The law of female inheritance
December 9, 2022
Commentary
In previous instructions it was decreed that the inheritance of a man who died without sons must go to the daughters (27:8). In this passage (vv. 1-12) a situation has arisen involving the daughters of Zelophehad, a descendant of the Manassehite clan of Gilead (27:1-11). The question was as to the disposition of the properties of daughters who married men from other tribes. Zelophehad had five daughters but no sons. This meant that when he died the inheritance would go to his daughters but if the daughters were to marry outside of their tribe, the land would belong to another tribe.
When Moses was confronted with this situation he commanded that in such cases the women should marry within their own tribe so that each tribe would retain its territorial integrity (vv. 7- 9). So Zelophehad’s daughters married their paternal cousins, thus preserving their inheritance within their own tribe (vv. 10-12). Later, when the tribes received their land under Joshua, the daughters of Zelophehad received their inheritance as God had instructed (Joshua 17:3-6). The worst thing that can happen to a promise is the dissolution of its blessing in the process of its fulfillment. Hence the command of unmixed marriages.
The book of numbers covers 39 years and closes with the Israelites poised on the banks of the Jordan river ready to enter the Promised Land. The wanderings in the wilderness have come to an end and the people are preparing for their next big move. The last chapter of Deuteronomy will take up their history again, with the death of Moses. The apostle Paul says that the events described in numbers are examples that warn and help us avoid some of the mistakes the Israelites made (1 Corinthians 10:1-12). From these experiences we learn (1) that unbelief is disastrous, (2) we are not to long for the sinful pleasures of the past, (3) to avoid complaining, (4) and to stay away from all forms of compromise.
Application
The issue dealt with in this passage concerned disqualification of the inheritance. I am so thankful that there is nothing that can ever disqualify me from my eternal inheritance.
Numbers 36:1– 13 (NET)
1 Then the heads of the family groups of the Gileadites, the descendant of Machir, the descendant of Manasseh, who were from the Josephite families, approached and spoke before Moses and the leaders who were the heads of the Israelite families. 2 They said, “The Lord commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance by lot to the Israelites; and my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters. 3 Now if they should be married to one of the men from another Israelite tribe, their inheritance would be taken from the inheritance of our fathers and added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry. As a result, it will be taken from the lot of our inheritance. 4 And when the Jubilee of the Israelites is to take place, their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry. So their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of our ancestral tribe.”
5 Then Moses gave a ruling to the Israelites by the word of the Lord: “What the tribe of the Josephites is saying is right. 6 This is what the Lord has commanded for Zelophehad’s daughters: ‘Let them marry whomever they think best, only they must marry within the family of their father’s tribe. 7 In this way the inheritance of the Israelites will not be transferred from tribe to tribe. But every one of the Israelites must retain the ancestral heritage. 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 may retain the inheritance of his fathers. 9 No inheritance may pass from tribe to tribe. But every one of the tribes of the Israelites must retain its inheritance.’”
10 As the Lord had commanded Moses, so the daughters of Zelophehad did. 11 For the daughters of Zelophehad—Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah—were married to the sons of their uncles. 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.
13 These are the commandments and the decisions that the Lord commanded the Israelites through the authority of Moses, in the rift valley plains by Moab along the Jordan River opposite Jericho.
Illustration: What from What by and What to
Never forget the three what’s! What from? Believers are redeemed from hell and destruction. What by? By the precious blood of Christ. What to? To an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that will not fade away. – (Charles Haddon Spurgeon).