Bava Batra 118a — the Talmud in English

But according to the one who says, "for those who entered the land

the land was divided

," what is the meaning of "to the numerous you shall increase his inheritance,"

for it cannot be explained as: for the one who is numerous now, you shall increase his inheritance, and for the one who is few now, you shall decrease his inheritance—for that is logical, and a verse is not needed?

A difficulty.

And

further,

Rav Pappa said to Abaye: Granted, according to the one who says "for those who went out of Egypt," this is why

the daughters of Zelophehad

cried out, "Why should the name of our father be diminished from within his family"—that is, from the portion that he merited in the Land of Israel—"for he has no son"; for if he had had a son, he would have inherited his portion.

But according to the one who says "for those who entered the land

the land was divided

," why did they cry out? Zelophehad is not here

—Zelophehad was not among those who entered the land—

to take

a portion in the land?

And

even if he had had a son, he would not have taken anything on behalf of his father; and even on his own behalf he would not have taken, had he been under twenty years old when he entered the land?

Rather,

it must be said that the one who says

"for

those who entered the land the land was divided" also holds the law of

"return,"

that is, that they return to their fathers everything that they took, and then inherit again according to the law. [As the words of Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar above].

And

if so, Zelophehad too had a portion in the land: if the sons of Hepher’s sons entered the land and took a portion, and returned it to Hepher, their grandfather, and the sons of Hepher then inherited from him and divided it equally among themselves, it follows that Zelophehad too took a portion in the land.

Therefore his daughters too demanded

to take from the property of Hepher

their father’s father, according to the law of a son’s daughter who inherits together with the brothers.

We raise a further objection:

Granted, according to the one who says "for those who went out of Egypt," this is why the sons of Joseph cried out.

As follows:

For it is written

(Joshua 17:14–15),

"And the sons of Joseph spoke

to Joshua, saying: Why have you given me one lot and one portion as an inheritance, while I am a numerous people, since the Lord has blessed me until now?"

And Joshua said to them: If you are a numerous people, go up to the forest and clear a place for yourself there in the land of the Perizzite and the Rephaim, for Mount Ephraim is too narrow for you."

And according to the one who says "for those who went out of Egypt," it is well: perhaps at the time of the Exodus from Egypt they were few, and they became numerous when they entered the land, and their inheritance was found to be small according to the number of their persons.

But according to the one who says "for those who entered the land," what are they crying out about?

Did not

all of them take

a portion in the land at the time of their entry?

And the Gemara answers:

Because there were many dependents among them.

That is, there were many orphans among them who were under twenty years old when they entered the land, and they had no father who entered the land and took a portion, nor any heir who had gone out of Egypt from whom they could take by means of return.

Abaye said: Learn from this that there was not a single one who did not take.

—There was not found among all Israel even one orphan who did not take a portion in the land—

for if it entered your mind that there was one who did not take, he should have cried out

like the daughters of Zelophehad and the sons of Joseph.

And if you would say,

indeed there were orphans who did not take a portion in the land, and they cried out about this, but their outcry was not written in the Torah, since

only one who

cried out and benefited

and it helped him

—his outcry helped him—

the verse wrote it,

but one

who cried out and did not benefit, the verse did not write it.

But the sons of Joseph cried out and did not benefit,

—and what Joshua said to them, "If you are a numerous people, go up to the forest and clear a place for yourself there," does not mean that he gave them from the inheritance of another tribe, for he had no authority to take anything unjustly from the inheritance of another tribe; rather, it was needed for a derivation, as below—

and

nevertheless

the verse wrote them!

And it is proven that, apart from the sons of Joseph, there was not found even one orphan who did not take a portion in the land, whether through himself or through one of his fathers who bequeathed him a portion by means of return, as above.

And we reject this: one must in fact say as we said above, that one who cried out and did not benefit, the verse did not write him.

And as for what we raised from the sons of Joseph, whom Scripture wrote about even though their outcry did not help them,

it may be said that

there it was good advice that it informs us of, for a person ought to guard himself against the evil eye.

—A person must be careful of the evil eye—

And this is what Joshua said to them. For it is written: "And Joshua said to them: If you are a numerous people, go up to the forest,"

He said to them,

I cannot increase your inheritance; however, I have good advice for you: if you are a numerous people,

go and hide yourselves in the forests, so that the evil eye will not rule over you.