“And if they be married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the children of Israel, then shall their inheritance be taken from the inheritance of our fathers and shall be put to the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they are received: so shall it be taken from the lot of our inheritance.”
Numbers 36:3 is part of the final chapter of the Book of Numbers, which addresses the issue of preserving the inheritance within the tribes of Israel. To fully understand this verse, it’s helpful to provide some context.
In the preceding chapters, the Israelites were preparing to enter the Promised Land. God commanded Moses to divide the land among the tribes of Israel as their inheritance (Numbers 26:52-56). Each tribe was to receive a portion of land based on their size and number of people.
Numbers 36 deals specifically with a concern raised by the daughters of Zelophehad, who had no brothers. They approached Moses, Eleazar the priest, the leaders, and the entire congregation, requesting that they be given an inheritance among their father’s brothers since their father had died and had no sons (Numbers 27:1-4).
Moses brought their case before the Lord, who established a statute regarding such situations. The Lord affirmed that if a man dies without a son, his inheritance should pass on to his daughters. This statute ensured that the land remained within the tribe to which it originally belonged (Numbers 27:5-11).
In Numbers 36:3, we see a provision added to the statute. It states that if the daughters of Zelophehad marry men from another tribe, their inheritance will be transferred from the tribe of their fathers to the tribe of their husbands. This condition prevented the land from being transferred permanently out of the original tribe.
The purpose of this provision was to maintain the integrity and territorial boundaries of each tribe’s inheritance. The Lord wanted to ensure that the land allotted to each tribe would remain within that tribe, and it would not be mixed or transferred to another tribe through intermarriage.
This verse highlights the significance of inheritance and land ownership within the Israelite society of that time. It shows God’s concern for preserving the inheritance within the tribes and maintaining the integrity of the division of land as originally established.
