This chapter reverts back to Numbers 27. There Zelophehad had no sons, only daughters and they were concerned that they would receive none of their father’s inheritance. God instructed Moses that Zelophehad’s daughters should should receive the inheritance. This raised a problem and the children of the tribe of Manasseh spoke to Moses. Their concern was if the daughters later married any sons of the other tribes (v3) and what should happen to the inheritance. Inheritance would be mixed among the tribes. Their inheritance would pass to their husbands’ tribe and go from the tribe of the daughter’s tribe.
The solution is given by God (v5-9) and He said that what the sons of Joseph said was correct, so the daughters of Zelophehad could only marry within their father’s tribe so that no inheritance could change hands from one tribe to another. Each tribe should keep its own inheritance. Zelophehad was of the tribe of Manasseh hence their concern at losing some of their inheritance. The daughters did as the Lord commanded and married within their tribe, so the inheritance remained (v10-12).
The book finishes with these words – (v13) “These are the commandments and the judgments which the Lord commanded the children of Israel by the hand of Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho.”
They were almost there but not quite!
