Zelophehad's daughters

This passage is a big deal, as it relates to the rights of women in a patriarchal society. In doing some research, I thought this gentleman succinctly and clearly outlined the ramifications of the new law. So here it is...


Zelophehad's Daughters

by Wayne Blank

Zelophehad was a man of the tribe of Manasseh who died during the Wilderness Journey. He had five daughters, but no sons. In order to perpetuate their father's name, by means of the allotted share of the promised land that would have gone to him, and then to his sons, if he had any, the daughters asked that the land be given to them instead. Moses brought their request before The Lord and it was granted, thereby establishing a new inheritance law in Israel for men who died without sons.
The new law was immediately a serious potential conflict with another established law that women were legally entitled to their husband's inheritance, not their father's. When Zelophehad's daughters later married, as a family their father's allotment would also become a part of their husband's territory - a serious problem if they married Israelite men from outside of their own tribe i.e. tribal territories were to remain unmixed. A stipulation was then added that daughters who inherited their father's land could marry anyone that they wanted, provided that it was someone within their own tribe. To do otherwise would mean forfeiture of their ancestral land, not as some sort of penalty to the daughter, but to prevent their husband from claiming property in a tribal area of which he was not a member.

Israelite women could marry anyone from any Israelite tribe and live in any tribal territory, whereas, although Israelite men could also marry anyone from any Israelite tribe, the men could only possess land in a tribal territory of which they were a member i.e. women were free to live anywhere in Israel while the men were more restricted to their own tribal territory. On the other hand, if women inherited their father's territory, according to the new law, they were then subject to the same territorial restriction that men already had to adhere to. Although some people have interpreted it as some sort of "feminist" issue that was somehow unfair to women, the fact is that women were already more free than men as to where they could live. But when women inherited land the same as men did, they became subject to the same restrictions as men did i.e. to only possess land within their own tribal territory.

Tomorrow's reading: Num. 30:1-31:54