Numbers 36 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

The heads of the family groups from the clan of Gilead — who was the son of Machir, son of Manasseh, from the clans descended from Joseph — came forward and spoke before Moses and the leaders who were heads of the Israelite family groups.

They said, "Yahweh commanded my lord to distribute the land by lot as an inheritance to the Israelites. And my lord was also commanded by Yahweh to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters."

"But if they marry men from other Israelite tribes, then their inheritance will be taken away from our ancestral inheritance and added to the inheritance of whatever tribe they marry into. And so our allotted inheritance would shrink."

"And when the Jubilee comes for the Israelites, their inheritance would be permanently added to the inheritance of the tribe they married into, and their inheritance would be permanently removed from our ancestral tribe's inheritance."

So Moses gave the Israelites this command, based on what Yahweh said: "The tribe of the descendants of Joseph is right."

"This is what Yahweh commands regarding Zelophehad's daughters: They may marry whoever they want — but they must marry within a clan of their father's tribe."

"No inheritance among the Israelites is to pass from one tribe to another. Every Israelite must hold on to the tribal inheritance of their ancestors."

"And every daughter who inherits land in any Israelite tribe must marry someone from a clan within her father's tribe. This way every Israelite will keep the inheritance of their ancestors."

"No inheritance is to transfer from one tribe to another. Each Israelite tribe must hold on to its own inheritance."

Zelophehad's daughters did exactly as Yahweh commanded Moses.

Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah — Zelophehad's daughters — married their cousins on their father's side.

They married into the clans of the descendants of Manasseh son of Joseph, and their inheritance stayed within the tribe of their father's clan.

These are the commands and rulings that Yahweh gave through Moses to the Israelites on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan River across from Jericho.