daughters marry, the land will then belong to their husbands. If they marry men from other tribes, the land will no longer belong to us, the tribe of Manasseh. 4 Even when the Jubilee year comes, the land will not return to our tribe. It will belong to the tribes of the men that Zelophehad's daughters have married.’
5 The Lord gave Moses his answer. So Moses gave this command to the Israelites: ‘What Joseph's descendants are saying is right. 6 This is what the Lord has commanded about the daughters of Zelophehad: Let them marry men that they want to marry. But they must marry men from the clans of their father's tribe. 7 If they do that, each tribe will keep the land that has been given to their ancestors. None of their land will go to another tribe. 8 Any young woman who receives land when her father dies must marry a man from her father's tribe. All the Israelite tribes must obey that rule. Then every Israelite person will keep the land that belonged to his ancestors. 9 No land that belongs to any tribe will become the land of another tribe. So each tribe will keep the land that their ancestors had.’
10 The daughters of Zelophehad did what the Lord had commanded Moses. 11 Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, married sons of their father's brothers. 12 They married men from the clans of the descendants of Joseph's son, Manasseh. Because of that, their land remained with the tribe of their father's clan.
13 Those are the rules that the Lord gave to the Israelites at that time. The Lord told Moses what he should say to the people. That happened when they were beside the Jordan River in Moab, on the flat ground on the other side of the river from Jericho city.
Footnotes
- 36:2 See Numbers 27:1-11.
Numbers 36
New International Version
Numbers 36
New International Version
Inheritance of Zelophehad’s Daughters(A)
36 The family heads of the clan of Gilead(B) son of Makir,(C) the son of Manasseh, who were from the clans of the descendants of Joseph,(D) came and spoke before Moses and the leaders,(E) the heads of the Israelite families. 2 They said, “When the Lord commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance to the Israelites by lot,(F) he ordered you to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad(G) to his daughters. 3 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. 4 When the Year of Jubilee(H) 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 tribal inheritance of our ancestors.”
5 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. 6 This is what the Lord commands for Zelophehad’s daughters: They may marry anyone they please as long as they marry within their father’s tribal clan. 7 No inheritance(I) in Israel is to pass from one tribe to another, for every Israelite shall keep the tribal inheritance of their ancestors. 8 Every daughter who inherits land in any Israelite tribe must marry someone in her father’s tribal clan,(J) so that every Israelite will possess the inheritance of their ancestors. 9 No inheritance may pass from one tribe to another, for each Israelite tribe is to keep the land it inherits.”
10 So Zelophehad’s daughters did as the Lord commanded Moses. 11 Zelophehad’s daughters—Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milkah and Noah(K)—married their cousins on their father’s side. 12 They married within the clans of the descendants of Manasseh son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in their father’s tribe and clan.(L)
13 These are the commands and regulations the Lord gave through Moses(M) to the Israelites on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.(N)
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