'Tribes' in the Bible

These were the ones chosen from the community, leaders of their ancestral tribes. They were the heads of the thousands of Israel.

Then the leaders of Israel, the heads of their clans, made an offering. They were the leaders of the tribes; they were the ones who had been supervising the numbering.

So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and each of their leaders gave him a staff, one for each leader, according to their tribes -- twelve staffs; the staff of Aaron was among their staffs.

The land must be divided by lot; and they will inherit in accordance with the names of their ancestral tribes.

Moses told the leaders of the tribes concerning the Israelites, "This is what the Lord has commanded:

You must send to the battle a thousand men from every tribe throughout all the tribes of Israel."

So Moses gave orders about them to Eleazar the priest, to Joshua son of Nun, and to the heads of the families of the Israelite tribes.

You must divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families. To a larger group you must give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group you must give a smaller inheritance. Everyone's inheritance must be in the place where his lot falls. You must inherit according to your ancestral tribes.

Then Moses commanded the Israelites: "This is the land which you will inherit by lot, which the Lord has commanded to be given to the nine and a half tribes,

The two and a half tribes have received their inheritance on this side of the Jordan, east of Jericho, toward the sunrise."

The towns you will give must be from the possession of the Israelites. From the larger tribes you must give more; and from the smaller tribes fewer. Each must contribute some of its own towns to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance allocated to each.

And every daughter who possesses an inheritance from any of the tribes of the Israelites must become the wife of a man from any family in her father's tribe, so that every Israelite may retain the inheritance of his fathers.

No inheritance may pass from tribe to tribe. But every one of the tribes of the Israelites must retain its inheritance."