Joshua 14:6-15--Caleb's Request and Inheritance

Joshua 14:6-15
English Standard Version

Caleb's Request and Inheritance
6 Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me. 7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. 8 But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the LORD my God. 9 And Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.’ 10 And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. 11 I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. 12 So now give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said.”

​13 Then Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. 14 Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the LORD, the God of Israel. 15 Now the name of Hebron formerly was Kiriath-arba. (Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim.) And the land had rest from war.

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Remember in Joshua 13 right before the division of the Land how there was a part about Land that still needed to be conquered?  The tribe of Judah, led by Caleb, the only other to survive from the original generation that came out of Egypt and was one of the twelve spies along with Joshua, came to Joshua to ask for the hill country where there were still giants to be fought.  Though he too was old, 85 years old to be precise, he was not ready to "settle down" and retire.  He would continue to lead his people, the tribe from which David and all the rightful kings of Israel including the King of King and Lord of Lord would come, to keep fighting because Caleb desired to wholly follow the LORD just as he did in Kadesh-barnea.

So Joshua blessed Caleb and gave him specifically the city of Hebron as an inheritance for Caleb and all his descendants.  The record indicates that the name of the city used to be Kiriath-arba.  This was also the place where Sarah died and the tome of the patriarchs is there.  Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Leah, and Joseph were all buried there.  Once Caleb moved there there was "peace through strength" for none of the enemies dared attack while he was still alive because the LORD had given him strength and vigor equivalent of that to when he was only 40 years old and he was now 85.

Next time we'll see the entire allotment for the tribe of Judah.  This is the only request that the LORD seemed to honor for the Land in the west because of Caleb's faithful service and his desire to continue to fight the unfought battles.  It is from these area, the land allotted to Judah where Bethlehem and Jerusalem will be--the places where Jesus was born and would die.