Summary of Allocations

1This is what the Israelis inherited in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, Nun’s son Joshua, and the heads of the families of the Israelis allotted to them as an inheritance 2by lot, just as the LORD commanded through Moses for the nine tribes and the half-tribe, 3since Moses had given the inheritance of the two tribes and the half-tribe across the Jordan River. However, he did not give an inheritance to the descendants of Levi who lived among them, 4since the descendants of Joseph constituted two tribes—Manasseh and Ephraim. They did not allot a portion to the descendants of Levi in the land, since they were givena cities to live in, along with pastures for their livestock and property. 5So the Israelis did just as the LORD had commanded Moses—they divided the land.

Caleb’s Request

(Judges 1:20)

6After this, the descendants of Judah approached Joshua in Gilgal. Jephunneh the Kenizzite’s son Caleb told him, “You know the promise that the LORD gave Moses the man of God concerning the two of us in Kadesh-barnea. 7I was 40 years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to scout the land. I brought back an honest reportb to him. 8As it happened, my fellow Israelis who went up with me terrified the people, but I fully followed the LORD my God. 9Moses made a promise to me on that day when he said, ‘The land that you covered on foot will certainly be your inheritance. It will belong to your descendants forever, because you have fully followed the LORD my God.’

10“Look howc the LORD has let me survive, as you can see, these 45 years since the time when the LORD said this through Moses, while Israel was wandering through the wilderness. And look! I’m here today—my eighty-fifth birthday! 11I’m still as strong today as I was the day Moses commissioned me. I’m as strong today as I was then, and I can go out to battle and come back successful. 12Now then, give me that hill country about which the LORD spoke back on that day, because you yourself heard back then that the Anakimd were there, with great reinforced cities. Perhaps the LORD will be with me and I will expel them, just as the LORD said.”

13So Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron to Jephunneh’s son Caleb for his inheritance. 14Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Jephunneh the Kenizzite’s son Caleb, and it remains so today, because he fully followed the LORD God of Israel. 15Hebron used to be known as Kiriath-arba, after the greatest man among the Anakim.e After all of this, the land enjoyed rest from war.