Numbers 36:6

6 This is what the LORD commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad: Let them marry anyone they like, as long as it is within their own ancestral tribe.

Numbers 36:6 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 36:6

This is the thing which the Lord doth command concerning the
daughters of Zelophehad
Concerning this affair relative to them; the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases the words,

``not for the generations that rise up after the division of the land, but for the daughters of Zelophehad;''

as if this order only respected them, or what might happen before the land was divided, but not after; and this is the general opinion of the Jewish writers; but it seems, that as the following law not only concerns them, but all heiresses, so all such after as well as before the division of the land, since the reason of it holds good after as before:

saying, let them marry to whom they think best;
whom they like best, who are most acceptable to them; as it was reasonable they should, and not have such forced upon them, whose persons were disagreeable to them:

only into the family of the tribe of their father shall they marry;
they were to marry not only such as were of the tribe of Manasseh, but of their father's family in that tribe; they could only marry into the family of the Hepherites; see ( Numbers 26:32 Numbers 26:33 ) .

Numbers 36:6 In-Context

4 Then when the Year of Jubilee comes, their portion of land will be added to that of the new tribe, causing it to be lost forever to our ancestral tribe.”

5 So Moses gave the Israelites this command from the LORD : “The claim of the men of the tribe of Joseph is legitimate.

6 This is what the LORD commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad: Let them marry anyone they like, as long as it is within their own ancestral tribe.

7 None of the territorial land may pass from tribe to tribe, for all the land given to each tribe must remain within the tribe to which it was first allotted.

8 The daughters throughout the tribes of Israel who are in line to inherit property must marry within their tribe, so that all the Israelites will keep their ancestral property.