Numbers 27:1-23

The Law of the Inheritance of Daughters. Joshua appointed as the Success or of Moses

1-11. According to Numbers 26:53 (Cp. Numbers 27:2) the land was to be apportioned to the males. Zelophehad, of the tribe of Manasseh, had died leaving no sons (Numbers 26:33); and his daughters, fearing that they would have no inheritance, request that they and their sons should succeed to the inheritance of their father, and thus perpetuate his name. Their claim is pronounced to be just, and it is enacted that daughters should inherit where there are no sons, and, failing daughters, the nearest relatives of the father. It was afterwards further enacted (Numbers 36) that daughters succeeding to an inheritance must marry within their own tribe, in order that the property should remain in that tribe and not be alienated to another.