Inheritance Through Marriage

1 The leadersof the familiesof the clans of descendantsof Gilead the son of Makir, the son of Manasseh, of the clans of the descendantsof Joseph came near and spoke beforeMoses and beforethe leadersof the familiesof 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 Israelitescomes,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 Israelitesby the command of Yahweh, saying, “The tribe of the descendantsof Joseph is right regarding what they are speaking.

6 This is the word that Yahweh commanded the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, ‘Let them marrywhomever they like;only they must marryfrom within the clan of the tribe of their father.

7 Thus an inheritance of the Israeliteswill 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 Israeliteswill marryone of the clan of the tribe of her father, so that the Israeliteswill 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 Israeliteswill 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, marriedthe sons of their uncles.

12 They marriedthose from the sons of Manasseh son of Joseph, and their inheritance remainedamong the tribe of the clan of their ancestors.

13 These were the commands and the stipulations that Yahweh commanded by the hand of Mosesto the Israeliteson the desert-plateaus of Moab by the Jordan across Jericho.