TEXT [Commentary]

2.   Caleb’s witness to God’s faithfulness (14:6-12)

6 A delegation from the tribe of Judah, led by Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, came to Joshua at Gilgal. Caleb said to Joshua, “Remember what the LORD said to Moses, the man of God, about you and me when we were at Kadesh-barnea. 7 I was forty years old when Moses, the servant of the LORD, sent me from Kadesh-barnea to explore the land of Canaan. I returned and gave an honest report, 8 but my brothers who went with me frightened the people from entering the Promised Land. For my part, I wholeheartedly followed the LORD my God. 9 So that day Moses solemnly promised me, ‘The land of Canaan on which you were just walking will be your grant of land and that of your descendants forever, because you wholeheartedly followed the LORD my God.’

10 “Now, as you can see, the LORD has kept me alive and well as he promised for all these forty-five years since Moses made this promise—even while Israel wandered in the wilderness. Today I am eighty-five years old. 11 I am as strong now as I was when Moses sent me on that journey, and I can still travel and fight as well as I could then. 12 So give me the hill country that the LORD promised me. You will remember that as scouts we found the descendants of Anak living there in great, walled towns. But if the LORD is with me, I will drive them out of the land, just as the LORD said.”

NOTES

14:6 Caleb . . . Kenizzite. The Kenizzites were not Israelites originally (Gen 15:19); Gen 36:11 records a Kenaz, grandson of Esau. With only a handful of references, it is not possible to say with certainty whether Caleb was descended from Esau, and if so, how the Kenizzites became attached to Judah. (Did Caleb’s father Jephunneh marry a Judean woman?) This makes it all the more remarkable that Caleb represented Judah in the mission to spy out the land (Num 13:6).

Gilgal. Apparently, Israel’s main camp remained at Gilgal through the end of the allotment of the tribal territories. Gilgal has not been certainly identified, though several locations have been suggested (cf. Boling 1982:191-192).

Kadesh-barnea. This was Israel’s encampment through most of the 38 years between their leaving Sinai and their entrance into Canaan. It is located at ‘Ain el-Qudeirat, near the border between Canaan and the northeastern Sinai; the name is preserved at nearby ‘Ain Qedeis (Rainey and Notley 2006:121).

14:7 an honest report. Lit., “a word just as was with [in] my heart.”

14:8 frightened the people. Lit., “melted the heart of the people [with fear].”

14:11 travel and fight. Lit., “for war, and for going out, and for coming in,”—i.e., for the ordinary and extraordinary pursuits of life.

14:12 the descendants of Anak. See note on 11:21.

COMMENTARY [Text]

Following the short introduction, this long section describing the allotment of tribal lands west of the Jordan is framed by the assignment of land to Caleb at the beginning, and to Joshua at the end. Of the 12 men, one from each tribe, whom Moses had sent to scout the land of Canaan, only Caleb and Joshua had been confident Israel could take it (Num 13:30; 14:6-9). The rest of their generation died in the wilderness as God had decreed (Num 14:20-23), but Joshua and Caleb entered Canaan, took part in its conquest, and were rewarded for their faithfulness and trust in God by receiving their own portions of land.

It is possible that Caleb’s ancestry was within the tribe of Judah (Woudstra 1981:227). However, he is referred to as “the Kenizzite” (14:6) here and elsewhere, and the Kenizzites usually are regarded as a clan that attached itself to Judah, rather than being ethnically Judahite from the beginning. If that is the case, Caleb’s faith as an “outsider” should have been an example to his fellow spies, but in their own lack of faith and vision they did not respond positively to his faith. But Caleb expressed no lingering rancor toward the other, now deceased, spies whose fearful report had kept him from his inheritance for 40 years, but called them “my brothers.”

Joshua 11:18 reported simply that Joshua’s campaigns took “a long time.” Caleb revealed his age as 40 when chosen for scout duty (14:7). From then until the crossing of the Jordan was about 38 years. Now, Caleb was 85, suggesting seven years in all for the decisive southern and northern victories, together with a considerable number of largely unreported movements and smaller battles. Given that years, but not months, are part of Caleb’s declaration, we cannot be positive, but seven years is both a reasonable deduction and a reasonable approximation. Most importantly for Caleb at 85, he judged himself to be as fit as he had been at 40.

The descendants of Anak (14:12), were a tall, strong people who lived in the hill country of Judah. The first reference to them is Numbers 13:22, in the report of the scouts’ itinerary through the land. Israel had stayed out of Canaan for almost 40 years because they feared these people. Now Caleb asked Joshua to fulfill God’s promise to him (Num 14:24), and give him the ground his feet had trod, the territory of Anak at Hebron. The life of faith is filled with delicious ironies. Faith calls for giving up everything to walk with God, and then God gives it all back, or better. Jesus himself issued this challenge and promise to those who would follow him (Mark 10:29-30). Faith is agreeing to walk blind, if necessary, and then seeing more than one ever knew there was to see.

Here again, the literary artistry is outstanding. The final report of actual conflict in the author’s campaign accounts was of Joshua’s defeat of these people in and around Hebron and Debir (11:21-22). In 14:6-12, as the first of the reports of the allotment of the land, Caleb asked for and received this very district. (As noted in the commentary on 11:21, the conflict in the texts over whether Joshua or Caleb took Hebron is more apparent than real; see also commentary on 14:13-15.)

Caleb, too, was a rhetorical master. At the conclusion of this excellently crafted request, he expressed faith that God would give him success in this endeavor. The expression “if the LORD is with me” begins with the Hebrew word ’ulay [TH194, ZH218] (perhaps). The phrase would usually mean “perhaps Yahweh will be with me.” But here (and other places), ’ulay expresses confidence through a figure of speech called litotes (or meiosis), understatement through use of the uncertain “perhaps” to emphasize the intended affirmative. Caleb was declaring his strong faith that God would help him acquire the land he was asking for.