Inheritance Through Marriage

1And the heads of the fathers’ households of the family 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 heads of the fathers’ households of the sons of Israel, 2and they said, “Yahweh commanded my lord to give the land by lot to the sons of Israel as an inheritance, and my lord was commanded by Yahweh to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters. 3But if they [†]marry one of the sons of the other tribes of the sons of Israel, their inheritance will be withdrawn from the inheritance of our fathers and will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they belong; thus it will be withdrawn from our allotted inheritance. 4And when the jubilee of the sons of Israel [†]comes, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they belong; so their inheritance will be withdrawn from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.”

5Then Moses commanded the sons of Israel according to the [†]word of Yahweh, saying, “The tribe of the sons of Joseph are right in their statements. 6This is [†]what Yahweh has commanded concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, ‘Let them marry whoever is good in their sight; only they must marry within the family of the tribe of their father.’ 7Thus no inheritance of the sons of Israel shall [†]be transferred from tribe to tribe, for the sons of Israel shall each [†]hold to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. 8And every daughter who comes into possession of an inheritance of any tribe of the sons of Israel shall be wife to one of the family of the tribe of her father, so that the sons of Israel each may possess the inheritance of his fathers. 9Thus no inheritance shall [†]be transferred from one tribe to another tribe, for the tribes of the sons of Israel shall each [†]hold to his own inheritance.”

10Just as Yahweh had commanded Moses, so the daughters of Zelophehad did: 11And Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad married their uncles’ sons. 12They married those from the families of the sons of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance [†]remained with the tribe of the family of their father.

13These are the commandments and the judgments which Yahweh commanded to the sons of Israel by the hand of Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho.