¹Then the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh – so of the families of Manasseh the son of Joseph – approached, and these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah and Hoglah and Milcah and Tirzah. ²And they stood before Moses and Eleazar the priest, and before the officials and the whole congregation at the entrance to the tent of contact, and they said, ³“Our father died in the desert, but he was not among the company which gathered against the Lord in Korah's company, for he died in his own sin, and he had no sons. ⁴Why should the name of our father be suppressed among his family because he had no son? Give us a possession among our father's brothers.” ⁵Then Moses brought their case before the Lord. ⁶And the Lord spoke to Moses and said, ⁷“Zelophehad's daughters speak rightly. You must certainly give them a possession as an inheritance among their father's brothers, and you will transfer their father's inheritance to them. ⁸And you will speak to the sons of Israel and say, ‘If a man dies and has no son, you will transfer his inheritance to his daughter. ⁹And if he has no daughter, then you will give his inheritance to his brothers. ¹⁰And if he has no brothers, you will give his inheritance to his father's brothers. ¹¹And if his father has no brothers, you will give his inheritance to the nearest kinsman to him, in his family, and he will inherit it, and it will be a statute of the justice system for the sons of Israel, as the Lord commanded Moses.’ ” ¹²And the Lord said to Moses, “Go up into this Mount Abarim, and look at the land which I have given to the sons of Israel, ¹³and you will see it, and then you will be gathered to your people – you too – as Aaron your brother was gathered, ¹⁴because you rebelled against my word in the Desert of Zin, in the rebellion of the congregation, my word being to sanctify me at the water before their eyes – that is the water of Meribah in Kadesh in the Desert of Zin.” ¹⁵Then Moses spoke to the Lord and said, ¹⁶“Let the Lord God of the spirits of all flesh appoint a man over the congregation ¹⁷who will go out before them, and who will come in before them, and who will lead them out, and who will lead them in, so that the congregation of the Lord will not be like sheep who have no shepherd.” ¹⁸And the Lord said to Moses, “Then take Joshua the son of Nun, a man with spirit in him, and lay your hand on him, ¹⁹and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before the whole congregation, and command him in their sight. ²⁰And confer on him a share of your honour so that the whole congregation of the sons of Israel will obey him. ²¹And he will stand before Eleazar the priest, who will inquire for him oracularly by the decision of the Urim before the Lord. At his word they will go out, and at his word they will come in, he and all the sons of Israel with him, and the whole congregation.” ²²So Moses did as the Lord commanded him, and he took Joshua, and he set him before Eleazar the priest and before the whole congregation. ²³And he laid his hand on him, and he commanded him according to what the Lord had said, through the intermediacy of Moses.