The Daughters of Zelophehad: A Historical-Geographical Approach

The Rabbis (see Rashi’s comment) added another motivation, namely, their love and bond to the Land of Israel as defined in the Hebrew value concept ḥibbat Eretz-Yisrael, the love of the Land of Israel.

See, for example, Zaphira Ben Barak, “פרשת בנות צלפחד בזיקה לתעודה חדשה מנוזי” [The Case of the Daughters of Zelophehad in Light of a New Document from Nuzi], in שנתון למקרא ולחקר המזרח הקדום [Shnaton: An Annual for Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies] (1978): 116–123. 

Yohanan Aharoni, The Land of the Bible: A Historical Geography (Revised and enlarged edition (Philadelphia, Westminster Press, 1979), 356-368; Anson F. Rainey, The Sacred Bridge (Jerusalem, Carta, 2006), 221-222.

“For the land stands forever, together with most of the names, and the change in names is very slight”; “For I tell you, concerning the names of villages and rivers written in the sacred writings, both written and oral, that little has changed of their names among the Ishmaelites,” quoted from Yoel Elitzur, Ancient Place Names in the Holy Land – Preservation and History (Jerusalem/Winona Lake, 2004), 1.

[5] Alexander H. Joffe, “Tel el Far`ah (north),” in Eric M. Meyers, (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East vol2 (Oxford/New York, Oxford University Press, 1997), 303-304.

Aharoni, op.cit., p. 313.

Elijah the Gileadite “came across” [the Jordan river] to anoint Elisha, who was from Abel Meholah, which points of the proximity of the city to this body of water (1 Kgs 19:16-21). 

2 Samuel 21:8 has him married to Michal as opposed to Meirav.

Arye Bornstein, “The Economy of the Manassite Territory in Light of the Samaria Ostraca”, in Zev H. Erlich and Yaacov Eshel (eds), Judea and Samaria Research Studies(Jerusalem, 1992), vol.1, p.91 (Hebrew)

Aaron Demsky, “The Genealogies of Manasseh and the Location of the Territory of Milkah the Daughter of Zelophehad,” Eretz-Israel 16 (1982): 70–75 [Hebrew].

For more on this text, see my,  “The Chronicler’s Genealogy of Manasseh,” TheTorah.com(2019, forthcoming).

Note the flexibility of this name in Judean clan names I Chron 2:47: יהדי; 4, 18: אשתו היהדיה; 4,19: אשת הודיה.

Yigael Yadin, “Aha of Yahud”, Bulletin of the Israel Exploration Society 16 (1951): 61–63 [Hebrew].

Note the Arab tendency to identify these names with biblical figures. See also the neighboring townlet Nebi Lawin, i.e., Levi, though this was probably named for Livia, Augustus Caesar’s wife.

The list continues with:

Aaron Demsky, “The Permitted Villages of Sebaste in the Rehob Mosaic,” IEJ 29, pp. 182-93. (A shortened Hebrew version appeared in Qadmoniot 11 (1979), fascicles 42-43, pp. 75-77.)

The list follows a counter-clockwise direction. Sites #11-18 cover the southern side of this district and overlap the proposed area given to the sisters in the biblical period. These Byzantine sites include Shelata (Silaat ad- Dahr), Pentakomwatah (el-Fundakomiyeh), Leviah: (Nebi Lawin), Pardeseliah (Khirbet el Faresiyeh), Yeset (Yasid), Arbarnurin (no identification), and Kfar Yehudit (Kh. Yehudah).