How is the concern about Salphaad’s daughters marrying into another tribe resolved?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Moses answers by the Lord’s command that the concern is right. The daughters may marry whom they wish within their own tribe. They then marry their paternal uncle’s sons, and their allotted possession remains in their father’s tribe and family.

Chapter breakdown

The princes of the families of Galaad, son of Machir, son of Manasses, of Joseph’s stock, come to Moses before Israel’s princes. They recall the Lord’s commands to divide the land by lot and to give their brother Salphaad’s daughters the possession due to their father. They say that if men from another tribe marry the daughters, the possession will follow them into that tribe and diminish their own inheritance. They also say that when the jubilee, the fiftieth year of remission, comes, the division by lots will be confused and one tribe’s possession will pass to others. This is their stated concern; the passage does not explain a separate system of sales, debts, or marital property records.

Moses answers Israel by the Lord’s command that the tribe of Joseph’s children has spoken rightly. He gives the Lord’s law for Salphaad’s daughters: they may marry whom they will, provided the men belong to their own tribe. The stated purpose is that Israel’s possession not be mixed from tribe to tribe. The text says all men shall marry wives of their own tribe and kindred, and all women shall take husbands of the same tribe, so inheritance remains in the families. The tribes are not to be mixed with one another, but are to remain as the Lord separated them. The breadth of these words is retained; it is not silently narrowed to women with a particular property status.

The daughters of Salphaad do as commanded. Maala, Thersa, Hegla, Melcha, and Noa marry the sons of their father’s brother—their paternal uncle’s sons—of the family of Manasses, who was Joseph’s son. The possession allotted to them remains in their father’s tribe and family.

The closing statement identifies these as the commandments and judgment the Lord commanded through Moses to the children of Israel in the plains of Moab, upon the Jordan opposite Jericho. It closes Numbers without narrating a crossing of the river or a later land division.

The story inside

The case begins with a concern about the existing grant, not a request to take the daughters’ possession away. The family princes cite both commands: land divided by lot and Salphaad’s daughters receiving their father’s portion. They explain how marriage into another tribe would move that possession and diminish their inheritance. Moses’ recorded answer accepts the concern and gives the marriage condition while preserving the daughters’ choice within their own tribe. The chapter then records what they do, naming all five women and their husbands’ relationship to their father. It also states the resulting fact: the allotted possession remains in their father’s tribe and family. No unrecorded consultation, inner reaction, or later history is needed to explain this chain of concern, ruling, obedience, and result.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The petition names a specific risk. If the daughters marry men of another tribe, the princes say their possession will move with them and diminish the inheritance of the original tribe.
2
The ruling combines choice with a condition. Salphaad’s daughters may marry whom they wish, provided the men are of their own tribe; the text gives keeping possession within tribes and families as its purpose.
3
The chapter records compliance and its result. All five daughters marry their paternal uncle’s sons in Manasses, and the allotted possession remains in their father’s tribe and family.

Test your recall

Why do the family princes fear that marriage into another tribe would diminish their inheritance?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 18479–18500
Numbers Chapter 36 That the inheritances may not be alienated from one tribe to another, all are to marry within their own tribes. 36:1. And the princes of the families of Galaad, the son of Machir, the son of Manasses, of the stock of the children of Joseph, came and spoke to Moses before the princes of Israel, and said: 36:2. The Lord hath commanded thee, my lord, that thou shouldst divide the land by lot to the children of Israel, and that thou shouldst give to the daughters of Salphaad our brother the possession due to their father: 36:3. Now if men of another tribe take them to wives, their possession will follow them, and being transferred to another tribe, will be a diminishing of our inheritance. 36:4. And so it shall come to pass, that when the jubilee, that is, the fiftieth year of remission, is come, the distribution made by the lots shall be confounded, and the possession of the one shall pass to the others.
Lines 18502–18518
36:5. Moses answered the children of Israel, and said by the command of the Lord: The tribe of the children of Joseph hath spoken rightly. 36:6. And this is the law promulgated by the Lord touching the daughters of Salphaad: Let them marry to whom they will, only so that it be to men of their own tribe. 36:7. Lest the possession of the children of Israel be mingled from tribe to tribe. For all men shall marry wives of their own tribe and kindred: 36:8. And all women shall take husbands of the same tribe: that the inheritance may remain in the families. 36:9. And that the tribes be not mingled one with another, but remain so
Lines 18519–18527
36:10. As they were separated by the Lord. And the daughters of Salphaad did as was commanded: 36:11. And Maala, and Thersa, and Hegla, and Melcha, and Noa were married to the sons of their uncle by their father 36:12. Of the family of Manasses, who was the son of Joseph: and the possession that had been allotted to them, remained in the tribe and family of their father.
Lines 18529–18535
36:13. These are the commandments and judgment, which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses to the children of Israel, in the plains of Moab upon the Jordan over against Jericho.