Joshua 14

Caleb’s Request

1Now these are the territories which the sons of Israel inherited in the land of Canaan, which 1Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the 2households of the tribes of the sons of Israel apportioned to them for an inheritance, 2by the 3lot of their inheritance, as the Lord commanded 4through Moses, for the nine tribes and the half-tribe. 3For 5Moses had given the inheritance of the two tribes and the half-tribe beyond the Jordan; but 6he did not give an inheritance to the Levites among them. 4For the sons of Joseph were two tribes, 7Manasseh and Ephraim, and they did not give a portion to the Levites in the land, except cities to live in, with their pasture lands for their livestock and for their property. 5Thus the sons of Israel did just 8as the Lord had commanded Moses, and they divided the land.

6Then the sons of Judah drew near to Joshua in Gilgal, and 9Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know the word which the Lord spoke to Moses the man of God concerning 10you and me in Kadesh-barnea. 7I was forty years old when 11Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought word back to him as it was in my heart. 8Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people 12melt with fear; but 13I followed the Lord my God fully. 9So Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely 14the land on which your foot has trodden will be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have followed the Lord my God fully.’ 10Now behold, the Lord has let me live, just as He spoke, these forty-five years, from the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, when Israel walked in the wilderness; and now behold, I am eighty-five years old today. 1115I am still as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for 16going out and coming in. 12Now then, give me this hill country about which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day that 17Anakim were there, with great fortified cities; perhaps the Lord will be with me, and I will 18drive them out as the Lord has spoken.”

13So Joshua 19blessed him and 20gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. 14Therefore, Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite until this day, because he followed the Lord God of Israel fully. 15Now the name of Hebron was formerly 21Kiriath-arba; for Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim. 22Then the land had rest from war.