Women and Land Inheritance

36 Then the heads of the family groups^[a] of the Gileadites, the descendant of Machir, the descendant of Manasseh, who were from the Josephite families, approached and spoke before Moses^[b] and the leaders who were the heads of the Israelite families.^{[c] 2} They said, “The Lord commanded my lord to give^[d] the land as an 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. ³ Now if they should be married to one of the men^[e] from another Israelite tribe, their inheritance would be taken from the inheritance of our fathers and added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry.^[f] As a result, it will be taken from the lot of our inheritance. ⁴ And when the Jubilee of the Israelites is to take place,^[g] their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry. So their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of our ancestral tribe.”^[h]

Moses’ Decision

⁵ Then Moses gave a ruling^[i] to the Israelites by the word^[j] of the Lord: “What the tribe of the Josephites is saying is right. ⁶ This is what^[k] the Lord has commanded for Zelophehad’s daughters: ‘Let them marry^[l] whomever they think best,^[m] only they must marry within the family of their father’s tribe. ⁷ In this way the inheritance of the Israelites will not be transferred^[n] from tribe to tribe. But every one of the Israelites must retain the ancestral heritage. ⁸ And every daughter who possesses an inheritance from any of the tribes of the Israelites must become the wife of a man from any family in her father’s tribe, so that every Israelite^[o] may retain the inheritance of his fathers. ⁹ No inheritance may pass from tribe to tribe. But every one of the tribes of the Israelites must retain its inheritance.’”

¹⁰ As the Lord had commanded Moses, so the daughters of Zelophehad did. ¹¹ For the daughters of Zelophehad—Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah—were married to the sons of their uncles.^{[p] 12} They were married into the families of the Manassehites, the descendants of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of their father’s family.

¹³ These are the commandments and the decisions that the Lord commanded the Israelites through the authority^[q] of Moses, in the rift valley plains^[r] by Moab along the Jordan River^[s] opposite Jericho.