Numbers 27

The Daughters of Zelophehad

¹Then drew near the daughters of Zelophehad the son of Hepher, son of Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manasseh, from the clans of Manasseh the son of Joseph. The names of his daughters were: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.²And they stood before Moses and before Eleazar the priest and before the chiefs and all the congregation, at the entrance of the tent of meeting, saying,³“Our father died in the wilderness. He was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Korah, but died for his own sin. And he had no sons.⁴Why should the name of our father be taken away from his clan because he had no son? Give to us a possession among our father's brothers.”

⁵Moses brought their case before the Lord.⁶And the Lord said to Moses,⁷“The daughters of Zelophehad are right. You shall give them possession of an inheritance among their father's brothers and transfer the inheritance of their father to them.⁸And you shall speak to the people of Israel, saying, ‘If a man dies and has no son, then you shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter.⁹And if he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers.¹⁰And if he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father's brothers.¹¹And if his father has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to the nearest kinsman of his clan, and he shall possess it. And it shall be for the people of Israel a statute and rule, as the Lord commanded Moses.’”

Joshua to Succeed Moses

¹²The Lord said to Moses, “Go up into this mountain of Abarim and see the land that I have given to the people of Israel.¹³When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was,¹⁴because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin when the congregation quarreled, failing to uphold me as holy at the waters before their eyes.” (These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.)¹⁵Moses spoke to the Lord, saying,¹⁶“Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation¹⁷who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.”¹⁸So the Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him.¹⁹Make him stand before Eleazar the priest and all the congregation, and you shall commission him in their sight.²⁰You shall invest him with some of your authority, that all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey.²¹And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord. At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he and all the people of Israel with him, the whole congregation.”²²And Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua and made him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole congregation,²³and he laid his hands on him and commissioned him as the Lord directed through Moses.