Joshua 14:6 - Meaning and Application

Before the lot was cast to decide each tribe’s share, Caleb’s own portion was set aside for him. He was now, except for Joshua, the oldest man in all Israel, and he was twenty years older than any of the others. All who were over twenty when Caleb was forty had died in the wilderness, so it was fitting that this survivor from an earlier generation should receive special honor when the land was divided.

Caleb comes with his request, or really his claim, to have Hebron given to him as his own inheritance. He calls it “this mountain” later in the passage, and he does not want it included in the common lot with the rest of the land. To support his claim, he reminds them that God had already promised him that very place through Moses. Since God’s will in this matter was already known, there was no need to ask again by casting lots. Lots were for matters that could not be settled otherwise, not for something God had already decided.

Caleb is called the Kenezite, and some think this came from a victory he had won over the Kenezites, like Roman generals later took titles from the lands they conquered. To strengthen his request, he brings the leaders of Judah with him. They were glad to honor this distinguished man from their tribe and to show that they approved of his being provided for in this way. Caleb had been chosen from Judah to help divide the land (Numbers 34:19), so he avoids any hint of using that office for his own benefit and instead seems to lean on their support.

He also appeals to Joshua directly and says, “You know the matter” (Joshua 14:6). He speaks respectfully of Moses, calling him “the man of God” and “the servant of the Lord” (Joshua 14:6-7). What Moses said, Caleb took as God’s own word, because Moses spoke for God. So Caleb had every reason to ask for the promise to be kept, and to expect it to be kept. Nothing can be more fitting to desire than the signs of God’s favor, and nothing more certain than the gifts God has promised.

Caleb then speaks of his own conscience in the great matter of spying out the land. He had been one of the twelve men sent to search Canaan (Joshua 14:7), and now he looks back on that time with peace. He says he brought back his report from the heart, meaning he spoke honestly and truly when he praised the land, trusted God’s power to give it to them, and spoke boldly against the fear of the Canaanites, even the Anakim. He was not trying to please Moses, calm the people, or argue against the others. He spoke from a firm belief in the truth and in God’s promise.

He also says that he wholly followed the Lord his God, meaning he stayed faithful to his duty and sincerely aimed at God’s glory. He shaped his conduct by God’s will and looked for God’s approval. God himself had given Caleb this testimony before (Numbers 14:24), so it was not pride for him to mention it now. In the same way, those who know the Spirit of God is working in them may humbly and thankfully tell others what God has done for them. Those who follow God fully when they are young will have both the joy and the honor of it when they are old, and they will receive their reward forever in the heavenly Canaan.

Caleb also notes that he did this while all his brothers and companions acted differently, except Joshua. The others made the people lose heart (Joshua 14:8), and the damage from that was already well known. It says much in praise of a faithful man when he holds to God while others turn away. Caleb did not need to mention Joshua’s conduct in detail, since it was already known. He only says, “You know what the Lord said concerning me and you” (Joshua 14:6), and leaves it there.

Then Caleb speaks of God’s goodness to him all the way up to that day. He had wandered with the rest in the wilderness and had been kept out of Canaan for thirty-eight years because of the nation’s sin, a sin he had tried hard to prevent. Yet instead of complaining, he gives God the glory for preserving him. “The Lord has kept me alive these forty-five years” (Joshua 14:10), he says, counting thirty-eight years in the wilderness and seven years in Canaan. It is God who keeps us alive, shielding us from death and giving us the needs and comforts of life. The longer we live, the more clearly we should see God’s mercy in preserving us, and the more thankful we should be. If God has kept us alive this long, we should say, “It is because of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed.” The many deaths around us should make us even more grateful that we are spared, and such special mercy should lead us to special obedience.

Caleb also says that he is still fit for work now that he is in Canaan. Though he is eighty-five years old, he is still as strong and lively as he was at forty. “As my strength was then, so is it now” (Joshua 14:11).

This was the fruit of the promise, and it went beyond what had been said. God does not only give what he promises, he gives more as well. Life given by promise will include life, health, strength, and everything that makes that life a blessing and a comfort.

Moses had said in prayer, "The days of our life are seventy years, or maybe by reason of strength eighty" (Psalm 90:10), and that is usually true. But Caleb was an exception. At eighty-five, his strength was still ease and joy, and he had gained that by following the Lord fully. Caleb mentions this to honor God, and also to explain why he is asking for a share that he must win from giants.

Let Joshua not tell him that he does not know what he is asking. Could he win the very land for which he had asked for a right? Caleb answers, yes. "Why not? I am as fit for war now as I ever was." The promise Moses had made him in God's name was that he should have this mountain (Joshua 14:9). That promise is his main reason, and the one he relies on.

As we find it in (Numbers 14:24), the promise was general, "I will bring him into the land where he went, and his descendants shall possess it." But it seems it was also more specific, and Joshua knew it. Both sides understood that this mountain was the place Caleb was now asking for. This was the area where the spies had especially focused their report, because there they met the sons of Anak, a race of giants (Numbers 13:22). The sight of them had made a deep impression on them (Joshua 14:3).

We may think Caleb saw how much the spies stressed the difficulty of taking Hebron, a city guarded by giants, and how they used that to say the whole land could not be conquered. So, to answer their claims and show that he truly meant what he said, he boldly asked for that very city, which they called impossible to take, as his own portion. It was as if he said, "I will take care of that. If I cannot get it as my inheritance, I will go without." Moses answered, in effect, "Then it will be yours, win it and keep it." Caleb had that kind of noble courage, and he wanted to stir that same spirit in his brothers. He chose this place because it was the hardest to conquer.

And to show that his heart had not grown weak any more than his body, he still held to the same choice forty-five years later. He had not changed his mind. His hope of taking it rested on God’s help, even though the sons of Anak still held the land (Joshua 14:12). He says, "If the Lord is with me, then I will be able to drive them out." Joshua had already taken Hebron itself (Joshua 10:37), but the hill country around it, where the sons of Anak lived, was still unconquered. Though the fall of the Anakim from Hebron is mentioned earlier (Joshua 11:21), that appears to have been told there to gather the military events together. In fact, it seems this part was not fully taken until after the land began to be divided.

Notice how Caleb places his hope on God's presence. He does not say, "I am now as strong for war as I was at forty, so I will drive them out." He does not rest on his own courage. He does not even rest on the help of the tribe of Judah, who were standing with him, ready to support him. He does not ask Joshua to back him personally. He says, "If the Lord is with me." He speaks humbly, not because he doubts God's faithfulness, but because he feels his own unworthiness of such a favor. The Chaldee paraphrase says, "If the Word of the Lord be my helper," meaning the Word who is God, and in time was made flesh, the captain of our salvation.

Yet he has no doubt about this: if God is with him, he will be able to drive out the sons of Anak. If God is for us, who can stand against us and win? It is also implied that without God’s help, even if all Israel joined him, he could not succeed. Whatever we try to do, God's favorable presence is everything. We should pray earnestly for it, make sure we have it by staying in God’s love, and depend on it when we face the hardest tasks.

So Caleb asks, "Give me this mountain" (Joshua 14:12). He asks for it, first, because it had been promised by God. He wants Israel to see how much he values God’s promise, since he insists on this mountain, the one the Lord had named that day, even though he might have received another good share by lot with the rest. People who live by faith prize what comes by promise more than what comes by ordinary providence alone.

He also asks for it because the Anakim now held it. He wants Israel to see how little he fears the enemy, and he wants his example to push them forward in their own conquests. In this, Caleb lived up to his name, which means "all heart."

Joshua grants his request (Joshua 14:13). He blessed him, praised his courage, approved his request, and gave him what he asked for. He also prayed for him and for his success against the sons of Anak. Joshua was both a ruler and a prophet, so it was fitting for him to bless Caleb, since the lesser is blessed by the greater. Hebron was given to Caleb and his descendants (Joshua 14:14), because he had wholly followed the Lord, the God of Israel. Happy are we if we follow the Lord as he did. Special faithfulness will be crowned with special favor.

We are told what Hebron had been, the city of Arba, a great man among the Anakim (Joshua 14:15). It is called Kirjath-arba in (Genesis 23:2), the place where Sarah died. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived much of their time in Canaan in that area, and near it was the cave of Machpelah, where they were buried. That may have drawn Caleb there when he spied out the land, and made him desire this part above all others for his inheritance.

We are also told what Hebron later became. It was one of the cities given to the priests, the Lord's ministers (Joshua 21:13), and it was also a city of refuge (Joshua 20:7). When Caleb received it, he was content with the land around it and gladly gave the city itself to the priests. He thought it could not be better used, not even for his own children, and he did not count it a smaller gift of his own because he devoted it to God.

Hebron was also a royal city. At the start of David’s reign, it became the capital of the kingdom of Judah. The people came there to him, and he reigned there for seven years.

In this way, Caleb’s city was greatly honored. It is sad that such a stain later appeared in his family, in Nabal, who came from the house of Caleb (1 Samuel 25:3). Even the best people cannot pass their own goodness on to their children as an inheritance.