Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 36:6
This [is] the thing which the LORD doth command concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, Let them marry to whom they think best; only to the family of the tribe of their father shall they marry.
Verse 6. Let them marry to whom they think best] Here was latitude sufficient, and yet a salutary and reasonable restraint, which prevented a vexatious mixture of property and possession.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
They seem hereby to be confined not only to the same tribe, trot also to the family of their tribe, as appears from the reason of the law, for God would have the inheritance of families as well as tribes kept entire and unmixed; and this was one reason of that law of marrying the brothers wife, Deu 25. And although the next verse may seem to thwart this interpretation, the reason of this law being there given that inheritances might not go from tribe to tribe, Num 36:8 confirms it, where the very same phrase is repeated, and that more emphatically, that such shall marry one of the family of the tribe of her father; and this further reason and restriction is added, that they may enjoy every man the inheritance (not only of his tribe, but) of his fathers, to wit, belonging to his fathers family.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
This is the thing which the Lord doth command concerning the daughters of Zelophehad,…. Concerning this affair relative to them; the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases the words,
“not for the generations that rise up after the division of the land, but for the daughters of Zelophehad;”
as if this order only respected them, or what might happen before the land was divided, but not after; and this is the general opinion of the Jewish writers; but it seems, that as the following law not only concerns them, but all heiresses, so all such after as well as before the division of the land, since the reason of it holds good after as before:
saying, let them marry to whom they think best; whom they like best, who are most acceptable to them; as it was reasonable they should, and not have such forced upon them, whose persons were disagreeable to them:
only into the family of the tribe of their father shall they marry; they were to marry not only such as were of the tribe of Manasseh, but of their father’s family in that tribe; they could only marry into the family of the Hepherites; see Nu 26:32.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
6. Only to the family This is the only limitation of matrimony from expediency. The other restrictions relate to kindred, (Leviticus xviii,) and to the doomed Canaanites, intermarriage with whom was forbidden in the interest of loyalty to Jehovah. Exo 34:15.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Num 36:6. Let them marry to whom they think best, &c. The Lord, being pleased to approve by Moses the prudence of this representation, ordered, that the daughters should be permitted to have their choice in marriage among those who were descended from the same stock: only with these two limitations, that they might not marry a man of another tribe, nor a man of another family in their own tribe; and, accordingly, they did actually marry their cousins german. See the learned Remarks of Grotius upon this subject in his Notes on Mat 1:16. This law was made for the preservation of families as well as tribes, and was also the ground of the law which commanded a man to marry the wife of his brother who left no issue. Deu 25:5-6. See Rth 4:6. Plato took nearly the same measures for the preservation of families. He ordered that every heiress should marry her nearest of kin; De Leg. lib. 2: p. 924. There was a law, too, among the Athenians nearly similar. It ran thus: “Virgins, possessed of an inheritance, are not to marry out of their own kindred; it being equitable that they should bestow themselves, with their goods, upon him who is nearest to them by birth:” and the reason is the same with that given in the law of Moses, that the house and fortune of the deceased ought to remain in the family. But in case a man died intestate, his estate went to his daughter’s husband if he left no sons; and thus it might pass into another family, as appears from the titles of the same laws. See Petit, de Leg. Att. as before. The particular law, respecting Zelophehad’s daughters, is passed into a general law for heiresses in Num 36:8.; for it should be remembered, that the case concerned no other women than those who were heiresses.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Num 36:6 This [is] the thing which the LORD doth command concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, Let them marry to whom they think best; only to the family of the tribe of their father shall they marry.
Ver. 6. To whom they think best. ] See Gen 24:57-58 , See Trapp on “ Gen 24:57 “ See Trapp on “ Gen 24:58 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
marry: Heb. be wives
only to the family: Num 36:12, Gen 24:3, Gen 24:57, Gen 24:58, 2Co 6:14
Reciprocal: Exo 18:16 – make Lev 24:12 – that the mind of the Lord might be showed them 1Ch 23:22 – took them
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Num 36:6. Only to the family They were not confined to any particular person, but might have their choice among such as solicited their consent, who were descended from the same stock. But they were restrained from marrying men of another tribe or of another family of the same tribe; for God would have the inheritance of families, as well as of tribes, kept entire and distinct. And accordingly they actually did marry their cousin-germans, Num 36:11.