Discovery BoxNumbers 36:5-13 
Context36:5 Then Moses gave a ruling 1 to the Israelites by the word 2 of the Lord: “What the tribe of the Josephites is saying is right. 36:6 This is what 3 the Lord has commanded for Zelophehad’s daughters: ‘Let them marry 4 whomever they think best, 5 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 6 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 7 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. 8 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 9 of Moses, on the plains of Moab by the Jordan River 10 opposite Jericho. 11
1 tn Heb “commanded.”
2 tn Heb “mouth.”
3 tn Heb “the word that.”
4 tn The idiom again is “let them be for wives for….”
5 tn Heb “to the one who is good in their eyes.”
6 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.”
8 tn They married in the family as they were instructed. But the meaning of דּוֹד (dod) is not necessarily restricted to “uncle.”
9 tn Heb “by the hand.”
10 tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
11 map For the location of Jericho see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.
