Caleb asks for the hill country
Conquest & Judges · Draft · BSB
Content revision: e7305edfb4a47e59 · No editorial review date recorded
Date: Caleb aged 85 · 45 years after the report at Kadesh
At eighty-five, Caleb recalls his faithful report from Kadesh forty-five years earlier and asks for the hill country promised to him. Joshua gives him Hebron. The following account describes Caleb’s family taking territory and Acsah asking her father for springs.
The request is made at Gilgal; Hebron is the inheritance. Joshua 15 supplies related family episodes and overlaps material repeated in Judges 1. The elapsed years date Caleb’s request, not every battle or marriage in the combined reading.
Primary Scripture
14:6 Then the sons of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh-barnea about you and me.
14:7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought back to him an honest report.
14:8 Although my brothers who went with me made the hearts of the people melt with fear, I remained loyal to the LORD my God.
14:9 On that day Moses swore to me, saying, ‘Surely the land on which you have set foot will be an inheritance to you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.’
14:10 Now behold, as the LORD promised, He has kept me alive these forty-five years since He spoke this word to Moses, while Israel wandered in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old,
14:11 still as strong today as I was the day Moses sent me out. As my strength was then, so it is now for war, for going out, and for coming in.
14:12 Now therefore give me this hill country that the LORD promised me on that day, for you yourself heard then that the Anakim were there, with great and fortified cities. Perhaps with the LORD’s help I will drive them out, as the LORD has spoken.”
14:13 Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance.
14:14 Therefore Hebron belongs to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite as an inheritance to this day, because he wholly followed the LORD, the God of Israel.
14:15 (Hebron used to be called Kiriath-arba, after Arba, the greatest man among the Anakim.) Then the land had rest from war.
15:13 According to the LORD’s command to him, Joshua gave Caleb son of Jephunneh a portion among the sons of Judah—Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron. (Arba was the forefather of Anak.)
15:14 And Caleb drove out from there the three sons of Anak—the descendants of Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak.
15:15 From there he marched against the inhabitants of Debir (formerly known as Kiriath-sepher).
15:16 And Caleb said, “To the man who strikes down Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will give my daughter Acsah in marriage.”
15:17 So Othniel son of Caleb’s brother Kenaz captured the city, and Caleb gave his daughter Acsah to him in marriage.
15:18 One day Acsah came to Othniel and urged him to ask her father for a field. When she got off her donkey, Caleb asked her, “What do you desire?”
15:19 “Give me a blessing,” she answered. “Since you have given me land in the Negev, give me springs of water as well.” So Caleb gave her both the upper and lower springs.
Related Scripture
The promise concerning Caleb follows his different response during the wilderness rebellion.
Deuteronomy 1:34–36 · recollection
Moses recalls why Caleb would enter the land.
Location evidence
The pin marks the Hebron locality, not the place of the conversation with Joshua or the exact springs requested by Acsah.
Event map marker: Identified site; [longitude, latitude] = [35.10222, 31.525087]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.
Hebron: Identified site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.10222, 31.525087]. Classification source: editorial.
Gilgal camp near Jericho: Approximate region. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.49, 31.87]. Classification source: editorial.
Illustrative regional extent: [[35.44,31.82],[35.54,31.92]]; not a measured confidence interval.
Biblical setting · Joshua 4:19-5:12
OpenBible · possible locations / region
For the class
What does Caleb remember about the promise, and what still remains to be done?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: editorial (content/authored/conquest-judges.json)
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm