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fathers of the children of Israel." The chief his heirs, this land would no longer return fathers were, under the patriarchal system, to members of the tribe of Manasseh, but the representatives of their respective fami would fall to some descendant of the daugh lies, — the presidents, as it were, of the sev ters of Zelophehad who would not be a eral little corporations which constituted the member of the tribe of Manasseh, but of the tribe. "And they said, The Lord com tribe to which the husband of the heiress manded my lord to give the land for an belonged. This had to be guarded against. inheritance by lot to the children of Israel; The court was likewise impressed with and my lord was commanded by the Lord the force of the argument, and apparently to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our held the same conservative view as the de brother unto his daughters; and if they be fendants concerning the political question married to any of the sons of the other involved. It therefore re-opened the case tribes of the children of Israel, then shall and modified the decree already made. "And Moses commanded the children of their inheritance be taken from the inheri tance of our fathers, and shall be put to the Israel, according to the word of the Lord, inheritance of the tribe whereunto they saying, The tribe of the sons of Joseph hath are received; so sh'all it be taken from the said well. This is the thing which the Lord lot of our inheritance. And when the jubilee doth command concerning the daughters of of the children of Israel shall be, then shall Zelophehad, saying, Let them marry to their inheritance be put unto the inheritance whom they think best; only to the family of the tribe whereunto they are received; of the tribe of their father shall they marry. so shall their inheritance be taken away from So shall not the inheritance of the children the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers." of Israel remove from tribe to tribe; for The point made by the defendants was every one of the children of Israel shall based upon the fundamental conception of keep himself to the inheritance of the tribe the tribal ownership of land, the indivi of his fathers." This decision therefore pre dual having the perpetual use thereof in vented the injury to the tribal rights of the his own family. The land was therefore defendants, and established the right of in inalienable except with the consent of the heritance of the daughters upon the condi tribe. The decision in Zelophchad's case tion that thej' marry within their own tribe. had unsettled this rule. By making the If they married outside the tribe, they lost women absolute heiresses in default of male their estate. issue, it subjected the property to the danger We are assured, however, that the five of absorption by other tribes in the event of young women through whose case the law the marriage of an heiress outside of the of succession was established, were wise tribe of her fathers, and there would be enough not to forfeit their inheritance; for eventually a mixing up of tribal lines that " even as the Lord commanded Moses so would obliterate them altogether. The did the daughters of Zelophehad; for Mahchiefs of the tribe of Joseph were not yet lah, Tirzah, and Hoglah and Milcah, and prepared for this step, and the case seems Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were to mark the transition from the tribal to married unto their father's brothers' sons; the individual ownership of land, and from and they were married into the families of the old tribal organizations into the greater the sons of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, national union of all Israel. It was a step and their inheritance remained in the tribe on the road to imperialism. As the chief of the family of their father." As in the tains pointed out, at the time of the jubilee, former decision in this case, the ruling of when every man's land returned to him or the court became the basis for a general