1 The land of Canaan was divided among the
Israelites by Eleazar the priest and by Joshua son of Nun and by the heads
of the families of the tribes of Israel.
2 They divided the land by drawing lots as Yahweh had commanded through
Moses for the nine.
3 (Remember that Moses had given the two and a half tribes beyond the Jordan
their own property; to the Levites, he had given no land,
4 but the sons of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim.) The Levites
were given no share of the land except certain towns to live in, with
pasture lands nearby for their cattle and property.
5 In dividing the land, the Israelites did as Yah weh had commanded Moses to
do.
Land given to Caleb
6 When the sons of Judah came to Jos hua at Gilgal, Caleb son of Jephunneh
the Kenizzite, said to him, ¡°You know what Yahweh said to Moses, the man of
God, at Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me.
7 I was forty years old when Moses, the servant of Yahweh, sent me from Ka
desh-barnea to spy on this land, and I made an honest report about it to
him.
8 But the men who had gone with me discouraged the people, whereas I myself
faithfully obeyed Yahweh my God.
9 That day Mo ses made this promise to me, ¡®Because you have obeyed Yahweh
my God, the land your foot may walk upon shall be the land which you and
your children will own forever.¡¯
10 From then till now, Yah weh has kept me alive in accordance with his
promise. It is forty-five years since Yahweh made this promise to Moses (Is
rael was then journeying through the wil derness), and now I am eighty-five
years old.
11 Today I am still as strong as the day when Moses sent me out on the raid;
for fighting, for going and coming, I am as strong now as then.
12 Give me then the highlands that Yahweh promised me. You know that there
are a race of giants called the Anakim and their towns are great and strong.
But if Yahweh is with me, I shall drive them out as Yahweh said.¡±
13 Joshua blessed Caleb, son of Jep hun neh, and gave him the city of Hebron
as an inhe ritance.
14 And hence Hebron down to the present day belongs to the descendants of
Caleb son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, because he obeyed Yahweh the God of
Israel.
15 The name of Hebron in earlier times was Kiriath-arba. Arba had been the
greatest man of the Ana kim.
And the country had rest from war.