36:1 | Then the heads of the family groups* of the Gileadites, the descendant of Machir, the descendant of Manasseh, who were from the Josephite families, approached and spoke before Moses* and the leaders who were the heads of the Israelite families.* |
36:2 | They said, “The Lord commanded my lord to give* the land as an inheritance by lot to the Israelites; and my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters. |
36:3 | Now if they should be married to one of the men* from another Israelite tribe, their inheritance would be taken from the inheritance of our fathers and added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry.* As a result, it will be taken from the lot of our inheritance. |
36:4 | And when the Jubilee of the Israelites is to take place,* their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry. So their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of our ancestral tribe.”* |
36:5 | Then Moses gave a ruling* to the Israelites by the word* of the Lord: “What the tribe of the Josephites is saying is right. |
36:6 | This is what* the Lord has commanded for Zelophehad’s daughters: ‘Let them marry* whomever they think best,* only they must marry within the family of their father’s tribe. |
36:7 | In this way the inheritance of the Israelites will not be transferred* from tribe to tribe. But every one of the Israelites must retain the ancestral heritage. |
36:8 | 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. |
36:9 | No inheritance may pass from tribe to tribe. But every one of the tribes of the Israelites must retain its inheritance.” |
36:10 | As the Lord had commanded Moses, so the daughters of Zelophehad did. |
36:11 | For the daughters of Zelophehad – Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah – were married to the sons of their uncles.* |
36:12 | They were married into the families of the Manassehites, the descendants of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of their father’s family. |
36:13 | These are the commandments and the decisions that the Lord commanded the Israelites through the authority* of Moses, on the plains of Moab by the Jordan River* opposite Jericho.* |