Zelophehad's Daughters

Passage: Numbers 27:1-11; 36:1-13

One of the major themes of the Book of Numbers is the work God invests in preparing the Israelites for life in the Promised Land. At times this involves God introducing ethics for community life, worship, and civil law intended to sustain them as an established nation. At other times God focuses his attention on how his people deal with property rights and land ownership. Several chapters go into monotonous detail about which territories go to which tribes. The monotony is interrupted briefly by the accounts of Zelophehad’s Daughters. These two vignettes provide a window on the territorial allotments that in turn teach us something essential about God and his dealings with people.

In Numbers 26 God instructs Moses to parcel out land to the tribes, clans and families of Israel according to size – smaller groups get smaller tracts, larger groups get larger ones. These tracts of land will stay in the families to which they were originally given. Every family in the nation is guaranteed a piece of the Promised Land. But the land is distributed according to family name, and each family is named according to a patriarch, a male representative. That patriarch serves as the claimant for the land.

A problem arises in Numbers 27 when the daughters of a deceased man named Zelophehad approach Moses. “Our father’s dead,” they say, “and we have no close male relative to claim his land. Let us claim it.” Moses and his advisors are stumped. This is unprecedented, and God hasn’t given any instruction for such a situation. They consult God, who provides them a new set of rules to deal with contingencies such as the one raised by Zelophehad’s daughters.

Not long after, members of the clan of Gilead, from the tribe of Manasseh – Zelophehad’s tribe – raise a followup concern. They say, “Right now Zelophehad’s land will stay within our tribe. But as soon as his daughters marry, their land will go to the their husbands’ clans and tribes. What can you do to make sure their land stays in its proper place?” Again Moses consults God, who says, “Valid concern. Zelophehad’s daughters can marry whomever they want, so long as they marry within their father’s clan.”

These two vignettes raise a couple of questions. First, why was the allotment of land so important, and why was it done so carefully? As I mentioned, every Israelite was promised a piece of the Promised Land. This is the inheritance God promised to give Abraham’s descendents, and God is careful to make good this promise. In the immediate land represents livelihood for each family. In the long run, family tracts represent longevity and the permanence of a family name (not unlike having a town named after your great-great-great-great grandfather). It’s a way God guarantees his people that they won’t be forgotten.

Second, why is it so important that the individual tracts stay within their original clans and tribes? God is careful to allot the land as equitably as possible. Tribes get an amount of land that’s directly proportional to their populations. This means two things: First, no one can accuse God of being unfair; second, no tribe can claim to be more important or more powerful than any other. Each tribe gets, proportionally, exactly what every other one does. Moreover, tribes cannot in the future go to war against each other for more land. Each allotment of land is a God-given trust, and God guarantees that he will see to it that every tribe keeps what was given in the first place.

Ultimately God reminds his people that what they have is a gift. They haven’t earned their land or won it in battle. God has given it simply on the basis of his grace rather than on the basis of merit. No one can lay claim to more than what they’ve been given; no one can claim that God hasn’t been fair.