Numbers · 13 verses
Numbers 36
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
The daughters of Zelophehad are told they may marry anyone they please, so long as “anyone” belongs to their father’s clan; all five then marry cousins on their father’s side, and the inheritance stays exactly where it began.
An inheritance with a boundaryvv. 1–4
The family heads of Gilead’s clan, descended from Machir and Manasseh, come to Moses with a remarkably tidy worry: if Zelophehad’s daughters marry outside the tribe, their inheritance will travel with them. Even the Jubilee, that great reset button, would not return it. The land may be allotted by lot, but apparently it still requires careful supervision at family weddings.
Anyone, within reasonvv. 5–13
Moses agrees that the tribe of Joseph speaks correctly. The daughters may marry anyone they please, provided that the anyone is from a clan of their father’s tribe. Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah comply with admirable precision: all five marry cousins on their father’s side, and the inheritance remains with Manasseh. The chapter ends by placing these instructions on the plains of Moab, beside the Jordan and across from Jericho—a rather grand landscape for a family arrangement that has been kept wonderfully close to home.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Num 36:1Now the family heads of the clan of Gilead son of Machir son of Manasseh, one of the clans of Joseph, approached Moses and the leaders who were the heads of the Israelite families and addressed them,
Num 36:2saying, “When the LORD commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance to the Israelites by lot, He also commanded him to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters.
Num 36:3But if they marry any of the men from the other tribes of Israel, their inheritance will be withdrawn from the portion of our fathers and added to the tribe into which they marry. So our allotted inheritance would be taken away.
Num 36:4And when the Jubilee for the Israelites comes, their inheritance will be added to the tribe into which they marry and taken away from the tribe of our fathers.”
Num 36:5So at the word of the LORD, Moses commanded the Israelites: “The tribe of the sons of Joseph speaks correctly.
Num 36:6This is what the LORD has commanded concerning the daughters of Zelophehad: They may marry anyone they please, provided they marry within a clan of the tribe of their father.
Num 36:7No inheritance in Israel may be transferred from tribe to tribe, because each of the Israelites is to retain the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.
Num 36:8Every daughter who possesses an inheritance from any Israelite tribe must marry within a clan of the tribe of her father, so that every Israelite will possess the inheritance of his fathers.
Num 36:9No inheritance may be transferred from one tribe to another, for each tribe of Israel must retain its inheritance.”
Num 36:10So the daughters of Zelophehad did as the LORD had commanded Moses.
Num 36:11Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to cousins on their father’s side.
Num 36:12They married within the clans of the descendants of Manasseh son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained within the tribe of their father’s clan.
Num 36:13These are the commandments and ordinances that the LORD gave the Israelites through Moses on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.
01 — Also here
Who else the chapter reaches
Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.
Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 41 passages were voted onto 10 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 6Numbers 36:12They married within the clans of the descendants of Manasseh son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained within the tribe of their father’s clan.
- 71 Kings 21:3But Naboth replied, “The LORD forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.”
- 81 Chronicles 23:22Eleazar died without having any sons; he had only daughters. Their cousins, the sons of Kish, married them.
- 62 Corinthians 6:14Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?
- 11Numbers 27:1Now the daughters of Zelophehad son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, belonged to the clans of Manasseh son of Joseph. These were the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. They approached
- 13Leviticus 27:34These are the commandments that the LORD gave to Moses for the Israelites on Mount Sinai.
- 2Joshua 17:3–6But Zelophehad son of Hepher (the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh) had no sons but only daughters. These are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.
- 2Numbers 33:54And you are to divide the land by lot according to your clans. Give a larger inheritance to a larger clan and a smaller inheritance to a smaller one. Whatever falls to each one by lot will be his. You will receive an inheritance according to the tribes of your fathers.
- 4Leviticus 25:10–18So you are to consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be your Jubilee, when each of you is to return to his property and to his clan.
- 4Isaiah 61:2to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of our God’s vengeance, to comfort all who mourn,
- 4Leviticus 25:23The land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and residents with Me.
- 5Numbers 27:7“The daughters of Zelophehad speak correctly. You certainly must give them property as an inheritance among their father’s brothers and transfer their father’s inheritance to them.
- 6Genesis 24:3and I will have you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am dwelling,
- 13Leviticus 26:46These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws that the LORD established between Himself and the Israelites through Moses on Mount Sinai.
- 13Numbers 22:1Then the Israelites traveled on and camped in the plains of Moab near the Jordan, across from Jericho.
- 11 Chronicles 7:14–16The descendants of Manasseh: Asriel through his Aramean concubine. She also gave birth to Machir the father of Gilead.
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