Daughters of Zelophehad: Bible
According to God’s original decree, the promised land was to be apportioned according to the “number of names” of members of the second generation; since only men were counted in the census, Zelophehad’s five daughters would be left without an inheritance. When they appeal this regulation, God agrees to implement their proposal. The story of the five daughters of Zelophehad provides legitimation of a limited right of Israelite women to inherit land. It also places specific marriage restrictions upon any women who inherit under this right. The story celebrates women’s boldness and at the same time offers comfort for men who have the misfortune (from the Bible’s androcentric point of view) to have no sons.
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Ben-Barak, Zafrira. Inheritance by Daughters in Israel and the Ancient Near East: a Social, Legal and Ideological Revolution. Jaffa: Archaeological Center Publications, 2006.
Gafney, Wilda C. Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Throne. Louisville: Westminster, 2017.
Graham, M. Patrick “Mahlah.” Anchor Bible Dictionary, edited by David Noel Freedman, 4:475–76. New York: 1992.
Ilan, Tal. “The Daughters of Zelophehad and Women's Inheritance: The Biblical Injunction and Its Outcome.” In Exodus to Deuteronomy: a Feminist Companion to the Bible, edited by Athalya Brenner, 176-186. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000.
Meyers, Carol, General Editor. Women in Scripture. New York: 2000.
Russaw, Kimberly D. Daughters in the Hebrew Bible. London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018.
Sakenfeld, Katharine Doob. “Feminist Biblical Interpretation.” Theology Today 46 (1989): 154–168.
Shemesh, Yael. “A Gender Perspective on the Daughters of Zelophehad : Bible, Talmudic Midrash, and Modern Feminist Midrash.” Biblical Interpretation 15:1 (2007), 80–109.
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