14 Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the leaders of all the tribes of Israel decided what land to give to the people. 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 get. ³ Moses had already given the two and a half tribes their land east of the Jordan River. The tribe of Levi did not receive any land like the other tribes. ⁴ The descendants of Joseph had divided into two tribes—Manasseh and Ephraim. Each of these tribes received some land; the tribe of Levi was not given any land. They were given only some towns scattered throughout the other tribes and some fields around those towns for their animals. ⁵ The Lord had told Moses how to divide the land among the tribes of Israel. The Israelites divided the land the way the Lord had commanded.

Caleb Gets His Land

⁶ One day some people from the tribe of Judah went to Joshua at Gilgal. One of them was Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite. Caleb said to Joshua, “You remember what the Lord said at Kadesh Barnea. The Lord was speaking to Moses, his servant.^[a] The Lord was talking about you and me. ⁷ Moses, the Lord’s servant, sent me to look at the land where we were going. I was 40 years old at that time. When I came back, I told Moses what I thought about the land. ⁸ The other men who went with me told the people things that made them afraid. But I really believed that the Lord would allow us to take that land. ⁹ So that day Moses made a promise to me. He said, ‘The land where you went will become your land. Your children will own that land forever. I will give you that land because you really believed in the Lord, my God.’

¹⁰ “Now the Lord has kept me alive for 45 more years—as he said he would. During that time we all wandered in the desert. Now, here I am, 85 years old. ¹¹ I am still as strong today as I was the day Moses sent me out. I am as ready to fight as I was then. ¹² So give me the hill country that the Lord promised me that day long ago. At that time you heard that the strong Anakites lived there and the cities were very big and well protected. But now, maybe the Lord will be with me, and I will take that land just as the Lord said.”

¹³ Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh. Joshua gave him the city of Hebron as his own. ¹⁴ And that city still belongs to the family of Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite. That land still belongs to his people because he trusted and obeyed the Lord, God of Israel. ¹⁵ In the past that city was called Kiriath Arba. It was named for the greatest man among the Anakites—a man named Arba.

After this there was peace in the land.