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In Numbers 27, five sisters win the right to inherit when their father dies with no son. Joshua 17 describes that promise being kept, naming the same women as they hold Joshua to a ruling Moses gave years earlier.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Numbers 27:4
Hebrew Bible
1 Then the daughters of Zelophehad son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh of the families of Manasseh, the son of Joseph came forward. Now these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. 2 And they stood before Moses and Eleazar the priest and the leaders of the whole assembly at the entrance to the tent of meeting and said, 3 “Our father died in the wilderness, although he was not part of the company of those that gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Korah, but he died for his own sin, and he had no sons. 4 Why should the name of our father be lost from among his family because he had no son? Give us a possession among the relatives of our father.” 5 So Moses brought their case before the Lord. 6 The Lord said to Moses: 7 “The daughters of Zelophehad have a valid claim. You must indeed give them possession of an inheritance among their father’s relatives, and you must transfer the inheritance of their father to them.
Joshua 17:4
Hebrew Bible
2 The rest of Manasseh’s descendants were also assigned land by their clans, including the descendants of Abiezer, Helek, Asriel, Shechem, Hepher, and Shemida. These are the male descendants of Manasseh son of Joseph by their clans. 3 Now Zelophehad son of Hepher, son of Gilead, son of Makir, son of Manasseh, had no sons, only daughters. These are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. 4 They went before Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the leaders and said, “The Lord told Moses to assign us land among our relatives.” So Joshua assigned them land among their uncles, as the Lord had commanded. 5 Manasseh was allotted 10 shares of land, in addition to the land of Gilead and Bashan east of the Jordan, 6 for the daughters of Manasseh were assigned land among his sons. The land of Gilead belonged to the rest of the descendants of Manasseh.
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Notes and References
... Then the Lord further elaborated on inheritance issues. If a man died without a son, his inheritance went to his daughter; if he died without a son or a daughter, his inheritance reverted to his brothers; if he had no brothers, then his inheritance went to his father’s brothers; and if his father had no brothers, then his inheritance went to the nearest relative in the clan (Numbers 27:8-11). A brief account in Joshua 17:3-6 confirms that the daughters’ allotment was contained in that of the tribe of Manasseh. ...
Alexander, T. Desmond, and David W. Baker
Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch
(p. 913) InterVarsity Press, 2003
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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