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, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers’ households of the tribes of the sons of Israel apportioned to them as inheritances, 2by the 2lot of their inheritance, just as the Lord commanded 3through Moses, for the nine tribes and the half-tribe. 3For 4Moses had given the inheritance of the two tribes and the half-tribe beyond the Jordan; but 5he did not give an inheritance to the Levites among them. 4For the sons of Joseph were two tribes, 6Manasseh 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. 5The sons of Israel did exactly 7as the Lord had commanded Moses, and they divided the land.

6Then the sons of Judah approached Joshua in Gilgal, and 8Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know the word which the Lord spoke to Moses the man of God on account of 9you and me in Kadesh-barnea. 7I was forty years old when 10Moses 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 brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people 11melt with fear; but 12I followed the Lord my God fully. 9So Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘13The land on which your foot has walked shall certainly be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have followed the Lord my God fully.’ 10And now 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. 1114I am still as strong today as I was on the day Moses sent me; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for 15going 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 16Anakim were there, with great fortified cities; perhaps the Lord will be with me, and I will 17drive them out just as the Lord has spoken.”

13So Joshua 18blessed him and 19gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as an inheritance. 14Therefore, Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he followed the Lord God of Israel fully. 15Now the name of Hebron was previously 20Kiriath-arba; for Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim. 21Then the land was at rest from war.