Numbers 36:4

4 When the Israelites' jubilee year comes, their land will be added to that of the tribe they married into. Then part of the land of our ancestors' tribe will be gone."

Numbers 36:4 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 36:4

And when the jubilee of the children of Israel shall be
At which time inheritances were to be restored to the original proprietors of them; yet this would be of no service in the present case, but rather the contrary, since it would fix the inheritances of these daughters in another tribe or in other tribes into which they should marry; and so Aben Ezra and Jarchi interpret it, "though" there shall be a jubilee, that will be of no advantage; it will not remedy this inconvenience: for

then shall their inheritance be put unto the inheritance of the tribe
whereunto they are received;
it being one principal part of the business of the jubilee year to settle the inheritances of every tribe; and these daughters being married into another tribe, of consequence their inheritance would be placed there; or should it be sold by their husbands, or their sons, at the year of jubilee it would be restored to them as of such a tribe:

so shall their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of the
tribe of our fathers;
and thereby be a lessening of it; and every tribe being ambitious of preserving and increasing its grandeur, this affair sensibly affected the heads of this tribe.

Numbers 36:4 In-Context

2 They said, "Sir, the LORD commanded you to give the Israelites their land by drawing lots. The LORD also commanded you to give the land of our relative Zelophehad to his daughters.

3 Suppose they marry men from the other tribes of Israel. Their land will be taken away from that of our ancestors and added to the land of the tribe they marry into. Then we will have lost part of our land.

4 When the Israelites' jubilee year comes, their land will be added to that of the tribe they married into. Then part of the land of our ancestors' tribe will be gone."

5 So Moses gave the Israelites a command from the LORD. "The tribe of Joseph's descendants is right.

6 This is what the LORD commands for Zelophehad's daughters: They may marry anyone they want to, but only within a family of their ancestor's tribe.