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¹ Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the leaders of all the tribes of Israel decided what land to give to the people in the land of Canaan. ² The Lord had commanded Moses long ago how he wanted the people to choose their land. The people of the nine-and-a-half tribes threw lots to decide which land they would receive. ³ Moses had already given the two-and-a-half tribes their land east of the Jordan River. But the tribe of Levi was not given any land like the others. ⁴ The sons of Joseph had divided into two tribes—Manasseh and Ephraim. The tribe of Levi was not given any land. It was given only some towns in which to live and pastures for its animals. ⁵ The Lord had told Moses how to give the land to the tribes of Israel, and the Israelites divided the land.

Caleb's Land

⁶ One day some men from the tribe of Judah went to Joshua at Gilgal. Among them was Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite. He said to Joshua, "You remember what the Lord said at Kadesh Barnea when he was speaking to the prophet Moses about you and me. ⁷ Moses, the Lord's servant, sent me to look at the land where we were going. I was forty years old then. When I came back, I told Moses what I thought about the land. ⁸ The other men who went with me frightened the people, but I fully believed the Lord would allow us to take the land. ⁹ So that day Moses promised me, ‘The land where you went will become your land, and your children will own it forever. I will give you that land because you fully believed in the Lord, my God.'

¹⁰ "Now then, the Lord has kept his promise. He has kept me alive for forty-five years from the time he said this to Moses during the time we all wandered in the desert. Now here I am, eighty-five years old. ¹¹ I am still as strong today as I was the day Moses sent me out, and I am just as ready to fight now as I was then. ¹² So give me the mountain country the Lord promised me that day long ago. Back then you heard that the Anakite people lived there and the cities were large and well protected. But now with the Lord helping me, I will force them out, just as the Lord said."

¹³ Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him the city of Hebron as his own. ¹⁴ Hebron still belongs to the family of Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite because he had faith and obeyed the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹⁵ (In the past it was called Kiriath Arba, named for Arba, the greatest man among the Anakites.)

After this there was peace in the land.