John Gill Commentary Numbers 27

Then came the daughters of Zelophehad
Who are mentioned among the families of Manasseh, under that of the Hepherites, (Numbers 26:33) , their father being dead, and they having no brethren, when they heard the land was to be divided among those that were numbered, and who were only males of twenty years old and upwards, were concerned, lest they should have no share in the division of the land; and therefore came, according to the Targum of Jonathan, to the house of judgment, or court of judicature, where Moses, the princes were now sitting.

The genealogy of Zelophehad is given:

he was the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son
of Manasseh, the son of Joseph ;
by which it appears he was of the tribe of Manasseh, and of the fourth generation from him:

and these are the names of his daughters, Mahlah, Noah, ann Hoglah, and
Milcah, and Tirzah ;
in the same order their names are given in (Numbers 26:33) (Joshua 17:3) , but in (Numbers 36:11) , it is a little altered, Noah and Tirzah change places, which Jarchi says shows they were upon an equality one with another.

And they stood before Moses, and before Eleazar the priest, and
before the princes, and all the congregation Who were now sitting in court, to hear and try causes brought before them; here were Moses the chief magistrate, Eleazar the high priest, the princes of the several tribes, and the representatives of the whole congregation, or it may be the seventy elders; a very grand and august assembly, before whom these ladies appeared, and from whom they might expect to have justice done them:

by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation ; near to which this court was held, both for the convenience of the people, to apply to in case of need, when they came thither to worship, and of Moses, to seek the Lord in case of any difficulty that might arise, as now did:

saying ; as follows.

Our father died in the wilderness As all the generation of the children of Israel did, that came out of Egypt, who were twenty years old and upwards, excepting Joshua and Caleb.

and he was not in the company of them that gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Korah; which is observed, not so much to obtain the favour and good will of Moses as to clear the memory of their father from any reproach upon it, he dying in the wilderness; and chiefly to show that the claim of his posterity to a share in the land was not forfeited, he not being in that rebellion, nor in any other; so that he and his were never under any attainder.

but died in his own sin; which though common to all men, every man has his own peculiar way of sinning, and is himself only answerable for it, (Isaiah 53:6) (Ezekiel 18:4) he sinned alone, had no partner or confederate, whom he had drawn into any notorious and public sin, as mutiny to the prejudice of the state, and the rulers in it; so the Targum of Jonathan adds, ``and he did not cause others to sin,'' so Jarchi; some take him to be the sabbath breaker, (Numbers 15:32) , others that he was one of those that went up the hill, (Numbers 14:44Numbers 14:45) , most likely his sin was that of unbelief, disbelieving the spies that brought the good report of the land, and giving credit to those that brought an ill report of it; and so with the rest of the people murmured, for which his carcass, with others, fell in the wilderness, and entered not into the good land, through unbelief: a sin not punished in their children.

and had no sons. which was the reason of this application.

Why should the name of our father be done away from among his
family, because he has no son
&c.] Or be withdrawn, and his family lose their part and share on that account; this they thought was unreasonable: according to the Targum of Jonathan, to prevent the name of their father being lost, and his part in the land, their motion was, that their mother might marry their father's brother, according to the law in (Deuteronomy 25:5Deuteronomy 25:6) , with which Jarchi agrees; but it does not appear that that law was as yet in being; though how otherwise the name of their father would be preserved, than by raising up seed in that way, is not easy to say; except, as some think, it was done by a son of one of those heiresses, or by the first son of everyone of them, being called after the name of their grandfather Zelophehad, or their mother's grandfather Hepher; though the Jews ^F20 commonly by the "name" understand no other than the "inheritance", which seems to be confirmed by what follows:

give us therefore a possession among the brethren of our fathers ;
a part with their uncles, or their children; by which they express their faith that the children of Israel would inherit the land, though as yet it was not conquered, nor even entered into; and might signify, as some think, their concern to have a part and portion in the heavenly inheritance the land of Canaan was typical of; and if so, as Ainsworth observes, they may be considered as five wise virgins indeed.

FOOTNOTES:

• F20: Pesikta, T. Bab. Jebamot, fol. 49. 1. Moses Cotzensis Praecept. Affirm. 51. Apud Selden. de Succession. ad leg. Ebra. c. 14. p. 97, 98.

And Moses brought their cause before the Lord .
] For it seems it was too difficult for this court to decide; and it devolving upon Moses, as the president of it, and who only could have recourse to God at all times, he carried it to him and consulted with him about it:

this, as the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem say, was one of the four causes that came before Moses the prophet, that he solved according to the mind of the Lord, which he consulted; one was concerning the blasphemer, (Leviticus 24:11) , the other concerning those defiled by the dead, (Numbers 9:8) , the third concerning the sabbath breaker, (Numbers 15:34) and the fourth was this; (See Gill on Leviticus 24:12).