Numbers 36:6-13

36:6 This is what ¹  the Lord has commanded for Zelophehad’s daughters: ‘Let them marry ²  whomever they think best, ³  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 ⁴  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 ⁵  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. ⁶  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 ⁷  of Moses, on the plains of Moab by the Jordan River ⁸  opposite Jericho. ⁹ 

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.”

⁴ tn Heb “turned aside.”

⁷ 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.”

¹⁰ tn They married in the family as they were instructed. But the meaning of דּוֹד (dod) is not necessarily restricted to “uncle.”

¹³ tn Heb “by the hand.”

¹⁴ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹⁵ map For the location of Jericho see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.