Numbers 36:1-13 - Inheritance Through Marriage

¹ {The leaders} of the families of the clans of descendants of Gilead the son of Makir, the son of Manasseh, of the clans of the descendants of Joseph came near and spoke {before} Moses and {before} {the leaders} of the families of the {Israelites}. ² And they said, "Yahweh commanded my lord to give the land by lot as an inheritance to the {Israelites}, 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}, their inheritance will disappear from the inheritance of our ancestors, 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} {comes}, 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} by the command of Yahweh, saying, "The tribe of the descendants 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} {whomever they like}; only {they must marry} from within the clan of the tribe of their father. ⁷ Thus an inheritance of the {Israelites} will not go around from tribe to tribe. Rather, the inheritance of each tribe of his father will remain with the {Israelites}. ⁸ Every daughter who possesses an inheritance from the tribes of the {Israelites} will {marry} one of the clan of the tribe of her father, so that the {Israelites} will possess the inheritance of his ancestors. ⁹ Therefore an inheritance will not go around from [one] tribe to another tribe because the tribes of the {Israelites} 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} the sons of their uncles. ¹² {They married} those from the sons of Manasseh son of Joseph, and their inheritance {remained} among the tribe of the clan of their ancestors.

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