The Daughters of Zelophehad

(Numbers 36:1-13)

1Then came the daughters of Salphaad, the son of Hepher, the son of Galaad, the son of Machir, the son of Manasses, who was the son of Joseph: and their names are Maala, and Noa, and Hegla, and Melcha, and Thersa. 2And they stood before Moses and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the people at the door of the tabernacle of the covenant, and said: 3Our father died in the desert, and was not in the sedition, that was raised against the Lord under Core, but he died in his own sin: and he had no male children. Why is his name taken away out of his family, because he had no son? Give us a possession among the kinsmen of our father. 4And Moses referred their cause to the judgment of the Lord. 5And the Lord said to him:

The Law of Inheritances

6The daughters of Salphaad demand a just thing: Give them a possession among their father's kindred, and let them succeed him in his inheritance. 7And to the children of Israel thou shalt speak these things: 8When a man dieth without a son, his inheritance shall pass to his daughter. 9If he have no daughter, his brethren shall succeed him. 10And if he have no brethren, you shall give the inheritance to his father's brethren. 11But if he have no uncles by the father, the inheritance shall be given to them that are the next akin. And this shall be to the children of Israel sacred by a perpetual law, as the Lord hath commanded Moses.

Moses Asks for a Successor

(Deuteronomy 3:23-29)

12The Lord also said to Moses: Go up into this mountain Abarim, and view from thence the land which I will give to the children of Israel. 13And when thou shalt have seen it, thou also shalt go to thy people, as thy brother Aaron is gone: 14Because you offended me in the desert of Sin in the contradiction of the multitude, neither would you sanctify me before them at the waters. These are the waters of contradiction in Cades of the desert of Sin.

15And Moses answered him: 16May the Lord the God of the spirits of all flesh provide a man, that may be over this multitude: 17And may go out and in before them, and may lead them out, or bring them in: lest the people of the Lord be as sheep without a shepherd.

Joshua to Succeed Moses

(Deuteronomy 31:7-8)

18And the Lord said to him: take Josue the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and put thy hand upon him. 19And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest and all the multitude: 20And thou shalt give him precepts in the sight of all, and part of thy glory, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may hear him. 21If any thing be to be done, Eleazar the priest shall consult the Lord for him. He and all the children of Israel with him, and the rest of the multitude shall go out and go in at his word. 22Moses did as the Lord had commanded. And, when he had taken Josue, he set him before Eleazar the priest, and all the assembly of the people, 23And laying his hands on his head, he repeated all things that the Lord had commanded.