Numbers 36

Numbers 36:1-13

P. The chapter lays down a law that heiresses may not be married to anyone outside their own tribe. As in ch. 27, the present law is put in a concrete form. In ch. 27 it was ruled that the daughters of Zelophehad might inherit property, in order that the inheritance might not be alienated from the tribe of Manasseh. But it was realised that that law might, after all, be annulled if they were married to persons of other tribes. Here, therefore, the supplementary law is issued, forbidding them to do so.

Numbers 36:4

4. In the year of Jubile, i.e. every fiftieth year, all purchased land returned to its original owners, or their descendants. But the law of Jubile would not affect the cases in which land was inherited by persons of another tribe. It would, indeed, be inherited by descendants of Zelophehad in the female line, but this would not prevent it from being permanently severed from the tribe of Manasseh. The law of Jubile is contained in Leviticus 25. See notes in the commentary in this series. The word ‘Jubile’ is formed from the Heb. yτbhηl, a ‘ram’s horn’ trumpet. The fiftieth year was called ‘the year of the yτbhηl,’ or, more shortly, ‘the yτbhηl,’ because it was ushered in by the blowing of trumpets.

Numbers 36:11

11. In accordance with the law, the five women were married to the sons of their paternal uncles.

Numbers 36:13

13. A subscription appended to the series of priestly laws related to have been given during the time that Israel was in the land of Moab, i.e. between Numbers 22:1 and Numbers 36:12. A similar subscription is appended, in Leviticus 27:34, to the laws given at Sinai. But after that subscription further laws at Sinai are collected in Numbers 1 ff. It has therefore been conjectured that both subscriptions were added by a scribe, when the Pentateuch was divided into five books.