Chapter Thirty-Six
Marriage and Inheritance of Female Heirs
36:1 The heads of the fathers’ houses of the clan of the people of Gilead the son of Machir, son of Manasseh, from the clans of the people of Joseph, came near and spoke before Moses and before the chiefs, the heads of the fathers’ houses of the people of Israel. 2 They said, “The LORD commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the people of Israel, and my lord was commanded by the LORD to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters. 3 But if they are married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the people of Israel, then their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our fathers and added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry. So it will be taken away from the lot of our inheritance. 4 And when the jubilee of the people of Israel comes, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry, and their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.”
Representatives from the tribe of Manasseh approach Moses and the leaders of the other tribes with a concern regarding the inheritance given to the daughters of any man who had no son, specifically in this case, the daughters of Zelophedad from the tribe of Manasseh (see Numbers 27:1-11). Their issue was that if they married outside the tribe of Manasseh, their inheritance of land would then be transferred to the other tribe and removed from theirs. Since the Year of Jubilee would only return land sold and not any land inherited (see Leviticus 25:8-22), the land that was inherited from them would then become the property (the inheritance) of that other tribe or tribes.
The reference to “my lord” in verse two is the Hebrew word ‘ǎḏō·ni’,[1] most often referring to a human lord, one in authority, in this case undoubtedly a reference to a tribal leader. Remember, when the word LORD is in all capital letters, it is the tetragrammaton, the name of God, YHWH.[2]
36:5 And Moses commanded the people of Israel according to the word of the LORD, saying, “The tribe of the people of Joseph is right. 6 This is what the LORD commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad: ‘Let them marry whom they think best, only they shall marry within the clan of the tribe of their father. 7 The inheritance of the people of Israel shall not be transferred from one tribe to another, for every one of the people of Israel shall hold on to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. 8 And every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the people of Israel shall be wife to one of the clan of the tribe of her father, so that every one of the people of Israel may possess the inheritance of his fathers. 9 So no inheritance shall be transferred from one tribe to another, for each of the tribes of the people of Israel shall hold on to its own inheritance.’ ”
Moses relayed instructions from God that the concern raised from the tribe of Manasseh was legitimate and correct. The daughters of Zelophehad (and any other subsequent daughter that had no brothers to inherit in future generations) could marry whomever they wished, but only if the future potential husband was from the same tribe as their father. The inheritance of land was not to be transferred from one tribe to another. Once the land was allocated, if another tribe wanted to use another tribe’s land it could only be through a temporary arrangement (a sale that would require land ownership to return to the original owner at the next Jubilee).[3]
36:10 The daughters of Zelophehad did as the LORD commanded Moses, 11 for Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to sons of their father’s brothers. 12 They were married into the clans of the people of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of their father’s clan.
The daughters of Zelophehad married men from within the tribe of Manasseh allowing their inheritance to remain in the same tribe.
36:13 These are the commandments and the rules that the LORD commanded through Moses to the people of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
This verse closes the section of the regulations given to Moses from God while camped in the plains of Moab (chapters 26 through 36) and it also concludes the book of Numbers. Since the people of Israel are essentially ready to cross over the Jordan River and enter the Promised Land, the next book contains mostly a review of the law given to Moses with additional information and some stern warnings regarding disobedience. Moses offers heartfelt advice to this generation. Deuteronomy is a vital book, one that Jesus quoted from more often than any other book written by Moses.
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[1] Strong’s Hebrew 113.
[2] See commentary above Genesis 2:4-6.
[3] See commentary under Leviticus 25:13-17.