Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

As recounted in Numbers 13, Caleb (whose father's name was Jephunneh) was the representative chosen from the tribe of Judah to be among the twelve spies who were sent out by Moses to scout out the "Promised Land" of Canaan for a period of forty days following the exodus of Israel from Egypt.

When the spies returned, they gave a good report of the land's prosperity, but ten of the twelve spies said that it contained cities and inhabitants that Israel would not be able to conquer. Only Joshua (who was descended from Jacob's son Joseph through the "half-tribe" of Ephraim) and Caleb urged the Israelites to maintain their faith in God, and to trust that He would help the Israelites to conquer Canaan. 

Rather than showing faith in God, the people rebelled and wanted to choose a leader to take them back to their former slavery in Egypt. At that point, God killed the ten spies who had given a bad report of the land, and condemned the Israelites to forty years of wandering in the desert (one year for each day that the spies had scouted out the land), until all the adult males would be dead.

However, at the same time, God was pleased with the faith shown by Joshua and Caleb, and said specifically of Caleb in Numbers 14:24, "But My servant Caleb, because he had another spirit in him, and hath followed Me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went, and his seed shall possess it."

Years later, after Israel (under Moses' successor Joshua) had finally reached Canaan and was in the process of conquering it, Caleb asked Joshua to give him a mountain within the tribal land allotment of Judah as his property, which Joshua granted to him. Caleb also promised his daughter in marriage to whomever would be able to conquer the giants who were living in that land. This was ultimately accomplished by Caleb's own nephew, Othniel ben Kenaz, who thus became Caleb's son-in-law as well (Joshua 14-15).

January 24 2021 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report