Joshua 14

1These are the lands that the Israelites received as their inheritance in the land of Canaan. Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun and the family heads of the tribes of Israel assigned these lands to them. 2Their inheritance was assigned by lot, as the LORD had commanded through Moses, for the nine and a half tribes. 3Moses had already given the two and a half tribes their inheritance east of the Jordan, but he did not give the Levites an inheritance among the others. 4The descendants of Joseph had become two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim. The Levites were given no share of the land, only towns to live in, with the pasturelands around them for their flocks and herds. 5The Israelites did just as the LORD had commanded Moses, and they divided up the land.

6The men of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite spoke to him: “You know what the LORD told Moses the man of God at Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me. 7When Moses the servant of the LORD sent me out from Kadesh-barnea to explore the land, I was forty years old. I brought him back a report that was true to what was in my heart. 8My companions who went up with me made the people lose heart, but I followed the LORD my God with all my heart. 9On that day Moses swore an oath: ‘The land where you have set foot will surely be an inheritance for you and your descendants for all time, because you have followed the LORD my God with all your heart.’ 10Now the LORD has kept me alive, just as he promised, for these forty-five years since he said this to Moses, while Israel journeyed in the wilderness. And here I am today, eighty-five years old. 11Today I am just as strong as on the day Moses sent me. My strength now is what it was then, for war and for going out and coming in. 12So now give me this hill country, the one the LORD promised me on that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakim were there, with large fortified cities. Perhaps the LORD will be with me, and I will drive them out, just as the LORD said.” 13Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron to Caleb son of Jephunneh as his inheritance. 14So Hebron has belonged to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite as his inheritance to this day, because he followed the LORD, the God of Israel, with all his heart. 15Hebron used to be called Kiriath-arba, after Arba, who was the greatest man among the Anakim. Then the land had peace from war.