Numbers 36:3

3 If they are married to someone from another Israelite tribe, their inheritance will be taken away from our household and given to another tribe into which they marry. Then it will be taken away from the lot of our inheritance.

Numbers 36:3 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 36:3

And if they be married to any of the sons of the other tribes
of the children of Israel
Which was not an unreasonable supposition, and perhaps was judged very probable and likely, if some method was not taken to prevent it; which they might conclude from the application of some young men of the other tribes unto them:

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;
for the inheritance given unto them would of course, the above being the case, descend to their sons, and whose fathers being of other tribes, it would be fixed there:

so shall it be taken from the lot of our inheritance;
which gave them some concern; for though this was no personal injury to them, nor any detriment to their families and estates, yet, as it was a lessening of their tribe, they were uneasy at it; and the rather they might be, since half their tribe was to settle on that side Jordan, where they now were: and now all this, the suit of the daughters of Zelophehad for their father's inheritance, which was granted them, the address of young men to them as heiresses, the concern of the heads of the tribe of Manasseh on this account; all this, I say, being before they entered into the land, or it was conquered by them, or divided to them by inheritance, show their strong faith and assurance that they should possess it.

Numbers 36:3 In-Context

1 The leaders of the households of the clans of Gilead, Machir's son and Manasseh's grandson, of Joseph's clans, approached and spoke before Moses and the chiefs, who were the leaders of the Israelite households.

2 They said, "The LORD commanded my master to give the land as an inheritance by lot to the Israelites. But my master was also commanded by the LORD to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters.

3 If they are married to someone from another Israelite tribe, their inheritance will be taken away from our household and given to another tribe into which they marry. Then it will be taken away from the lot of our inheritance.

4 At the Israelite Jubilee, their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they married. Then their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of our ancestral tribe."

5 Then Moses commanded the Israelites according to the LORD's word: "The tribe of Joseph's descendants are correct in what they're saying.