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They said: “The Lord commanded my lord to apportion the land by lot for a heritage among the Israelites;(A) and my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the heritage of Zelophehad our kinsman to his daughters. But if they marry into one of the other Israelite tribes, their heritage will be withdrawn from our ancestral heritage and will be added to that of the tribe into which they marry; thus the heritage that fell to us by lot will be diminished. When the Israelites celebrate the jubilee year,[a] the heritage of these women will be added to that of the tribe into which they marry and their heritage will be withdrawn from that of our ancestral tribe.”

[b]So Moses commanded the Israelites at the direction of the Lord: “The tribe of the Josephites are right in what they say. This is what the Lord commands with regard to the daughters of Zelophehad: They may marry anyone they please, provided they marry into a clan of their ancestral tribe, so that no heritage of the Israelites will pass from one tribe to another, but all the Israelites will retain their own ancestral heritage. Every daughter who inherits property in any of the Israelite tribes will marry someone belonging to a clan of her own ancestral tribe, in order that all the Israelites may remain in possession of their own ancestral heritage. Thus, no heritage will pass from one tribe to another, but all the Israelite tribes will retain their own ancestral heritage.”

10 The daughters of Zelophehad did exactly as the Lord commanded Moses.

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Footnotes

  1. 36:4 Before the jubilee year various circumstances, such as divorce, could make such property revert to its original tribal owners; but in the jubilee year it became irrevocably attached to its new owners.
  2. 36:5–9 This is a supplement to the law given in 27:5–11.

They said, “When the Lord commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance to the Israelites by lot,(A) he ordered you to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad(B) to his daughters. Now suppose they marry men from other Israelite tribes; then their inheritance will be taken from our ancestral inheritance and added to that of the tribe they marry into. And so part of the inheritance allotted to us will be taken away. When the Year of Jubilee(C) for the Israelites comes, their inheritance will be added to that of the tribe into which they marry, and their property will be taken from the tribal inheritance of our ancestors.”

Then at the Lord’s command Moses gave this order to the Israelites: “What the tribe of the descendants of Joseph is saying is right. This is what the Lord commands for Zelophehad’s daughters: They may marry anyone they please as long as they marry within their father’s tribal clan. No inheritance(D) in Israel is to pass from one tribe to another, for every Israelite shall keep the tribal inheritance of their ancestors. Every daughter who inherits land in any Israelite tribe must marry someone in her father’s tribal clan,(E) so that every Israelite will possess the inheritance of their ancestors. No inheritance may pass from one tribe to another, for each Israelite tribe is to keep the land it inherits.”

10 So Zelophehad’s daughters did as the Lord commanded Moses.

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