Numbers 36:1
INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 36
This chapter gives an account of an application made by the heads of the tribe of Manasseh, concerning the inheritances of the daughters of Zelophehad, which, should they marry into other tribes, would be removed thither, and so be a loss to theirs, Nu 36:1, which case was judged worthy of regard; and to remedy this inconvenience, they were ordered to marry into the family of their father's tribe, and this was to be a law to all heiresses for the future in other tribes, Nu 36:5 and accordingly the daughters of Zelophehad married their father's brothers' sons, Nu 36:10.
Ver. 1. And the chief fathers of the families of the children of Gilead,.... The princes, as Aben Ezra; so the Septuagint version, which was the tribe of Manasseh, whose grandson Gilead was, as follows:
the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near; to the house of judgment, as the Targum of Jonathan, the sanhedrim or court of judicature, consisting of the following persons:
and spoke before Moses; the Septuagint version adds, "and before Eleazar the priest", as in Nu 27:2
and before the princes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel: the princes of the several tribes; or it may be rather the seventy elders.