There is a rather obscure and quite marvelous story buried in the 27th chapter of the book of Numbers. It does not appear in the Revised Common Lectionary so there are plenty of Christians who worship regularly who aren’t familiar with the story. There are plenty of preachers who don’t know the story. There are plenty of people who have read the entire bible, those who have read through the bible in a year once or more who don’t remember the story.

It is the story of five sisters. Like many other stories of the Hebrew scriptures, it comes from a very patriarchal culture. These are the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as recounted by generations of descendants in a time when lineage was mostly traced from father to son. There are scores of stories in the Torah - the first five books of a contemporary bible - that don’t tell of female characters and when they do the women in the stories are rarely given names. But this story stands out in part because the five sisters are named: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. Their lineage is also reported. They are the daughters of Zelophehad. Zelophehad was the son of Heepher, son of Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manasseh, son of Jospeh. Joseph, of course is a famous son of Jacob, about whom there are a lot of stories in the historical books of the section of scriptures commonly called the “Old Testament.”

The story takes place in the early days of the organization of the Hebrew people after they were brought out of slavery in Egypt. In those days the wandering tribe s were few in number and the people followed Moses as they lived a nomadic life between the time the people had lived in Egypt and the time they were allowed to enter the promised land. In the early days of that time, before judges were named to assist the leaders, people appealed directly to Moses for the resolution of conflict. The sisters appeared before Moses with a question about inheritance.

As I said, this was a time of patriarchy. Wealth traveled from father to son. Women had access to the resources of previous generations primarily through the relationship of marriage. If a woman was unmarried and had no sons she didn’t have formal property rights. The case that the five daughters brought before Moses had to do with naming rights. The father of the five daughters, Zelophehad, had died when the people were in the wilderness. The sisters had no brothers. Tradition said that if a man died, his inheritance passed to the first-born son. If there was no son, then to the brothers of the deceased. If there were no brothers, then to the uncles, and if no uncles then the inheritance was to be distributed to the nearest kinsman. There was no mention of property rights of the women in the family in the tradition.

However, Moses also know of another obscure law that had remained with the people alongside the patriarchal tradition. This obscure law allowed for daughters to take the name of their father and to obtain a portion of inheritance, stating that if a man dies and has a daughter but no son then the inheritance should pass to the daughter. In the story, Moses prays to God to discern the resolution to the conflict. In this part of the bible God is known by the name designated by four consonants, YHWH. This is sometimes referred to as the name of God.

After praying, Moses rules that the daughters should receive the inheritance. The chapter goes on to report of Moses being allowed to see the promised land, but not to enter it. There is no more mention of the five sisters in scripture.

Like all biblical stories, the question arises, “Why did our people remember and treasure this story?” Somehow this story was kept for generations of oral tradition and eventually it became part of scripture. There must have been hundreds and thousands of stories that didn’t get remembered. The ones that have become a part of our scripture must have been retained for some reason. In the case of the story of the five sisters I think that one reason it was kept and treasured is that it has a surprising outcome.

In a very patriarchal culture, one might expect that the women would have been passed over when it came to their father’s inheritance. Like tradition, whatever wealth he had and his name, would have been given to his brothers, uncles, or kinsmen without any mention of the daughters. Somehow, however, the daughters dared to expect another outcome enough to raise an appeal to Moses and Moses doesn’t side with all of the tradition, but also comes up with a lesser known rule, forged somewhere in the experience of the people of Israel, that allowed the inheritance to pass to the sisters. Their appeal is heard by Moses and he is moved enough to come up with a solution for them.

The story stands out from what may have been hundreds of cases heard by Moses that ended up with inheritance following the typical father to son route. Not only did the sisters receive their inheritance and retain the name of their father, they also had their names remember by sacred history. Although this story is sometimes called the daughters of Zelophehad they are more than just daughters. They have their own unique names. They are Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

It may be that the rulings of judges that are most remembered and treasured are the ones that are unexpected. Hundreds of people appeal to judges expecting the judges to hold with tradition and for no surprises to come. Yet, from time to time, the administration of justice brings surprising outcomes.

The end of the current term of the Supreme Court of the United States has come with few surprises. The conservative super majority in the court, manipulated by Senate power brokers and more than a few dirty tricks, delivered judgments that were expected. Their legacy may not be particularly remembered generations from now. They have been doing what was expected and ruling as expected. It remains to be seen what judgements they render that are truly memorable and will be treasured by those who come hundreds and thousands of years from now. Only time will tell for sure. However, I suspect that history will favor judgments that bring unexpected justice - judgments that favor those who might otherwise be discounted and forgotten. Such judgments are rare - rare enough to be remembered.