The Daughters of Zelophehad בנות צלפחד

The land was divided among the tribes through the male line, and Zelophehad of the tribe of Manasseh had no sons. His five daughters stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the chieftains and the whole assembly — at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, that is, in the highest place there was — and put the question directly: why should our father's name be taken from his family because he had no son? Give us a holding among our father's brothers.

Moses "brought their case before the LORD." The answer is quoted verbatim and reads as an acknowledgement that they were right: "the daughters of Zelophehad speak rightly; give them a holding and transfer their father's portion to them."

Out of the particular case a general law immediately followed: if a man has no son, the holding passes to his daughter; then to his brothers; then to his uncles. That is the order of inheritance as written in the Torah.

Later the heads of the tribe raised an objection: if the daughters marry into another tribe, the holding will leave Manasseh. That too is answered, in a chapter of its own: the sisters are free to marry whom they wish within their own tribe — and it is recorded there that they did so.

The Talmud (Bava Batra 119b) speaks of them briefly and without qualification: "the daughters of Zelophehad are wise, they are interpreters, and they are righteous" — they chose their moment, their place and their words.