Numbers 26:33

26:33 Now Zelophehad son of Hepher had no sons, but only daughters; and the names of the daughters of Zelophehad were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

Numbers 27:1

Special Inheritance Laws

27:1 ¹ Then the daughters of Zelophehad son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh of the families of Manasseh, ²  the son Joseph came forward. Now these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

Numbers 36:2-11

36:2 They said, “The Lord commanded my lord to give ³  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 ⁴  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. ⁵  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, ⁶  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.” ⁷ 

Moses’ Decision

36:5 Then Moses gave a ruling ⁸  to the Israelites by the word ⁹  of the Lord: “What the tribe of the Josephites is saying is right. 36:6 This is what ¹⁰  the Lord has commanded for Zelophehad’s daughters: ‘Let them marry ¹¹  whomever they think best, ¹²  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 ¹³  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 ¹⁴  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. ¹⁵ 

¹ sn For additional information on this section, see N. H. Snaith, “The Daughters of Zelophehad,” VT 16 (1966): 124-27; and J. Weingreen, “The Case of the Daughters of Zelophehad,” VT 16 (1966): 518-22.

² tc The phrase “of the families of Manasseh” is absent from the Latin Vulgate.

¹ tn The infinitive construct “to give” serves here as the complement or object of the verb, answering what the Lord had commanded Moses.

¹ tn “Men” is understood; it says “to one from the sons of the tribes of the Israelites for a wife,” or if he has her for a wife.

² tn Heb “which they will be to them,” meaning, to those who have them, i.e., the marriages.

¹ tn The verb הָיָה (hayah) is most often translated “to be,” but it can also mean “to happen, to take place, to come to pass,” etc.

² tn Heb “the tribe of our fathers.”

¹ tn Heb “commanded.”

² tn Heb “mouth.”

¹ tn Heb “the word that.”

² tn The idiom again is “let them be for wives for….”

³ tn Heb “to the one who is good in their eyes.”

¹ tn Heb “turned aside.”

¹ tn The subject is “Israelites” and the verb is plural to agree with it, but the idea is collective as the word for “man” indicates: “so that the Israelites may possess – [each] man the inheritance of his fathers.”

¹ tn They married in the family as they were instructed. But the meaning of דּוֹד (dod) is not necessarily restricted to “uncle.”