Numbers 36 - Modern English Version

Marriage of Female Heirs

¹ And the chief fathers of the families of the sons of Gilead the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near, and spoke before Moses and before the leaders, the chief fathers of the Israelites.

² And they said, “The Lord commanded my lord to give the land for an inheritance by lot to the Israelites, and my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters.

³ If they are married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the Israelites, then their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our fathers and will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they are married, so will it be taken from the lot of our inheritance.

⁴ When the jubilee of the Israelites happens, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they are married, so their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.”

⁵ Moses commanded the Israelites according to the word of the Lord, saying: “The tribe of the sons of Joseph has spoken right.

⁶ This is the thing which the Lord commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, ‘Let them marry whom they think best. But they may marry only within a clan of their father’s tribe.

⁷ So the inheritance of the Israelites will not turn from tribe to tribe, because every one of the Israelites will keep the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.

⁸ Every daughter that possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the Israelites will be wife to one of the families of the tribe of her father, so every man of the Israelites may enjoy the inheritance of his fathers.

⁹ Thus no inheritance will turn from one tribe to another tribe, but every tribe of the Israelites will keep its own inheritance.’ ”

¹⁰ Just as the Lord commanded Moses, thus the daughters of Zelophehad did,

¹¹ for Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milkah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to their uncles’ sons.

¹² And they were married into the families of the sons of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father.

¹³ These are the commandments and the judgments which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses to the Israelites in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.