Big Idea: God’s inheritance is assured.

Understanding the Text

The book of Numbers concludes by returning to the story of the daughters of Zelophehad, which begins in Numbers 27. Why does the narrator divide this story into two episodes, one in Numbers 27 and another in Numbers 36? As noted earlier, Alan Kam-Yau Chan argues persuasively that the reason is structural: the first part of Numbers is bracketed by the two censuses (Num. 1–4; 26), whereas the second half (Num. 27–36) is bracketed by the two accounts of the daughters of Zelophehad (Num. 27:1–8; 36:1–13), with Numbers 26:33 (“Zelophehad son of Hepher had no sons; he had only daughters, whose names were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milkah and Tirzah”) serving as the linchpin between the two sets of brackets.1

Also, all the material betw…