Five daughters of Zelophehad asked Moses for their dead father's land, and the ruling made daughters heirs when there are no sons

Zelophehad, of the tribe of Manasseh, died in the wilderness and left five daughters and no sons: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah. The land of Canaan was to be divided by family. The daughters stood before Moses, the priest Eleazar, the chiefs and the whole assembly at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. They said their father had not joined Korah's revolt and had died for his own sin. They asked why his name should disappear from his clan because he had no son, and they asked for land among his brothers. Moses took the case to God. The ruling in Numbers 27 said the daughters were right and set an order of inheritance for all Israel: a son; if no son, a daughter; then the dead man's brothers; then his father's brothers; then the nearest kinsman in the clan. Numbers 36 records a second case. The heads of the clan of Gilead said that if the daughters married men of other tribes, the land would leave Manasseh. Moses ruled that the daughters could marry whom they chose, but only within their father's tribe. All five married sons of their father's brothers. Joshua 17 records that they received their land in the allotment of Manasseh. Jewish law still follows this order: a daughter inherits from her father only when there is no son or son's descendant.