Numbers 36 - Introduction

XXXVI.

(1, 2, 3) And the chief fathers of the families... — Better, And the heads of the fathers of the family... It was at the instance of the daughters of Zelophehad that an ordinance had been enacted, in accordance with which the inheritance of a man who left no sons should pass to his daughters, if he had any, and in default of any issue, to his brethren (Numbers 27:1). The result of this ordinance would naturally have been that the inheritance of the tribes would have undergone constant change, inasmuch as the inheritance of the daughters would have passed into the possession of the children of their husbands, to whatever tribe those husbands might happen to belong. The Machirites were anxious to avoid such a transference of a portion of the possessions of the tribe of Manasseh, which, after the next jubile, would have become inalienable. They, therefore, came before Moses and the princes, and represented to them what would be the result of the ordinance which had been made at the instigation of the daughters of Zelophehad, if they should marry into another tribe.