Inheritance Through Marriage

36 The leaders[fn] of the families[fn] of the clans of descendants[fn] of Gilead the son of Makir, the son of Manasseh, of the clans of the descendants[fn] of Joseph came near and spoke before[fn] Moses and before[fn] the leaders[fn] of the families[fn] of the Israelites.[fn] 2 And they said, “Yahweh commanded my lord to give the land by lot as an inheritance to the Israelites,[fn] 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,[fn] their inheritance will disappear from the inheritance of our ancestors,[fn] 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[fn] comes,[fn] 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[fn] by the command of Yahweh, saying, “The tribe of the descendants[fn] 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[fn] whomever they like;[fn] only they must marry[fn] from within the clan of the tribe of their father. 7 Thus an inheritance of the Israelites[fn] will not go around from tribe to tribe. Rather, the inheritance of each tribe of his father will remain with the Israelites.[fn] 8 Every daughter who possesses an inheritance from the tribes of the Israelites[fn] will marry[fn] one of the clan of the tribe of her father, so that the Israelites[fn] will possess the inheritance of his ancestors.[fn] 9 Therefore an inheritance will not go around from one tribe to another tribe because the tribes of the Israelites[fn] 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[fn] the sons of their uncles. 12 They married[fn] those from the sons of Manasseh son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained[fn] among the tribe of the clan of their ancestors.[fn]

13 These were the commands and the stipulations that Yahweh commanded by the hand of Moses[fn] to the Israelites[fn] on the desert-plateaus of Moab by the Jordan across Jericho.