Caleb’s Request

14 Now these are the territories which the sons of Israel inherited in the land of Canaan, which ^(A)Eleazar 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, ² by the ^(B)lot of their inheritance, just as the Lord commanded ^[a]through Moses, for the nine tribes and the half-tribe. ³ For ^(C)Moses had given the inheritance of the two tribes and the half-tribe beyond the Jordan; but ^(D)he did not give an inheritance to the Levites among them. ⁴ For the sons of Joseph were two tribes, ^(E)Manasseh 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. ⁵ The sons of Israel did exactly ^(F)as the Lord had commanded Moses, and they divided the land.

⁶ Then the sons of Judah approached Joshua in Gilgal, and ^(G)Caleb 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 ^[b]you and me in Kadesh-barnea. ⁷ I was forty years old when ^(H)Moses 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. ⁸ Nevertheless my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people ^[c]melt with fear; but ^(I)I followed the Lord my God fully. ⁹ So Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘^(J)The 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.’ ¹⁰ And 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. ^11 (K)I 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 ^(L)going out and coming in. ¹² Now then, give me this hill country about which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day that ^(M)Anakim were there, with great fortified cities; perhaps the Lord will be with me, and I will ^[d]drive them out just as the Lord has spoken.”

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