Numbers 36:4

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."

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 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.

6 This [is] the word that Yahweh commanded the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, '{Let them marry} {whomever they like}; only {they must marry} from within the clan of the tribe of their father.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
• [b]. Literally "will be"