Bible Commentaries

And the ^a 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 spake before Moses, and before the princes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel:

(a) It seems that the tribes contended who might marry these daughters to have their inheritance: and therefore the sons of Joseph proposed the matter to Moses.

And they said, The LORD commanded ^b 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 Zelophehad our brother unto his daughters.

(b) Meaning Moses.

And when the ^c jubile of the children of Israel shall be, then shall their inheritance be put unto the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they are received: so shall their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.

(c) Signifying that at no time could it return, for in the Jubile all things returned to their own tribes.

And Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the word of the LORD, saying, The tribe of the sons of Joseph hath said ^d well.

(d) For the tribe could not have continued, if the inheritance which was the maintenance of it should have been alienated to others.

And every daughter, that possesseth an ^e inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel, shall be wife unto one of the family of the tribe of her father, that the children of Israel may enjoy every man the inheritance of his fathers.

(e) When there is no male to inherit.

These [are] the ^f commandments and the judgments, which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan [near] Jericho.

(f) Concerning the ceremonial and judicial laws.