The Daughters of Zelophehad were five sisters – Mahlah, Noa, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah – mentioned in the biblical Book of Numbers. They lived during the Israelites' Exodus from Egypt as they prepared to enter the Promised Land and who raised before the Israelite community the legal case of a woman's right and obligation to inherit property in the absence of a male heir in the family. Zelophehad, a man of the Tribe of Manasseh, had five daughters but no sons, and therefore no male heirs.
The Daughters of Zelophehad (illustration from the 1908 Bible and Its Story Taught by One Thousand Picture Lessons)
The Daughters of Zelophehad (illustration from the 1897 Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us by Charles Foster)
The Book of Numbers is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah. The book has a long and complex history; its final form is possibly due to a Priestly redaction of a Yahwistic source made sometime in the early Persian period. The name of the book comes from the two censuses taken of the Israelites.
Priest, Levite, and furnishings of the Tabernacle
A Plague Inflicted on Israel While Eating the Quail (illustration from the 1728 Figures de la Bible)