A. Preparation for the division of the land.
1. (1-2) The distribution of the land on the western side of the Jordan River.
These are the areas which the children of Israel inherited in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel distributed as an inheritance to them. Their inheritance was by lot, as the LORD had commanded by the hand of Moses, for the nine tribes and the half-tribe.
a. Which the children of Israel inherited in the land of Canaan: There is a sense in which Israel gained these lands by conquest. Yet in a greater sense they gained them by inheritance because God had promised the land by covenant to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Genesis 13:15, 17:8).
b. Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes: In this process, Joshua, Eleazar and representatives from each tribe came together to supervise the casting of lots, which was directed by the LORD.
i. “Eleazar was a priest, son of Aaron the high priest; and he had been designated earlier to help Joshua with the distribution, along with representatives from the twelve tribes (Numbers 32:28; 34:18–29).” (Howard)
ii. The heads of the fathers of the tribes: “These heads or princes were twelve, Joshua and Eleazar included; and the reader may find their names in Numbers 34:19–28. It is worthy of remark that no prince was taken from the tribes of Reuben and Gad, because these had already received their inheritance on the other side of Jordan, and therefore could not be interested in this division.” (Clarke)
c. Their inheritance was by lot: According to Ginzberg and others, ancient rabbis believed the division by lot happened in this manner: (1) The land west of the Jordan was divided into ten provinces and assigned a number for each province. Numbers one to ten were written on ten pieces of pottery or parchment and put in a container. (2) The names of the ten tribes receiving land on the west side of the Jordan were written on ten pieces of pottery or parchment, and these were put in a second container. (3) Joshua drew a piece from one container, and Eleazar drew a piece from the other container. (4) The tribe drawn received the land of the province drawn.
i. God had commanded that the land be divided by lot (Numbers 26:55-56, 33:54). This was a way to leave the choices up to God (Proverbs 16:33).
2. (3-5) An explanation of the nine and one-half tribes which received their inheritance on the west side of the Jordan.
For Moses had given the inheritance of the two tribes and the half-tribe on the other side of the Jordan; but to the Levites he had given no inheritance among them. For the children of Joseph were two tribes: Manasseh and Ephraim. And they gave no part to the Levites in the land, except cities to dwell in, with their common-lands for their livestock and their property. As the LORD had commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did; and they divided the land.
a. For the children of Joseph were two tribes: We commonly think and speak of the “twelve tribes of Israel” but there were thirteen. Although there were twelve sons of Jacob (Israel), the descendants of one of his sons, Joseph, divided into two tribes (Manasseh and Ephraim).
b. They divided the land: This explains why there are two and one-half tribes on the east side of the Jordan, nine and one-half tribes on the west side of the Jordan, and one tribe with no province as their inheritance.
B. Caleb’s inheritance.
1. (6-9) Caleb remembers Moses’ promise.
Then the children of Judah came to Joshua in Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him: “You know the word which the LORD said to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh Barnea. 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 back word to him as it was in my heart. Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the LORD my God. So Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children’s forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.’
a. Caleb the son of Jephunneh: Caleb, from the tribe of Judah, was one of the twelve spies who scouted out the land of Canaan some forty-five years before when Israel first was on the threshold of the Promised Land (Numbers 13:1-25). It was appropriate that when it came to the specific allotment of the land, Caleb received his first.
i. Caleb “appears before Joshua, accompanied by the head men of his tribe, whose presence expresses their official consent to the exceptional treatment of their tribesman, and urges his request in a little speech.” (Maclaren)
ii. Caleb may have come from a Gentile ancestry. He is called Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and may be linked to the Canaanite peoples mentioned in Genesis 15:18-21. Perhaps his father came to Egypt and married a woman from the tribe of Judah, giving Caleb identification with that tribe.
iii. “Never was he found among the grumblers or among those who were skeptical and unbelieving. Never was he found among the people who hankered again for the leeks and garlic of Egypt. Never was he found among those who disobeyed God or among the people who turned to idolatry.” (Redpath)
b. But I wholly followed the LORD my God: Caleb was one of only two spies to come back with a good report, a report of faith; believing that God had given Israel the land and would enable them to conquer it (Numbers 13:26-14:9). The other ten spies believed that Israel would be destroyed in the attempt to take Canaan, and the people of Israel believed the ten unbelieving spies.
i. The other faithful spy was Joshua. The ten faithless spies measured the giants against their own strength, but Joshua and Caleb measured the giants against God’s strength.
ii. Caleb remembered his brethren who went up with him were filled with unbelief, and they made the heart of the people melt. He recognized the damage that unbelief may do among the people of God, and the negative effect it may have on others.
iii. This was the cause of Israel’s forty years of waiting and wandering in the wilderness. God would not allow the generation of unbelief to enter Canaan, so He waited for them to die in the desert (Numbers 14:26-38). The only ones of age at the time of the rejection who successfully entered the Promised Land were Joshua and Caleb, the two faithful spies.
iv. So, it was fitting as Judah was the first tribe to receive its allotment on the west side of the Jordan, that Caleb be the first among the people of Judah to receive his inheritance.
c. So Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children’s forever’: Caleb called Joshua back to the promise Moses made in Deuteronomy 1:35-36. When Caleb said, I wholly followed the LORD my God, he wasn’t being proud. He was simply recalling what Moses had said about him.
i. It is fitting for God’s people today to imitate Caleb’s boldness in asking for what God promised him. God’s people may find this difficult to believe, but God appreciates this kind of boldness (Hebrews 4:16).
d. Because you have wholly followed the LORD my God: Caleb recalled what Moses said of him some fifty years before. Because Caleb repeated this phrase twice, it seems to have made a significant impression on him. This was appropriate because it is a great and important thing to wholly follow the LORD.
i. It may be observed that most successful people are those who have wholly given themselves over to something. It is appropriate for the people of God to wholly give themselves over to following the LORD.
ii. “Caleb was not being self-serving by claiming that he had fully followed the Lord; he was simply stating a fact that Moses also had recognized (see the words at the end of v. 9, which are found in the Lord’s mouth almost verbatim in Numbers 14:24 and in Moses’ mouth in Deuteronomy 1:36).” (Howard)
iii. “Wholeheartedly means with all your heart. It is the idea embodied in what Jesus called the first and greatest of the commandments: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’ (Matthew 22:37; see Deuteronomy 6:5).” (Boice)
2. (10-12) Caleb’s bold request.
And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, as He said, these forty-five years, ever since the LORD spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in. Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the LORD spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the LORD said.”
a. The LORD has kept me alive: This was not only of note because of Caleb’s many battles and advanced age. It was also of note because only he and Joshua were spared the judgment of death that fell upon all the generation of adults who left Egypt, the generation of unbelief.
i. “For forty years he had shared the wanderings and discipline of those who had not shared his faith…. He had apparently occupied a comparatively quiet and obscure position among his people, while his friend Joshua had been called into the place of conspicuous and powerful leadership.” (Morgan)
b. Here I am this day, eighty-five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me: Though he was advanced in age, Caleb’s strength was undiminished. At eighty-five he was out leading the fight, and not against just any foe, but against the mighty Anakim. He was willing to take the battle to great and fortified cities.
i. Caleb is a remarkable example of someone who aged in the best way. Spiritually speaking, he grew older but never weaker in his God. He didn’t look forward to a life of ease and indulgence in his elderly years.
ii. “It is the coward and the selfish man who are always looking for an easy place, where somebody else will do the work. This man felt that this miraculously prolonged life of his bound him to special service.” (Maclaren)
iii. Just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war: “Caleb drew on a strength that was irresistible because he had a faith that never wavered.” (Redpath)
iv. “Caleb’s words as to his undiminished strength were not meant for a boast. They express thankfulness and praise, and they are put as the ground of the request that he has to make.” (Maclaren)
v. “The drain of the years is amply met by the inflow of his all-sufficient grace. There is no reason why we should decline in usefulness and fruit-bearing with the increase of years; but the reverse.” (Meyer)
c. Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the LORD spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there: In fact, Caleb wanted the fight, practically demanding the mountain where difficult foes lived. He could have asked for an easy place, but he knew these foes must be faced and thought that he may as well be the one to do it. He didn’t leave the work to someone else, though he could have, especially at his age.
i. In Caleb’s short speech, he referred to what God said at least four times. He was a man who trusted God’s word, and who believed in God’s promise.
ii. “Old age is generally much more disposed to talk about its past victories than to fight new ones; to rest upon its arms, or upon its laurels, than to undertake fresh conflicts.” (Maclaren)
iii. “These factors—’hill country … Anakites … cities … large and fortified’—are the very things that the ten faithless spies used to discourage the Israelites from entering the Promised Land (Numbers 13:28–29). Caleb viewed them as a challenge.” (Madvig)
iv. Paul understood that a great and effective door of opportunity had opened to him – probably because there were many adversaries! (1 Corinthians 16:9) Caleb understood there were fearsome adversaries in the area of Hebron, so he said, “That’s my door of opportunity.”
v. The record of the defeat of the Anakim is given in Joshua 11:21-22. Some of them fled to the cities of Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod. It is likely that some of those Anakim who fled returned and occupied Hebron or some nearby areas.
3. (13-15) Joshua grants Caleb’s request.
And Joshua blessed him, and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as an inheritance. Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the LORD God of Israel. And the name of Hebron formerly was Kirjath Arba (Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim).
Then the land had rest from war.
a. Joshua blessed him: This means that Joshua approved Caleb’s request, praised him for the asking, and prayed that God’s blessing would be on him in the endeavor to take Hebron and its area.
i. “He approved of his petition: he did not blame him for being too hasty, nor bid him stay till himself were first served; but granted him Hebron.” (Trapp)
ii. “His ultimate reward has been long postponed but had never been uncertain.” (Morgan)
b. Because he wholly followed the LORD God of Israel: If all Israel had the heart and faith of Caleb, their conquest of Canaan would have been much more complete. There was a sense of complete commitment to God in Caleb.
i. Caleb was one of only three people in the Bible of whom it was said, they wholly followed the LORD. The others were Joshua (in partnership with Caleb, Numbers 32:11-12) and David (1 Kings 11:6). In the New Testament, the idea of wholly following the LORD is presented in passages such as Romans 12:1-2, which instruct the believer to present themselves to God as living sacrifices.
ii. “In the history of Caleb three things are illustrated concerning faith. Faith sees and dares in the day of overwhelming difficulty. Faith waits patiently through delays caused by failures in others. Faith acts with courage in the day of opportunity.” (Morgan)
c. Then the land had rest from war: Since Joshua is not necessarily presented in strict chronological order, it is difficult to know if this marked a temporary rest or a more permanent end to Israel’s wars of judgment and conquest. The statement is made here to connect the idea of Caleb’s bold, energetic, and enduring faith with the reward of rest from war.
i. “There were no more general wars; the inhabitants of Canaan collectively could make no longer any head, and when their confederacy was broken by the conquests of Joshua, he thought proper to divide the land, and let each tribe expel the ancient inhabitants that might still remain in its own territories. Hence the wars after this time were particular wars; there were no more general campaigns, as it was no longer necessary for the whole Israelitish body to act against an enemy now disjointed and broken.” (Clarke)
© 2024 The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – [email protected]