Numbers 36
Big idea: The book ends with a footnote to its best story. The heads of Gilead's households come with a real problem: if Zelophehad's daughters marry outside the tribe, the land they won will move with them, and at the jubilee it will belong to another tribe forever. Moses gives the same verdict he gave the daughters — the tribe of the sons of Joseph speak what is right — and the ruling protects both parties: let them be married to whom they think best, only within the family of their father's tribe. Their choice is preserved and the inheritance is preserved with it. And the five sisters do it, and their names are recorded one last time. Numbers ends not with a march or a battle but with five women keeping their land.
Numbers ends in the plains of Moab with the land mapped and the inheritance secured. Deuteronomy opens in the same place, with Moses beginning to speak.
36:1–4 — Then their inheritance will be taken away
The heads of the fathers' households of the family of the children of Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manasseh, come near and speak before Moses and the princes. Yahweh commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the children of Israel, and my lord was commanded to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters. If they marry any of the sons of the other tribes, then their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of our fathers and added to the inheritance of the tribe they belong to. And when the jubilee comes, their inheritance will be added to that tribe — so it will be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.
1 The heads of the fathers’ households of the family of the children 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 princes, the heads of the fathers’ households of the children of Israel. 2 They said, “Yahweh commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the children of Israel. My lord was commanded by Yahweh 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 children of Israel, then their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of our fathers, and will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they shall belong. So it will be taken away from the lot of our inheritance. 4 When the jubilee of the children of Israel comes, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they shall belong. So their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.”
36:5–13 — Let them marry whom they think best
Moses commands according to Yahweh's word: the tribe of the sons of Joseph speak what is right. This is what Yahweh commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad — let them be married to whom they think best, only they shall marry into the family of the tribe of their father. So no inheritance shall move from tribe to tribe; the children of Israel shall each keep the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. Every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe shall be wife to one of the family of her father's tribe, that each may possess the inheritance of his fathers — so no inheritance shall move from one tribe to another. And the daughters of Zelophehad did as Yahweh commanded Moses: Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah and Noah were married to their father's brothers' sons, into the families of the sons of Manasseh, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father. These are the commandments and ordinances which Yahweh commanded by Moses to the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
5 Moses commanded the children of Israel according to Yahweh’s word, saying, “The tribe of the sons of Joseph speak what is right. 6 This is the thing which Yahweh commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, ‘Let them be married to whom they think best, only they shall marry into the family of the tribe of their father. 7 So shall no inheritance of the children of Israel move from tribe to tribe; for the children of Israel shall all keep the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. 8 Every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel shall be wife to one of the family of the tribe of her father, that the children of Israel may each possess the inheritance of his fathers. 9 So shall no inheritance move from one tribe to another tribe; for the tribes of the children of Israel shall each keep his own inheritance.’” 10 The daughters of Zelophehad did as Yahweh commanded Moses: 11 for Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to their father’s brothers’ sons. 12 They were married into the families of the sons of Manasseh the son of Joseph. Their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father. 13 These are the commandments and the ordinances which Yahweh commanded by Moses to the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).