Numbers — Chapter 27

The daughters of Zelophehad petition for their father's inheritance; Lapide praises their just and prudent appeal to Moses, Eleazar, and the princes at the Tabernacle door — a model of lawful recourse to legitimate authority.

God approves their petition: \"The daughters of Zelophehad speak what is just; give them a possession among the brethren of their father and transfer their father's inheritance to them.\" God's law is not limited by human legal custom when justice demands.

Moses prays for a successor: \"Let the Lord God of the spirits of all flesh provide a man who may be over this multitude... that the congregation be not as sheep without a shepherd.\" The pastoral concern of the dying leader.

God designates Joshua, \"a man in whom the Spirit is,\" to succeed Moses; Moses lays his hands on Joshua before all the congregation — the laying on of hands as the rite of conferring authority and the Spirit.