Law Governing Marriage of the Daughters of Zelophehad

Continuing a chronological Bible study:

(Numbers 36:1) And the chief fathers of the families of the children of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near, and spoke before Moses and before the princes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel.

The Israelites were in their last station in the plains of Moab before going over the Jordan River to take possession of their promised land.  In the past couple of chapters and posts, God had been laying out some instructions through Moses about their boundaries and the makeup of their cities.  At this point, the chief fathers of the children of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, came forward to speak before Moses and the chief fathers of the children of Israel.  Machir made up the half tribe of Manasseh that took its inheritance on their current side of the Jordan River.

(2) And they said, "The LORD commanded my lord to give the land for an inheritance by lot to the children of Israel; and my lord was commanded by the LORD to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters."

The chief fathers of the families of Gilead, the son of Machir, the half tribe of Manasseh on the east side of the Jordan, began by referencing the fact that Moses had been commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of Zelophehad to his daughters.  Zelophehad, we were told in Numbers 27:1, was the son of Hepher who was the son of Gilead, and therefore had also been a chief father of the family of Gilead.  Now his inheritance belonged to his daughters.

(3) "And if they be married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the children of Israel, then shall their inheritance be taken from the inheritance of our fathers, and shall be put to the inheritance of the tribe in which they are received; so it shall be taken from the lot of our inheritance."

The chief fathers of the families of Gilead brought up the supposition that the daughters of Zelophehad might well marry a man from another tribe, and land from their tribe's inheritance would be taken away and added to the tribe into which each daughter of Zelophehad married.

(4) “And when the Jubilee of the children of Israel comes, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they are received; so shall their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers."

Normally, in the Year of Jubilee inheritances were to be restored to the original owners of them, but this would not be the case for the inheritances of the daughters of Zelophehad; theirs would remain with the tribe into which they had married, and would thus be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of the fathers of the families of Gilead, that is Machir, that half tribe of Manasseh that had its inheritance on the eastern side of the Jordan River.

(5) And Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the word of the LORD, saying, "The tribe of the sons of Joseph has spoken well."

Moses then told the children of Israel that the Lord had said that what the fathers of the families of Gilead (the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, who was the son of Joseph) had said was right and reasonable.

(6) "This is the thing which the LORD commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, ‘Let them marry whom they think best, but only to the family of the tribe of their father shall they marry.'"

The Lord commanded that the daughters of Zelophehad marry only within the family of their father's, and theirs themselves, own tribe.  There was to be no forced or arranged marriage; they could marry whomever they wished, but it had to be within their own tribe.  Some Bible commentators say that the verse meant they could only marry within their father's family within the tribe, meaning the family of the Hepherites, Hepher being the father of Zelophehad.  At this point, I don't see it that way.  I believe it means they could marry into the family of their father's tribe, which would be the half tribe of Manasseh that was to dwell on the eastern side of the Jordan.  This seems a very wise and reasonable command.  For one thing, if God is the one directing whom they should marry, then how could the marriage fail?  Even now isn't it God's best for Christians that they not be unequally yoked with unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14)?

(7) “So the inheritance of the children of Israel shall not move from tribe to tribe; for every one of the children of Israel shall keep to himself the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers."

Doing as God commanded, Moses said, would allow each of the children of Israel to keep his inheritance of the tribe of his fathers, and ownership would not move from tribe to tribe. 

(8) “And every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel shall be the wife of one of the family of her father’s tribe, so that the children of Israel each may enjoy the inheritance of his fathers. (9) Neither shall the inheritance move from one tribe to another tribe; but every one of the tribes of the children of Israel shall keep its own inheritance.”

Dr. John Gill pointed out, in his Exposition of the Entire Bible, that the tribes were not strictly obliged to marry within their own tribes.  The inheritances were given to the heads of each tribe, and wives who married into the families of a tribe became one of that tribe, and likewise the children they bore.  It was only in the case of the daughters who possessed an inheritance, that they would have to marry within their tribe so that their inheritance would not go to another tribe.  With this law, all tribes retained their inheritances.

I recall something that illustrates this point.  I am a genealogist, and in researching my son's family tree, I found this case of his great-great grandfather.  He married a young woman of some means, and her parents gave her a good bit of land when they got married.  She died in childbirth with their first child, a daughter.  The land then went to the daughter.  However, the baby daughter died, and then the land went to her father.  Her father remarried and they had a child.  At that point, the child who was completely unrelated to the parents who had initially given the land, was the heir to the land.  Those parents were upset about it and even sued the husband of their daughter, but to no avail.  If it had been Biblical times, and their daughter had married someone within the tribe of her parents, the land would have stayed in the family, because her husband was within their tribe, and there would have been no hostile feelings and lawsuits.  God makes such wise laws!

(10) Just as the LORD commanded Moses, so did the daughters of Zelophehad; (11) For Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to the sons of their father’s brothers. (12) They were married into the families of the sons of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father.

The daughters of Zelophehad did just as the Lord had commanded to Moses that they do.  They married into the families of their father's brothers, and therefore were married into the families of their half tribe of Manasseh, and thus their inheritances remained in the tribe of their father.

(13) These are the commandments and the judgments which the LORD commanded the children of Israel by the hand of Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho.

With this verse the book of Numbers ends with a summary statement that the preceding had been the commandments and judgments of the Lord, concerning their inheritances in the promised land, regarding the division of it, cities of refuge, and the case of inheritances in it.  These commandments the Lord gave at the Israelites' last station in the plains of Moab by the Jordan River across from Jericho where they would enter their promised land.

The moral of the 36th chapter of Numbers is that the people of God are taught to hold fast to their inheritances in His promises and their right in Christ.  They are not to be unequally yoked as to have union with pagans that would make them partakers in paganism and idolatry, and thus pull them away from their God.  We should not join in friendships with wicked men and unbelievers.  Though we can't completely avoid being around such people, we shouldn't choose those people for our closest friends.  We must not defile ourselves by closely sharing with those who defile themselves with sin.  Of course, that is not to say we shouldn't have any contact with unbelievers and sinners.  How can an unbelieving world learn about Christ if it can't see the light?  However, we have to avoid those close associations that would necessarily make us compromise God's laws.