Numbers 36:1

Inheritance Through Marriage

1 {The leaders} of the families of the clans of descendants of Gilead the son of Makir, the son of Manasseh, of the clans of the descendants of Joseph came near and spoke {before} Moses and {before} {the leaders} of the families of the {Israelites}.

Numbers 36:1 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 36:1

And the chief fathers of the families of the children of
Gilead
The princes, as Aben Ezra; so the Septuagint version, which was the tribe of Manasseh, whose grandson Gilead was, as follows:

the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh of the families of the sons of
Joseph, came near;
to the house of judgment, as the Targum of Jonathan, the sanhedrim or court of judicature, consisting of the following persons:

and spoke before Moses;
the Septuagint version adds, "and before Eleazar the priest", as in ( Numbers 27:2 ) ( 32:2 )

and before the princes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel:
the princes of the several tribes; or it may be rather the seventy elders.

Numbers 36:1 In-Context

1 {The leaders} of the families of the clans of descendants of Gilead the son of Makir, the son of Manasseh, of the clans of the descendants of Joseph came near and spoke {before} Moses and {before} {the leaders} of the families of the {Israelites}.

2 And they said, "Yahweh commanded my lord to give the land by lot as an inheritance to the {Israelites}, and my lord was commanded by Yahweh to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters.

3 But if they become wives to one of the sons from [another] tribe of the {Israelites}, their inheritance will disappear from the inheritance of our ancestors, and it will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they belong; the lot of our inheritance would disappear.

4 When the Jubilee of the {Israelites} {comes}, it will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they belong; and their inheritance will disappear from the tribe of our father."

5 Then Moses commanded the {Israelites} by the command of Yahweh, saying, "The tribe of the descendants of Joseph [is] right [regarding what they are] speaking.

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "The heads"
• [b] Or "fathers"
• [c] Or "sons"
• [d] Or "sons"
• [e] Literally "before the face of"
• [f] Literally "before the face of"
• [g] Literally "the heads"
• [h] Hebrew "of the fathers"
• [i] Literally "sons/children of Israel"