As people say, it feels like deja vu all over again. We talked about the daughters of Zelophehad in Numbers 27, yet here we are discussing their story one more time. Why? And why now?
Of all the reasons I could possibly concoct (and have researched), the most plausible reason is also the simplest: The daughters of Zelophehad hit a snag in their inheritance laws that could only be revealed after the passage of time.
The complaint is this: In the original inheritance laws, it was decreed that if there was no son, the inheritance should pass to the daughters.
Notably, the daughters receive it immediately before any other males in that family have access to the land, such as uncles or cousins. That shows that the “patriarchal” anger that some espouse doesn’t really hold much water, since women are (rightfully) exalted through this story.
The problem is that land is passed through marriage to the husband’s family, so in the instance of Numbers 36, where a woman from Manasseh marries a person from the tribe of Judah (for instance), Judah would “gain” Manassite territory. Eventually, through marriage and the current inheritance laws, Manasseh would cease to exist.
You might think that the Year of Jubilee would remedy this situation, since Leviticus 25 is clear that all land reverts back to the original owner. But you would be wrong.
The problem is, in the event of marriage, the land is permanently transferred to the husband’s family. That means that in the Year of Jubilee, the land will stay with the new tribal owner. There is no redemption ever. The land becomes the permanent property of a different tribe.
This is a real issue, and one that Moses is glad came to light. As he tells the women, they are right to be concerned; even God approves their stance.
To remedy the situation, he prohibits intermarriage between tribes when the tribal inheritance is passed down through the daughters (Numbers 36:8).
In other words, if the woman is in possession of land inheritance passed down to her by her father—because there were no sons—she must marry within her tribe. If she is not in any possession of land, she is free to marry whomever she wants. That’s the deal.
It might not be the most “freeing” solution to some, but it achieves the primary goal of preserving family inheritances within the tribes.
Even though it’s not the same thing, a similar problem arises in Judges 21 during a civil war between Israel. According to those chapters, Benjamin is in danger of being wiped out; if that happens, their land would remain vacant. In order to ensure the land stayed occupied and remained with Benjamin, they “imported” wives from other cities to help repopulate the area.
Why is that relevant? Because it shows the importance that God places on His inheritance for His people.
The problem presented by Zelophehad’s daughters presented a real threat to Israel’s long-term inheritance, which eventually might just be one of thousands of similar disputes through the years.
In the end, the inheritance needs to be maintained. That’s God’s gift to His people, and nothing will threaten it outside of the nation’s disobedience.
That’s also why I think this section is placed at the end of Numbers. From the beginning, the idea of this book has been to move towards and secure an inheritance for God’s people. Sometimes that’s accomplished through warfare, other times through the legal system.
But it always matters. God makes sure of it.