hat there was an eminent man of their tribe dead,
whose name was Zelophehad, who left no male children, but left
daughters; and asked him whether these daughters might inherit his land
or not. He made this answer, That if they shall marry into their own
tribe, they shall carry their estate along with them; but if they
dispose of themselves in marriage to men of another tribe, they shall
leave their inheritance in their father's tribe. And then it was that
Moses ordained, that every one's inheritance should continue in his own
tribe.

CHAPTER 8. The Polity Settled By Moses; And How He Disappeared From
Among Mankind.

1. When forty years were completed, within thirty days, Moses gathered
the congregation together near Jordan, where the city Abila now stands,
a place full of palm-trees; and all the people being come together, he
spake thus to them:--

2. "O you Israelites and fellow soldiers, who have been partners with
me in this long and uneasy journey; since it is now the will of God,
and the course of old age, at a hundred and twenty, requires it that I
should depart out of this life; and since God has forbidden me to be a
patron or an assistant to you in what remains to be done beyond Jordan;
I thought it reasonable not to leave off my endeavors even now for your
happiness, but to do my utmost to procure for you the eternal enjoyment
of good things, and a memorial for myself, when you shall be in the
fruition of great plenty and prosperity. Come, therefore, let me
suggest to you by what means you may be happy, and may leave an eternal
prosperous possession thereof to your children after you, and then let
me thus go out of the world; and I cannot but deserve to be believed by
you, both on account of the great things I have already done for you,
and because, when souls are about to leave the body, they speak with
the sincerest freedom. O children of Israel! there is but one source of
happiness for all mankind, the favor of God [15] for he alone is able
to give good things to those that deserve them, and to deprive those
of them that sin against him; towards whom, if you behave yourselves
according to his will, and according to what I, who well understand his
mind, do exhort you to, you will both be esteemed blessed, and will be
admired by all men; and will never come into misfortunes, nor cease to
be happy: you will then preserve the possession of the good things you
already have, and will quickly obtain thos