1. This is what the children of Israel possessed in the land of Chanaan, which Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the princes of the families by the tribes of Israel, gave to them: 2. dividing all by lot, as the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses, to the nine tribes and the half tribe. 3. For to two tribes and a half Moses had given a possession beyond the Jordan — besides the Levites, who received no land among their brethren; 4. but into their place succeeded the children of Joseph, divided into two tribes, Manasse and Ephraim: neither did the Levites receive [any] other portion of land, but cities to dwell in, and their suburbs to feed their beasts and cattle. 5. As the Lord had commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel, and they divided the land. 6. Then the children of Juda came to Joshua in Galgala, and Caleb the son of Jephone the Cenezite spoke to him: Thou knowest what the Lord spoke to Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Cadesbarne. 7. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Cadesbarne to view the land, and I brought him word again as to me seemed true. 8. But my brethren, who had gone up with me, discouraged the heart of the people; and I nevertheless followed the Lord my God. 9. And Moses swore in that day, saying: The land which thy foot hath trodden upon shall be thy possession, and thy children’s for ever, because thou hast followed the Lord my God. 10. The Lord therefore hath granted me life, as he promised, until this present day. Forty and five years there are since the Lord spoke this word to Moses, when Israel walked through the wilderness: this day I am eighty-five years old, 11. as strong as I was at that time when I was sent to view [the land]: the strength of that time continueth in me until this day, as well to fight as to march. 12. Give me therefore this mountain, which the Lord promised, in thy hearing also, in which are the Enacims, and cities great and fortified: if so be the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to destroy them, as he promised me. 13. And Joshua blessed him, and gave him Hebron in possession. 14. And from that time Hebron belonged to Caleb the son of Jephone the Cenezite, until this present day: because he followed the Lord the God of Israel. 15. The name of Hebron before was called Cariath-Arbe: Adam, the greatest among the Enacims, was laid there; and the land rested from wars.
COMMENTARY
Where the [things] which pertain to the general division of the land [were] modestly touched, in this ch. 14 — the special [division] begins at v. 6, which is the division of the single tribes. And first indeed the lot of Juda is explained here, & [in] ch. 15; then the lot of Ephraim, ch. 16; then the lot of Manasse, ch. 17; but finally [that] of the other seven [tribes], chs. 18, 19.