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14
1 This was the land that was allotted to the Israelites to own in the land of Canaan by Eleazar the priest, Joshua, son of Nun, and the leaders of the tribes. 2 The decision regarding the land division among the nine and a half tribes was made by casting lots, as the Lord had instructed Moses. 3 Moses had allotted land to the two and a half tribes east of the Jordan but he had made no allocation to the Levites among them. 4 The descendants of Joseph had become two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim. The Levites were not given any land, only towns to live in and pasture for their flocks and herds.*“Herds”: literally, “possessions,” meaning movable personal property. 5 So the Israelites followed the instructions the Lord had given Moses in allocating the land.
6 Leaders from the tribe of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb, son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, said to him, “You remember what the Lord told Moses, the man of God, at Kadesh-barnea about me and you. 7 I was forty when Moses, the servant of God, sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land. When I returned I told the truth in my report. 8 But those who went with me made our people afraid. However, I have faithfully followed the Lord my God. 9 At that time Moses made a solemn promise, telling me, ‘The land where you have walked will belong to you and your children forever, because you faithfully followed the Lord my God.’ 10 Look—the Lord has kept me alive these past forty-five years as he promised, from the time the Lord told Moses this while Israel was wandering in the wilderness. Now I'm eighty-five, 11 but I'm still as strong today as when Moses sent me out. I'm as strong and ready for battle or for whatever may come as I was then. 12 So give me the hill country that the Lord spoke about. You heard at that time about the descendants of Anak who lived there in large, fortified towns. If the Lord is with me I will drive them out as the Lord promised.”
13 So Joshua blessed Caleb and granted him ownership of Hebron. 14 So Hebron belonged to Caleb, son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, from that day to this because he had faithfully followed the Lord, the God of Israel. 15 (Hebron was formerly called Kiriath-arba, named after a great leader of the descendants of Anak.) And the land was at peace.

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*14:4 “Herds”: literally, “possessions,” meaning movable personal property.

© 2018 Dr. Jonathan Gallagher