And when the jubile of the children of Israel shall be, then shall their inheritance be put unto the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they are received: so shall their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.
And when the Year of Jubilee comes for the people of Israel, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe they marry into. So their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of our fathers' tribe.
The tribal leaders are worried that when women inherit land and then marry into other tribes, their family's land will permanently transfer to another tribe during the Year of Jubilee.
📚 Historical Context
In the book of Numbers, the Israelites were dealing with the distribution of land in the Promised Land as they prepared to settle after their wilderness wanderings. The leaders of the tribe of Manasseh expressed concern that if the daughters of Zelophehad married men from other tribes, their inherited land would transfer to those tribes during the Year of Jubilee, a special year every 50 years when property was restored to original owners. This reflects the cultural priority in ancient Israel on preserving tribal inheritances to maintain social and economic stability.
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