Home at Last
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duty of each tribe to fully subdue its own inheritance. If the people
should prove faithful to God, He would drive out their enemies from
before them.
The location of each tribe was determined by lot. Moses himself
had fixed the bounds of the country as it was to be divided among
the tribes and had appointed a prince from each tribe to attend to the
distribution. Forty-eight cities in different parts of the country were
assigned the Levites as their inheritance.
Caleb Asks for the Most Difficult Place
Caleb and Joshua were the only ones among the spies who had
brought a good report of the Land of Promise, encouraging the people
to go up and possess it in the name of the Lord. Caleb now reminded
Joshua of the promise then made, as the reward of his faithfulness:
“The land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance,
and thy children’s forever, because thou hast wholly followed the
Lord.” He therefore presented a request that Hebron be given him for
a possession. Here had been the home of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
and here, in the cave of Machpelah, they were buried.
Hebron was the seat of the dreaded Anakim, whose formidable
appearance had terrified the spies and destroyed the courage of all
Israel. This was the place which Caleb, trusting in the strength of God,
chose for his inheritance.
“Behold, the Lord hath kept me alive,” he said, “these forty and
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five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses: ... and
now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. As yet I am as
strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength
was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and
to come in. Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the Lord
spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakim were
there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the Lord will
be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said.”
His claim was immediately granted. “Joshua blessed him, and
gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh, Hebron for an inheritance,”
“because that he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.” Caleb had
believed God’s promise that He would put His people in possession
of Canaan. He had endured the long wandering in the wilderness,