The Daughters of Zelophehad…

Zelophehad (tzel-of-khad) is one of my favorite OT names. I prefer how it is usually pronounced: zel-off-uh-had.

We know nothing about him except that he was of the generation that died in the wilderness. He had no sons. Only 5 daughters – who are about to go into the promised land with no inheritance.

👩🏽👱🏽‍♀️👩🏽‍🦱👧🏽👱🏾‍♀️

I love the scene. These 5 young women have made an appeal and are standing “before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the tribal leaders, and the entire community at the entrance of the Tabernacle.”
‭‭Numbers‬ ‭27‬:‭2‬ ‭NLT‬‬

They’ve got everybody there trying to solve this conundrum. What’s to become of the portion of the land allotted to their father if he had no sons to inherit? Moses brings this case to the Lord…

“And the Lord replied to Moses, “The claim of the daughters of Zelophehad is legitimate. You must give them a grant of land along with their father’s relatives. Assign them the property that would have been given to their father.” Numbers‬ ‭27‬:‭6‬-‭7‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The Lord furthermore sets up an order of inheritance should cases like this arise in the future.

This isn’t feminism. It’s about tribes keeping their inheritance. But it does show that Yahweh values women and that their needs and worth are every bit as important to Him as that of a man.

You might wonder – Why on earth is this little story in the Bible? I don’t know. But it may have something to do with the fact that inheriting the land is about to get real. It’s not theory anymore. There are legal logistics to work out. 🧐

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Joshua Commissioned…

God tells Moses that he’s going to go up a mountain and die. ⛰️

Moses: (no comment, probably thinking, “I climbed Sinai 7 times. As long as I only have to climb this one once, ok”)

He doesn’t whine or complain. In fact, after those times of “Lord, just please kill me now,” I think he’s beyond ready to go. (But not yet. He’s got to write the whole book of Deuteronomy first.) Moses is a real leader. His number one concern is for the people. He knows they need leadership. So God chooses one of the two guys who came out of Egypt as adults and didn’t die because of unbelief. He’s also the guy who was up on the mountain with Moses, who was ready to take down giants, and a man whom the Holy Spirit already rests upon: Joshua.

Of all the things in this section about commissioning Joshua, this is what catches my eye:

“He [Joshua] will stand before Eleazar the priest, who will ask for him by the decision of the Urim before Yahweh. On his command they will go out, and at his command they will come in, both he and all of the Israelites with him, the entire community.”
‭‭Numbers‬ ‭27‬:‭21‬ ‭LEB‬‬

Remember the mysterious urim (you-reem) and thummim (thoo-meme)? They were objects placed in the chest pocket behind the breastplate on the priestly ephod (that purplely apron that went over the blue robe).

The word translated “decision” is mishpat, and it means like a verdict handed down. Somehow the urim (which is plural – so there’s a set of something) is capable of making Yahweh’s decision or verdict known.

The use of the word urim may be (and probably is) a shortened way of referring t both the urim and thummim.

From what I’ve read, many scholars think that they were possibly similar to dice with Hebrew letters on them. There are only 22 letters in the Hebrew Aleph-Bet.

So – if the priest pulls, say, 6 or 7 dodechahedron dice (there’s ya a fun word! Doe-decka-hee-dron: a 12-sided solid in which all 12 faces are pentagons) – anyway – if he has a handful of dice with letters and gives em a toss and sees what word or words they make…

It’s basically Boggle. Remember that game?

I’d REALLY like to know if the urim and thummim were like Boggle. I would’ve been pretty good at it. If I had been born the daughter of the High Priest…

Eleazer: Well, I need to see what Yahweh wants us to do so I can tell Joshua.

Me: Can I play, Dad? Pleeeeeeze?

Eleazer: I keep telling you, it’s not a game.

Me: It ought to be! It’s so much fun! Can I make my own version?

Eleazer: We do not make fake urim and thummim.

Me: But I won’t. I’ll make mine look different.

Eleazer: Ok. But you make them a different shape and you don’t try to practice divination with them!

Me: Divination?! Oh heavens no. I just want to play word games.

Eleazer: You, child, boggle my mind…

Seems a likely enough origin story, right? I’m pretty sure that’s how we got Boggle.

Now I’ve ruined it. Every time we read about “inquiring of the Lord by urim” we’re all gonna picture the High Priest playing Boggle.

🎲🎲⏳