Caleb Is Given Hebron

The division of the land took place at Gilgal. Eleazar the priest, Joshua, and the tribal leaders assigned portions to the nine and a half tribes settling west of the Jordan. The Levites received towns with pasturelands rather than a defined territory. The tribes on the east side had already received their share under Moses.

Men from Judah came with Caleb son of Jephunneh. He did not wait for the lot. He asked Joshua for the land promised to him at Kadesh-barnea and recalled what the Lord had said about him there.

Caleb said that he was forty when Moses sent him to spy out the land. He reported what he saw plainly and did not follow those who discouraged the people. Because he remained loyal to the Lord, Moses swore that the land he had walked would belong to him and to his descendants.

He held to that promise through the years in the wilderness, through the passing of that generation, and through the battles that followed. Now he was eighty-five. He said the Lord had kept him alive and that he remained as capable as before, able to go out and come in, ready for war.

He asked for the hill country mentioned back then. He knew the Anakim lived there and that their cities were fortified. He did not ignore that. He said that if the Lord was with him, he would drive them out.

Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron to him as his inheritance. No lot was cast. Joshua acknowledged the earlier promise and confirmed it. Hebron, once called Kiriath-arba, became Caleb’s. Arba had been the greatest among the Anakim.

The land had rest from war, though Caleb still had work to do. He chose ground that remained to be taken, and he went to take it.