Editor’s note: This article is a 2024 CBE Writing Contest grand prize winner. Enjoy!
The New Testament declares that all believers are God’s heirs. This includes women equally, as made clear when Paul writes that, “There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Now if you belong to Christ, then indeed you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to the promise.” (Gal. 3:28–29 CEB).
As heirs, then, women too receive full inheritance in Christ, with full privileges and responsibilities. However, many women have battled with the question of whether that full embrace and elevation of women is a purely New Testament phenomenon. Was there any indication in the Old Testament that God always intended that women receive an equal inheritance to men?
One of the stories that answers this question is that of the oft-overlooked daughters of Zelophehad in the oft-overlooked book of Numbers.
The True Heirs
The book of Numbers largely focuses on the concept of inheritance. This begins with showing who God’s people are and therefore who will inherit the Promised Land. The Lord meticulously sets them apart by mandating a census by tribe and establishing both a leadership structure for the community, and boundaries for the encampment by instructing where each tribe should camp relative to the tabernacle (Num. 1–2). Additionally, God makes clear the relationship He intends to have with His people by establishing Moses to speak for Him and an entire tribe of priests to serve Him (Num. 1–2).
Which land specifically is received is not shared in Numbers. The exception to this occurs in Numbers 32, where two tribes want land on the side of the Jordan not designated as the Promised Land. However, even here the text points to the significance of the promised inheritance; Moses challenges those two tribes to ensure that the other tribes receive “the land that the Lord gave them” (Num. 32:7). Perhaps the most striking display of the significance of inheritance is when God does not allow people to go into the Promised Land as a punishment—a punishment that seems next to death in its severity. Faithless complainers are punished by not receiving the inheritance they were promised, just as God’s loyal followers and their descendants are blessed (Num. 14:28–35). All of this comes to a head in the story of the daughters of Zelophehad of the tribe of Manasseh: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.
Their story begins in Numbers 27:1–11, when the daughters come before the entire community to request God’s judgement—via Moses—about a conundrum. The Promised Land has been divided and a plan for patrilineal inheritance within each tribe put into place, but Zelophehad has died with no sons. His five daughters request permission to inherit the land as a son would. The Lord’s response in verses 7–8 is stunning:
“Zelophehad’s daughters are right in what they are saying. By all means, give them property as an inheritance among their father’s brothers. Hand over their father’s inheritance to them. Speak to the Israelites and say: If a man dies and doesn’t have a son, you must hand his inheritance over to his daughters.”
The women receive a follow-up passage in Numbers 36:1–12. Intriguingly, this is the final story and command of the book, highlighting its significance. Some Manassehite leaders come to Moses with the concern that if the women marry outside of their tribe, their inheritance would pass to another tribe. The Lord acknowledges the validity of their concern and gives the women the responsibility to marry within the tribe, which they do.
The entire story is extraordinary. In every way, these women appear insignificant at first glance: they are from the tribe that is the smallest when counted in Numbers 1 (though they grow significantly by the time of the census in Numbers 26); they are women in a patriarchal world; they are likely young, given that they are unmarried. Yet the story takes a vastly different direction than one would expect. The text affirms the women’s significance by including their names, not just their father’s name, a rare occurrence in ancient texts. And God Himself affirms that it is “right” that they receive an inheritance.
How does this story mirror and inform what we see in the New Covenant of Christ?
A True and Better Inheritance
The daughters of Zelophehad receive their father’s land, a stunning inheritance for women who are also the orphaned descendants of an enslaved person. But it foreshadows so much more. Tim Keller beautifully describes Jesus being the “true and better” version of the characters we read about in the Old Testament. Similarly, the stories of the Old Testament foreshadow the true and better future that God always intended.
The story of the daughters of Zelophehad shows us that God always intended for women to have an inheritance. There is no disconnectedness; no “before,” when God did not care about women, and “after,” when He decided to change course. He was always the Person that we see in Jesus: One who pushed back against societal norms and expectations to give even women an equal inheritance. God always affirmed that it was “right” in His eyes to give women an inheritance.
The only difference between the Old and New Testament stories in this instance is what the inheritance is. It is not an earthly kingdom, not some piece of land that must be tilled and worried over, but a stake in the eternal Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Intertwined with inheritance is calling and responsibility. For Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah, this meant that they took on the responsibility to care for the land and build up Israel when they received their inheritance. Additionally, the women recognize their calling to preserve tribal legacy when they initially ask for the land: “Why should our father’s name be taken away from his clan because he didn’t have a son?” (Num. 27:4) This is reaffirmed in Numbers 36 when tribal leaders bring their concern to Moses that the land will be absorbed into the inheritance of the other tribe if the women marry outside the tribe of Manasseh. God agrees and declares that the women must marry within their tribe; they share the calling to ensure that those tribes God intended to inherit specific land receive it.
Women today, too, have a calling. But we do not have to only marry and create future generations to inherit tribal land. We are called to live out the Great Commission to “make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19). We have the responsibility to use our inheritance to build the new Kingdom.
This is summed up beautifully in 1 Peter 2:9: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people who are God’s own possession. You have become this people so that you may speak of the wonderful acts of the one who called you out of darkness into his amazing light.” Zelophehad’s daughters stand witness to the fact that this holy participation in the Kingdom is not—and was never intended to be—just for men.
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