The Laws about Married Women and Land
1 One day the family leaders from the Gilead clan of the Manasseh tribe went to Moses and the other family leaders of Israel 2 and said, “Sir, the Lord has said that he will show what land each tribe will receive as their own. And the Lord has commanded you to give the daughters of our relative Zelophehad the land that he would have received. 3 But if they marry men from other tribes of Israel, the land they receive will become part of that tribe's inheritance and will no longer belong to us. 4 Even when land is returned to its original owner in the Year of Celebration, we will not get back Zelophehad's land—it will belong to the tribe into which his daughters married.”
5 So Moses told the people that the Lord had said:
These men from the Manasseh tribe are right. 6 I will allow Zelophehad's daughters to marry anyone, as long as those men belong to one of the clans of the Manasseh tribe.
7 Tribal land must not be given to another tribe—it will remain the property of the tribe that received it. 8-9 In the future, any daughter who inherits land must marry someone from her own tribe. Israel's tribal land is never to be passed from one tribe to another.
10-11 Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah the daughters of Zelophehad obeyed the Lord and married their uncles' sons 12 and remained part of the Manasseh tribe. So their land stayed in their father's clan.
13 These are the laws that the Lord gave to Moses and the Israelites while they were camped in the lowlands of Moab across the Jordan River from Jericho.
1 Then the chiefe fathers of the familie of the sonnes of Gilead, the sonne of Machir, the sonne of Manasseh, of the families of the sones of Ioseph, came, and spake before Moses, and before the princes, the chiefe fathers of the children of Israel, 2 And saide, The Lord commanded my lord to giue the land to inherit by lot to the children of Israel: and my lord was commanded by the Lord, to giue the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother vnto his daughters. 3 If they bee married to any of the sonnes of the other tribes of the children of Israel, then shall their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of our fathers, and shalbe put vnto the inheritance of the tribe whereof they shalbe: so shall it be taken away from the lot of our inheritance. 4 Also when the Iubile of the children of Israel commeth, then shall their inheritance be put vnto the inheritance of the tribe whereof they shall be: so shall their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers. 5 Then Moses commanded the children of Israel, according to the word of the Lord, saying, The tribe of the sonnes of Ioseph haue said well. 6 This is the thing that the Lord hath commanded, concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, They shall be wiues, to whome they thinke best, onely to the familie of the tribe of their father shall they marry: 7 So shall not the inheritance of the children of Israel remoue from tribe to tribe, for euery one of the children of Israel shall ioyne himselfe to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. 8 And euery daughter that possesseth any inheritance of the tribes of the children of Israel, shalbe wife vnto one of the familie of the tribe of her father: that the children of Israel may enioye euery man the inheritance of their fathers. 9 Neither shall the inheritance go about from tribe to tribe: but euery one of the tribes of the childre of Israel shall sticke to his own inheritace. 10 As the Lord commanded Moses, so did the daughters of Zelophehad. 11 For Mahlah, Tirzah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Noah the daughters of Zelophehad were married vnto their fathers brothers sonnes, 12 They were wiues to certaine of the families of the sonnes of Manasseh the sonne of Ioseph: so their inheritance remained in the tribe of the familie of their father. 13 These are the commandements and lawes which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses, vnto the children of Israel in the plaine of Moab, by Iorden toward Iericho.