Tell the Story
The Daughters of Zelophehad
27 Then drew near the daughters of Zelophehad the son of Hepher, son of Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manasseh, from the clans of Manasseh the son of Joseph. The names of his daughters were: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. 2 And they stood before Moses and before Eleazar the priest and before the chiefs and all the congregation, at the entrance of the tent of meeting, saying, 3 “Our father died in the wilderness. He was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against the LORD in the company of Korah, but died for his own sin. And he had no sons. 4 Why should the name of our father be taken away from his clan because he had no son? Give to us a possession among our father’s brothers.”
5 Moses brought their case before the LORD. 6 And the LORD said to Moses, 7 “The daughters of Zelophehad are right. You shall give them possession of an inheritance among their father’s brothers and transfer the inheritance of their father to them. 8 And you shall speak to the people of Israel, saying, ‘If a man dies and has no son, then you shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter. 9 And if he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers. 10 And if he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father’s brothers. 11 And if his father has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to the nearest kinsman of his clan, and he shall possess it. And it shall be for the people of Israel a statute and rule, as the LORD commanded Moses.’”
Joshua to Succeed Moses
12 The LORD said to Moses, “Go up into this mountain of Abarim and see the land that I have given to the people of Israel. 13 When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was, 14 because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin when the congregation quarreled, failing to uphold me as holy at the waters before their eyes.” (These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.) 15 Moses spoke to the LORD, saying, 16 “Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation 17 who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the LORD may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.” 18 So the LORD said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. 19 Make him stand before Eleazar the priest and all the congregation, and you shall commission him in their sight. 20 You shall invest him with some of your authority, that all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey. 21 And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the LORD. At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he and all the people of Israel with him, the whole congregation.” 22 And Moses did as the LORD commanded him. He took Joshua and made him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole congregation, 23 and he laid his hands on him and commissioned him as the LORD directed through Moses.
Marriage of Female Heirs
36 The heads of the fathers’ houses of the clan of the people of Gilead the son of Machir, son of Manasseh, from the clans of the people of Joseph, came near and spoke before Moses and before the chiefs, the heads of the fathers’ houses of the people of Israel. 2 They said, “The LORD commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the people of Israel, and my lord was commanded by the LORD to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters. 3 But if they are married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the people of Israel, then their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our fathers and added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry. So it will be taken away from the lot of our inheritance. 4 And when the jubilee of the people of Israel comes, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry, and their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.”
5 And Moses commanded the people of Israel according to the word of the LORD, saying, “The tribe of the people of Joseph is right. 6 This is what the LORD commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad: ‘Let them marry whom they think best, only they shall marry within the clan of the tribe of their father. 7 The inheritance of the people of Israel shall not be transferred from one tribe to another, for every one of the people of Israel shall hold on to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. 8 And every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the people of Israel shall be wife to one of the clan of the tribe of her father, so that every one of the people of Israel may possess the inheritance of his fathers. 9 So no inheritance shall be transferred from one tribe to another, for each of the tribes of the people of Israel shall hold on to its own inheritance.’”
10 The daughters of Zelophehad did as the LORD commanded Moses, 11 for Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to sons of their father’s brothers. 12 They were married into the clans of the people of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of their father’s clan.
13 These are the commandments and the rules that the LORD commanded through Moses to the people of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
The Bible is a big story—you could even say it’s the Biggest Story! And within the Biggest Story are lots of little stories. Some are famous like Noah and the flood or Moses and the Red Sea. Some are a little less famous, like the time the earth swallowed up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. And then there are those stories that you’ve probably never heard of, but you really should know.
Here’s one of those stories.
There once was a man named Zelophehad. We don’t know what his parents had in mind when they called him Zelophehad, but they must have had a good feeling, because Zelophehad is the name they gave and the name he had.
Unfortunately, the life he had—I mean, for Zelophehad—ended before he had a chance to live all the days that others had. But the death he had was not because he had been as bad as Korah had. No, Zelophehad died all on his own, like lots of other people had.
The other sad thing about Zelophehad is to think about all the sons he never had. And since he had no sons, it wasn’t clear what would happen to the land that Zelophehad had.
Thankfully, Zelophehad had five daughters. Their names were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. And they must have been pretty special, because the Bible mentions them several times. They were the sort of girls who knew how to stand up for themselves. So they went to Moses and said, “It’s not right that our father’s name and our father’s land should disappear just because he had no sons. We think daughters should get something too.”
And you know what Moses did? Well, nothing at first. He didn’t have an answer to their question. But he knew God would. So he brought their case before the Lord, and the Lord agreed with the daughters of Zelophehad. If there are no boys, the land can go to the girls. But, God said, they need to marry a man from their own people so that the land would not pass to one of the other eleven tribes.
Most people don’t know this little story in the Biggest Story. It’s kind of confusing and has a lot of strange names (including a Noah who is a girl instead of a boy!). But it’s an important story. It means God wanted the Promised Land to be fair. It means God wants to take care of boys and girls. And it means God can help us when we don’t know what to do. So next time you hear a Bible story you’ve never heard, think about the lessons you can add even from someone named Zelophehad.
