TO CLING — to stick fast to something and not be parted from it. ⭐ It is the marriage verb: Genesis 2:24, already on these pages, is where a man leaves his father and mother and CLINGS to his wife, and Ruth 1:14 is where Ruth clings to Naomi when Orpah lets go. ⚠ Numbers 36:7 and 36:9 do something strange with it: in a chapter entirely about who may marry whom, the clinging that gets legislated is a man to a field — the children of Israel shall cling, each one, to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. ⚠ Only three of the thirteen versions consulted let a reader see that, because it takes one word used in both places: the ASV (‘cleave’ twice), the TNM 1987 («adherirse» twice) and the RV 1909 («allegarse» twice). The KJV gave English ‘cleave unto his wife’ and then declined to reuse it, printing ‘keep himself to the inheritance’; the NWT 1984 does the reverse, ‘cleave’ at Numbers and ‘stick to’ at Genesis. ⚠ The same three letters also make a hiphil meaning to overtake in a chase (1 Samuel 31:2, of the Philistines catching Saul), so a bare consonantal search returns pursuers as well as spouses. → first discussed at Num 36:7