Hepher

Hepher was one of the thirty-one Canaanite city-state kingdoms that Joshua defeated west of the Jordan (Joshua 12:17). It later became the ancestral district of the Manassite clan of Hepher — most famously preserving the memory of Zelophehad, who had no sons but only five daughters: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah (Numbers 26:32-33). When their father died in the wilderness, the daughters of Zelophehad came forward at the tabernacle and petitioned Moses to grant them their fathers inheritance, since he had no son to carry the name forward. Moses brought their case before the Lord, who ruled that the daughters were right — and Israelite inheritance law was forever amended so that a man without sons would have his estate pass to his daughters (Numbers 27:1-11, 36:1-12, Joshua 17:3-6). Hepher itself was one of the towns of Solomon's third administrative district in the Sharon Plain (1 Kings 4:10), generally identified with Tell el-Muhaffar near Caesarea.