Inheritance of Land by Women

(Book of Numbers: 36:1 - 36:13)
The clan chiefs of Gilead, descendants of Makir son of Mannasseh, the son of Joseph, presented Moses and the clan chiefs of Israel with a petition.  In it, they said, "When Jehovah ordered our leader to divide the inherited land by lot, he specified that the inheritance our late brother Zelophedad be willed to his daughters.  However, if they marry men from another tribe, their grants of land will go with them to the tribe into which they are marrying.  The total area of land granted to our tribe will thus be decreased.  When the Year of Jubilee comes, their land will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they now belong and will be subjected from the inheritance belonging to our ancestral tribe."

In accordance with Jehovah's commands, Moses gave this judgment to the Israelites, "The point made by these descendants from the tribe of Joseph is quite correct.  This is what Jehovah has to say about the daughters of Zelophedad, 'Let them marry whomever they think best, but let them be members of their father's clan and tribe, so that no inheritance of land may be transferred from one tribe to another.  All Israelites must preserve the inheritances they have received from their ancestral tribes.  A daughter from any tribe of Israel who receives an inheritance must marry within her father's clan and tribe, so that all Israelites will continue to possess in entirety the land that is their ancestral inheritance.  No inheritance may be transferred from one tribe to another; each tribe must retain the land it has inherited.'"

The daughters of Zelophedad complied with the command Jehovah gave Moses.  Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah,  Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophedad, all married first cousins, sons of their father's brothers.  They thus married into the clans of the tribe of Manasseh, Joseph's son, so that their inheritance of land remained in their father's clan and tribe.

These are the commands and regulations given to the Israelites through Moses when they were encamped on the plains of Moab by the River Jordan across from Jericho.

Notes
1. In the possession and inheritance of property, it is obvious that personal rights are trumped by tribal rights.  Land, given to the tribes by Jehovah, must, under no conditions, leave the tribe; the integrity of Jehovah's division of land scheme must be preserved.  The scheme, under the aegis of divine ordination, allows for stable tribal borders and, in theory, at least, prevents any squabbling over land among individual Israelite tribes.

2. That Zelophedad's daughters would have chosen to marry outside their clan, let alone their tribe, seems unlikely.  It was expected at this time that mates would be chosen from within the clan or extended family.  The Israelites were nothing if not inbred. Moses married a Midianite, technically a Hebrew, but not an Israelite and certainly not a Levite, and even he was subjected to considerable censure for doing so.

3. In most societies the daughter joins the family of her husband and adopts his tribal identity or nationality.  Her property becomes his.  Only in modern times has a married woman been allowed to own property independent of her husband.  Land inherited by a woman would naturally be thought of as going out of the family.  Even today, it is the same.  For instance, if the Jones Ranch is inherited by daughter who marries a man named Smith, the property is no longer in the hands of a Jones.  Even if it is still called the Jones Ranch, it is now owned by Smiths.  It’s not the same.  There is not, nor perhaps ever can be, complete gender equality in regard to inheritance.

4.  Interesting that Jehovah did not foresee this contingency when he first pontificated about female inheritance.  The Omniscient One must write law based upon complaints, as would a common law judge.