1. Then the heads of families in the clan of Gilead, son of Machir, grandson of Manasseh, one of the clans of Joseph, came forward. They spoke before Moses and the heads of the families of Israel

2. and said: "Yahweh has commanded you to give the land to the people of Israel, sharing it out by drawing lots; and Yahweh has commanded you to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters.

3. Now, if they marry someone from another tribe in Israel, their property will be taken away from the inheritance of our fathers. The property of the tribe to which they will belong will be increased, while the property given to us will be decreased.

4. And when the jubilee year comes, the property of these women will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they then belong, and lost to the inheritance of our own tribe."

5. Moses, at Yahweh's command, gave the following ruling to the people of Israel. He said: "The tribe of Joseph is right.

6. This is Yahweh's decision for the daughters of Zelophehad: They may marry whom they please, but they must marry into a clan of their father's tribe.

7. The property of the people of Israel is not to be transferred from tribe to tribe; the property of every Israelite is to remain attached to his own tribe.

8. Every woman who has inherited property in one of the tribes of Israel must marry into a clan of her own tribe, so that each Israelite may inherit the property of his ancestors.

9. No property may be transferred from one tribe to another: every tribe of Israel will always keep its own property."

10. The daughters of Zelophehad did as Yahweh had commanded Moses.

11. Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah and Noah, daughters of Zelophehad, married the sons of their father's brothers.

12. Since they married into the clans of Manasseh, son of Joseph, their property remained with the tribe of their father's clan.

13. These are the commandments and laws that Yahweh gave to the people of Israel through Moses in the plains of Moab near the Jordan opposite Jericho.





“Há alegrias tão sublimes e dores tão profundas que não se consegue exprimir com palavras. O silêncio é o último recurso da alma, quando ela está inefavelmente feliz ou extremamente oprimida!” São Padre Pio de Pietrelcina