1 The heads of the fathers' houses of the clan of the descendants of Gilead son of Machir, son of Manasseh, of the clans of the descendants of Joseph, came forward and spoke before Moses and the chiefs, the heads of the fathers' houses of the children of Israel.
2 They said, "The LORD commanded my lord to give the land by lot to the children of Israel as an inheritance, and my lord was commanded by the LORD to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters.
3 Now if they marry men from any of the other tribes of the children of Israel, their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of our fathers and added to that of the tribe they marry into; so it will be taken away from the inheritance allotted to us.
4 And when the children of Israel's jubilee comes, their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe they marry into and taken away from the inheritance of our fathers' tribe."
5 So at the word of the LORD Moses commanded the children of Israel: "What the tribe of the descendants of Joseph says is right.
6 This is what the LORD commands concerning Zelophehad's daughters: They may marry anyone they please, as long as they marry within a clan of their father's tribe.
7 No inheritance of the children of Israel is to pass from tribe to tribe, for each of the children of Israel is to keep the inheritance of his fathers' tribe.
8 Every daughter who inherits property in any tribe of the children of Israel must marry someone from a clan of her father's tribe, so that each of the children of Israel may possess the inheritance of his fathers.
9 No inheritance is to pass from one tribe to another, for each tribe of the children of Israel is to keep its own inheritance."
10 Zelophehad's daughters did as the LORD had commanded Moses.
11 Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, married sons of their father's brothers.
12 They married into the clans of the descendants of Manasseh son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of their father's clan.
13 These are the commandments and ordinances the LORD gave the children of Israel through Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.