Numbers 36
Lexham English Bible
Inheritance Through Marriage
36 The leaders[a] of the families[b] of the clans of descendants[c] of Gilead the son of Makir, the son of Manasseh, of the clans of the descendants[d] of Joseph came near and spoke before[e] Moses and before[f] the leaders[g] of the families[h] of the Israelites.[i] 2 And they said, “Yahweh commanded my lord to give the land by lot as an inheritance to the Israelites,[j] and my lord was commanded by Yahweh to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters. 3 But if they become wives to one of the sons from another tribe of the Israelites,[k] their inheritance will disappear from the inheritance of our ancestors,[l] and it will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they belong; the lot of our inheritance would disappear. 4 When the Jubilee of the Israelites[m] comes,[n] it will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they belong; and their inheritance will disappear from the tribe of our father.”
5 Then Moses commanded the Israelites[o] by the command of Yahweh, saying, “The tribe of the descendants[p] of Joseph is right regarding what they are speaking. 6 This is the word that Yahweh commanded the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, ‘Let them marry[q] whomever they like;[r] only they must marry[s] from within the clan of the tribe of their father. 7 Thus an inheritance of the Israelites[t] will not go around from tribe to tribe. Rather, the inheritance of each tribe of his father will remain with the Israelites.[u] 8 Every daughter who possesses an inheritance from the tribes of the Israelites[v] will marry[w] one of the clan of the tribe of her father, so that the Israelites[x] will possess the inheritance of his ancestors.[y] 9 Therefore an inheritance will not go around from one tribe to another tribe because the tribes of the Israelites[z] will each hold to their own inheritance.’”
10 Just as Yahweh commanded to Moses, so the daughters of Zelophehad did: 11 Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, married[aa] the sons of their uncles. 12 They married[ab] those from the sons of Manasseh son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained[ac] among the tribe of the clan of their ancestors.[ad]
13 These were the commands and the stipulations that Yahweh commanded by the hand of Moses[ae] to the Israelites[af] on the desert-plateaus of Moab by the Jordan across Jericho.
Footnotes
- Numbers 36:1 Literally “The heads”
- Numbers 36:1 Or “fathers”
- Numbers 36:1 Or “sons”
- Numbers 36:1 Or “sons”
- Numbers 36:1 Literally “before the face of”
- Numbers 36:1 Literally “before the face of”
- Numbers 36:1 Literally “the heads”
- Numbers 36:1 Hebrew “of the fathers”
- Numbers 36:1 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Numbers 36:2 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Numbers 36:3 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Numbers 36:3 Or “fathers”
- Numbers 36:4 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Numbers 36:4 Literally “will be”
- Numbers 36:5 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Numbers 36:5 Or “sons”
- Numbers 36:6 Literally “Let them be as wives”
- Numbers 36:6 Literally “they will be as the good in their eyes”
- Numbers 36:6 Literally “they must be as wives”
- Numbers 36:7 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Numbers 36:7 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Numbers 36:8 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Numbers 36:8 Literally “be a wife to”
- Numbers 36:8 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Numbers 36:8 Or “fathers”
- Numbers 36:9 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Numbers 36:11 Literally “were as wives to”
- Numbers 36:12 Literally “They were as wives to”
- Numbers 36:12 Literally “was”
- Numbers 36:12 Or “fathers”
- Numbers 36:13 Or “through Moses”
- Numbers 36:13 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
Numbers 36
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Marriage of Female Heirs
36 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;(A) 2 they said, “The Lord commanded 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.(B) 3 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. 4 And when the Jubilee of the Israelites comes, 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.”(C)
5 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. 6 This is what the Lord commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying: Let them marry whom they think best; only it must be into a clan of their father’s tribe that they are married,(D) 7 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. 8 Every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the Israelites shall marry one from the clan of her father’s tribe, so that all Israelites may continue to possess their ancestral inheritance.(E) 9 No inheritance shall be transferred from one tribe to another, for each of the tribes of the Israelites shall retain its own inheritance.”
10 The daughters of Zelophehad did as the Lord had commanded Moses. 11 Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, married sons of their father’s brothers.(F) 12 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.
13 These are the commandments and the ordinances that the Lord commanded through Moses to the Israelites in the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho.(G)
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