What Does Numbers 36:6 Mean in the King James?
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.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The daughters’ choice is honored, while the boundary keeps their inheritance within their father’s tribal lineage.
THE MEANING
You encounter both truths at once: the daughters may marry whom they see as good, and their marriage remains within their father’s tribe. Their judgment is not erased by the boundary; the boundary keeps the inheritance within its lineage. Choice and belonging stand together in one command.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that a real choice must be unrestricted: the daughters’ choice is affirmed even as its boundary is named.
THE ROOT
מַטֵּה
matteh
GROWS FROM
נטה
natah
To stretch out or extend; the related noun carries the sense of a staff or rod and also means tribe.
The KJV’s “tribe” can sound like a label for a group, but the Hebrew word also means “staff” or “rod.” The choice stays within the father’s lineage, keeping the inheritance with its tribal branch.
ALSO GROWS
matteh: Staff, rod; also tribe.
מַטֵּה
The word joins a concrete image of a staff with the lineage boundary named in the verse.
natah: To stretch out, extend, or incline.
נָטָה
This word family’s sense of extension illuminates the tribe as a continuing line of belonging.
THE PATTERN
Choice can be honored within a boundary that keeps an inheritance with its lineage.
The daughters of Zelophehad speak right: thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father’s brethren; and thou shalt cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto them.The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.THE THREAD
Neither shall the inheritance remove from one tribe to another tribe; but every one of the tribes of the children of Israel shall keep himself to his own inheritance.The Hebrew word translated “tribe” in both verses is מַטֵּה (matteh, “staff, rod; tribe”). This verse names what the boundary protects: the inheritance remains with its lineage.
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