Polyglot Bible: Numbers: Numbers 36

This is a biblical text — the final chapter of the Book of Numbers (chapter 36) — presented in four parallel versions: the King James Version (English), the Septuagint (Greek), the Masoretic Tanakh (Hebrew), and the Latin Vulgate. The passage records a legal petition brought by clan leaders of Gilead (descendants of Manasseh) to Moses, concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, who had previously been granted their deceased father's inheritance since he left no sons. The Gileadites argue that if these women marry outside their tribe, their inherited land will permanently transfer to another tribe, undermining the divinely mandated tribal land allotments — and even the Jubilee year reset will not fix this cross-tribal transfer. Moses, invoking divine authority, rules that the daughters may marry whomever they wish, but only within their own tribe, thereby preserving each tribe's territorial inheritance. The daughters comply, marrying their paternal cousins within Manasseh. The passage's distinctive feature is its treatment of women's inheritance rights as a genuine legal problem requiring resolution: it balances a previously granted right (daughters inheriting) against a structural concern (tribal land consolidation), resolving the tension through a marriage restriction rather than revoking the inheritance.

Polyglot Bible: Numbers: Numbers 36

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