It is approximately 1406 b.c. on the arid plains of Moab. Wind pushes heavy grit across the encampment. Five women stand outside a sprawling goat-hair tent to address the tribal council. The surrounding multitude suffers from profound physical exhaustion after forty years of marching. Guards grip bronze weapons tightly to suppress the constant threat of attack. Consolation exists solely in the promise of claiming permanent acreage across the river.
The daughters of Zelophehad demand their father's property rights. Customary law dictates that land transfers strictly through male heirs. These women challenge this structural flaw in the legal code. Moses takes the case to the God of the spirits of all flesh. The resulting legal ruling alters property mechanics. It dictates that land passes to daughters when no sons exist. Moses then receives his final marching orders. He climbs the jagged ridge of Abarim to survey the territory he will never enter. Joshua is appointed as the new commander.
Property lines dictate human survival. A carved limestone marker secures water and grain for a family lineage. The shifting of inheritance laws demonstrates a basic fact of human behavior. People will aggressively secure their physical footprint in the dirt. Joshua receives authority through the laying on of hands and the casting of the Urim. The Urim consisted of sacred lots carried in a breastpiece to calculate military tactics. This physical transfer of command prevents a vacuum of power.
A family without a plot of earth is quickly scattered by the wind.
The legal precedent established on those plains dictated property disputes in the region for centuries. The leadership transition set the mechanics for a brutal military conquest.