And the chief fathers of the families of the children of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near, and spake before Moses, and before the princes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel:
The chief fathers of the families ... of Gilead. Being the tribal governors in Manasseh, they consulted Moses and "the princes" - i:e., heads of tribes (see the notes at Numbers 1:5-17; Numbers 3:24; Numbers 3:30; Numbers 3:35; Numbers 27:2; Deuteronomy 29:10) - on a case that affected the public honour and interests of their tribe. It related once more to the daughters of Zelophehad. Formerly these had applied, at their own instance, to be recognized, for lack of heirs male in their family, as entitled to inherit their father's property: now the application was made on behalf of the tribe to which they belonged-that steps might be taken to prevent the alienation of their patrimony by their alliance with husbands of another tribe. The unrestricted marriages of daughters in such circumstances threatened seriously to affect the tenure of land in Israel, as their inheritance would go to their children, who, by the father's side, would belong to another tribe, and thus lead, through a complication of interests and the confusion of families, to an evil for which even the jubilee could not afford a remedy (see the note at Leviticus 25:13).