The Story of the Daughters
In the entire account of the forty years of wilderness wanderings, the divine narrative only contains a few select stories. The children of Israel had fled from Egypt, arrived at the Promised Land and sent in the twelve spies. After the unfavorable report from the spies, the nation spurned the land which Yahweh would give to them and sought to return back to the land of Egypt. As a result of their unbelief, God pledged that the faithless generation would wander in the wilderness for forty years, until everyone above twenty years old had perished — all except a few. Their children would then be allowed to enter into the land and receive the inheritance which their parents had lost.
The historical account of the wilderness wanderings begins in Numbers 15, just after God had pronounced the curse on the unbelieving generation. The account continues all the way until the end of the book of Numbers, in chapter 36. Those 16 chapters span 40 years of history and events. Some of them contain new laws and others contain stories. Yet one of the most intriguing things about these chapters is that in the limited amount of space devoted to this period, the story of the daughters of Zelophehad isn’t only mentioned once, but twice!
Our God thought this to be such an important story that out of all of the other incidents that happened in those forty years, He chose to have this mentioned multiple times. Yet this is not the only characteristic of the daughters’ story which denotes its importance. In addition to its inclusion and references in the book of Numbers, their story seems to be the only event in Israel’s history which caused the law of Moses to be amended multiple times! God specifically changed His law twice because of this incident — first in Numbers 27 and then again in Numbers 36.
Thus, the tale of the daughters of Zelophehad has special significance for us. God has marked it out as something that comes up twice in a section of time that has relatively sparse history, and it is also an event which was so important, that God changed the law of Moses twice to fit with the circumstances.
As we look at the story of these five daughters, we will see the characteristics that made them so precious and significant in God’s sight — they loved their inheritance. For our first article, we will get to know the daughters themselves — their background and their understanding of Scripture. In the next article, we will note the importance of the inheritance in ancient Israel. Finally, in the third article, we will see the end of their story; God rewarded their love for His land. In all of this we will see the importance for each of us to cherish and steadfastly desire the inheritance which our Father has offered to us.
Family Tree
The story of the daughters begins in Numbers 26. Moses was to take a census of the people — this is the first place in which the daughters are mentioned.
“And it came to pass after the plague, that the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, saying, Take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, throughout their fathers’ house, all that are able to go to war in Israel” (Num 26:1-2).
The time of the wilderness wanderings was now nearing its end, and Yahweh called Moses to take a new count of the people — only those twenty years old and above would be counted. This would be the group of people who would inherit the promised land.
“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Unto these the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names” (Num 26:52-53).
All of those who were numbered would receive an inheritance. One of the men counted was a man named Hepher, he was of the sons of Manasseh.
“Of the sons of Manasseh: of Machir, the family of the Machirites: and Machir begat Gilead: of Gilead come the family of the Gileadites. These are the sons of Gilead…and of Shemida, the family of the Shemidaites: and of Hepher, the family of the Hepherites. And Zelophehad the son of Hepher had no sons, but daughters: and the names of the daughters of Zelophehad were Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah” (Num 26:29-30, 32-33).
Just to get the family tree in your mind, Joseph was the father of Manassah, Manassah begat Machir, Machir begat Gilead, Gilead was the father of Hepher, and Hepher was the father of Zelophehad. This genealogy is confirmed again:
“Then came the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of Manasseh the son of Joseph: and these are the names of his daughters; Mahlah, Noah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Tirzah” (Num 27:1).
Since Hepher’s family was part of the censuses in Numbers 26, the children of Hepher were supposed to receive a portion of Manassah’s inheritance. Part of the land would be parsed out to them, according to this numbering. Yet there was a problem. It would appear that Hepher had only one son — and that son, Zelophehad, was dead. There was no one to inherit his portion in the land — under the law, the land was not passed down to daughters.
As the census went throughout the camp, the daughters of Zelophehad suddenly realized the problem.
Petition to Moses
And so they came to Moses, which was no easy task. According to Exodus 18, Moses had trained up groups of judges to make decisions in matters so that he would not have to. He had judges over hundreds and judges over thousands. It would seem as though the daughters would have to go through each of these levels until they could come to Moses and the princes — which demonstrates their resolve. The matter of this inheritance was something that was extremely important to them and they would not be deterred from speaking to Moses about it.
“And they stood before Moses, and before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes of all the congregation, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, Our father died in the wilderness, and he was not in the company of them that gathered themselves together against the LORD in the company of Korah; but died in his own sin, and had no sons” (Num 27:2-3).
Zelophehad’s Death
As they stood before Moses and Eleazar and the rulers of Israel, they declared to them that their father had died in the wilderness — not with a rebellious spirit, like Korah, but had simply died in his own sin.
Zelophehad doesn’t seem to be one of the previous generation who had died in the wilderness because of unbelief, but rather one who died of natural causes. Keep in mind that he was the son of Hepher, mentioned in Numbers 26 as one of those who should inherit the land. He had five, young, unmarried daughters, probably putting him at a fairly young age — young enough to have not fallen into condemnation with the generation before his own.
In addition, look at what the daughters ask in connection with their statement:
“Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family, because he hath no son? Give unto us therefore a possession among the brethren of our father” (Num 27:4).
The purpose of the daughters explaining the death and lack of rebellion in their father was to show that his name was worthy of keeping in the remembrance of Israel! “Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family?” They were seeking to prove Zelophehad’s righteousness by distancing him from Korah’s rebellion and seeking to show that he died of natural causes — therefore he was not able to inherit his land, and as a result, the family name would be forgotten.
The Wisdom of the Daughters
This was not what they wanted to have happen. These sisters cared about their family and cared about their inheritance. They understood the significance of the inheritance (which we will explore in the next article). Despite their youth, they had great spiritual insight. These were sisters who knew God’s principles and understood the meaning behind His law! Just look again at the words that they spoke to Moses:
“Our father died in the wilderness, and he was not in the company of them that gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Korah; but died in his own sin, and had no sons” ( Num 27:3).
Notice that the daughters of Zelophehad said that Korah’s rebellion was specifically directed against Yahweh Himself! They didn’t say, “the company that gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron,” but they markedly said “the company that gathered themselves together against the LORD.” Their understanding was a massive contrast to the reaction that most of the congregation had after Korah, Dathan, and Abiram died:
“But on the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord. And it came to pass, when the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron, that they looked toward the tabernacle of the congregation: and, behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD appeared” (Num 16:41-42).
The next day after the death of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, the people actually gathered against Moses and Aaron — accusing them of killing Yahweh’s servants! The daughters of Zelophehad had much more spiritual insight than this. They were able to recognize that the rebellion of Korah was misguided and an actual rebellion against God. Thus, their thinking lines up exactly with that of the Father.
“And the sons of Eliab; Nemuel, and Dathan, and Abiram. This is that Dathan and Abiram, which were famous in the congregation, who strove against Moses and against Aaron in the company of Korah, when they strove against the Lord” (Num 26:9).
Scripture clearly shows against whom Korah fought. Yet in addition to recognizing this, the daughters also understood that death is a normal occurrence for humanity 3/4 but it happens because of our sin:
“But died in his own sin, and had no sons” (Num 27:3).
They were able to see that it was sin that brought about their father’s death. They understood that death from sin was the normal condition for humanity.
These were remarkable sisters. They had a deep understanding and perception of things that many at that time did not grasp — partly because of the teaching passed down by Joseph (as will be seen in the next article), but no doubt partly because they wanted to know and understand, so they sought out answers.
This is a powerful example for our young sisters. As you graduate from youth circle and Sunday School, don’t let your reading of the Word stop! Sometimes it can be easy to think that only the brothers need to spend time in Scripture every day. Yet it isn’t just for the brothers to understand God’s Word. It’s true that the brothers are the ones who speak and teach the ecclesia, but the sisters as well are responsible for teaching the other sisters, being an example to the children, and having a spiritually focused attitude throughout the day. Both the brother and the sister are capable of understanding the divine principles and the divine record. Both are responsible for their knowledge and the conduct that develops from that knowledge.
These sisters understood Yahweh’s principles and as a result they could see the true depth in the things that they were commanded. It was this understanding which led them to recognize the powerful meaning behind the inheritance and which motivated them to strive to receive the inheritance themselves. In the next article, we too will comb through the Word of God and will reveal the significance behind the inheritance in the Promised Land.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One