The Wilderness Years

The leaders of the clans of the family of the descendants of Gil'ad, the son of Machir, the son of M'nasheh, of the families of the descendants of Yosef, approached and addressed Moshe and the leaders, the heads of the clans of the people of Isra'el.

They said, "ADONAI ordered my lord to give by lot the land to be inherited by the people of Isra'el, and my lord was ordered by ADONAI to give the inheritance of our kinsman Tz'lof'chad to his daughters.

But if they get married to anyone belonging to another of the tribes of the people of Isra'el, then their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of our ancestors and be added to the inheritance of the tribe they will then belong to; thus it will be taken away from the sum total of our inheritance.

And when the yovel of the people of Isra'el comes, their inheritance will be added to the land possessed by the tribe they will then belong to and be subtracted from the inheritance belonging to the tribe of our ancestors."

Moshe gave this order to the people of Isra'el, in keeping with the word of ADONAI : "The tribe of the descendants of Yosef is right in what it says.

Here is what ADONAI has ordered concerning the daughters of Tz'lof'chad: 'Let them be married to whomever they think best, but they must marry only into a family from their father's tribe.

In this way no inheritance of the people of Isra'el will move from one tribe to another; for each of the people of Isra'el is to hold on to the land for inheritance belonging to his father's tribe.

Every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the people of Isra'el is to become the wife of someone from the family of her father's tribe, so that every one of the people of Isra'el will stay in possession of his ancestors' inheritance.

Thus no inheritance will move from one tribe to another, for each of the tribes of the people of Isra'el will hold on to its own inheritance."

The daughters of Tz'lof'chad did as ADONAI had ordered Moshe.

Machlah, Tirtzah, Hoglah, Milkah and No'ah all got married to sons of their father's brothers.

They were married into the families of the descendants of M'nasheh the son of Yosef, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of their father's family.

These are the mitzvot and rulings which ADONAI gave through Moshe to the people of Isra'el in the plains of Mo'av by the Yarden, across from Yericho. 4 1-2

These are the words Moshe spoke to all Isra'el on the far side of the Yarden River, in the desert, in the 'Aravah, across from Suf, between Pa'ran and Tofel, Lavan, Hatzerot and Di-Zahav.

It is eleven days' journey from Horev to Kadesh-Barnea by way of Mount Se'ir.

On the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year, Moshe spoke to the people of Isra'el, reviewing everything ADONAI had ordered him to tell them.

This was after he had defeated Sichon, king of the Emori, who lived in Heshbon, and 'Og, king of Bashan, who lived in 'Ashtarot, at Edre'i.

There, beyond the Yarden, in the land of Mo'av, Moshe took it upon himself to expound this Torah and said:

"ADONAI spoke to us in Horev. He said, 'You have lived long enough by this mountain.

Turn, get moving and go to the hill-country of the Emori and all the places near there in the 'Aravah, the hill-country, the Sh'felah, the Negev and by the seashore - the land of the Kena'ani, and the L'vanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates River.

I have set the land before you! Go in, and take possession of the land ADONAI swore to give to your ancestors Avraham, Yitz'chak and Ya'akov, and their descendants after them.'

"At that time I told you, 'You are too heavy a burden for me to carry alone.

ADONAI your God has multiplied your numbers, so that there are as many of you today as there are stars in the sky.

May ADONAI, the God of your ancestors, increase you yet a thousandfold and bless you, as he has promised you!

But you are burdensome, bothersome and quarrelsome! How can I bear it by myself alone?