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Caleb's Request

¹ Now these are the territories which the sons of Israel inherited in the land of Canaan, which ^(C1)Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers' households of the tribes of the sons of Israel apportioned to them as inheritances,² by the ^(C1)lot of their inheritance, just as the LORD commanded ^(F1)through Moses, for the nine tribes and the half-tribe.³ For ^(C1)Moses had given the inheritance of the two tribes and the half-tribe beyond the Jordan; but ^(C2)he did not give an inheritance to the Levites among them.⁴ For the sons of Joseph were two tribes, ^(C1)Manasseh and Ephraim, and they did not give a portion to the Levites in the land, except cities to live in, with their pasture lands for their livestock and for their property.⁵ The sons of Israel did exactly ^(C1)as the LORD had commanded Moses, and they divided the land.

⁶ Then the sons of Judah approached Joshua in Gilgal, and ^(C1)Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, "You know the word which the LORD spoke to Moses the man of God on account of ^(F1)you and me in Kadesh-barnea.⁷ "I was forty years old when ^(C1)Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought word back to him as it was in my heart.⁸ "Nevertheless my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people ^(F1)melt with fear; but ^(C1)I followed the LORD my God fully.⁹ "So Moses swore on that day, saying, '^(C1)The land on which your foot has walked shall certainly be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God fully.'¹⁰ "And now behold, the LORD has let me live, just as He spoke, these forty-five years, from the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, when Israel walked in the wilderness; and now behold, I am eighty-five years old today.¹¹ "^(C1)I am still as strong today as I was on the day Moses sent me; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for ^(C2)going out and coming in.¹² "Now then, give me this hill country about which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day that ^(C1)Anakim were there, with great fortified cities; perhaps the LORD will be with me, and I will ^(F1)drive them out just as the LORD has spoken."

¹³ So Joshua ^(C1)blessed him and ^(C2)gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as an inheritance.¹⁴ Therefore, Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he followed the LORD God of Israel fully.¹⁵ Now the name of Hebron was previously ^(F1)Kiriath-arba; for Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim. ^(C1)Then the land was at rest from war.