He obtained [it] altogether, and indeed most abundantly. For thus the text has: “And Joshua blessed him, and delivered Hebron to him in possession; and from that [time], Hebron belonged to Caleb son of Jephone the Cenezite, until the present day, because he followed the Lord God of Israel.” In which words three [things are] to be noted.
I. “To bless” is threefold: for either the creator blesses the creature, or the creature [blesses] the creator, or the creature [blesses] the creature. The first is always efficacious of some goods in the creature. For hence God always gives those gifts, from which — and on account of which — both the creature itself can be truly and solidly praised, and also [the creature] itself (if indeed it be possessed of intelligence and mind) [can] be roused to praising the author of those gifts, God himself, or at least rouse others [to it]. So Gen. 1:22, 28; ch. 2:3; ch. 5:2; ch. 9:1; ch. 12:2 & 3; and very often elsewhere. The second: “To bless” [the creator] is efficacious of nothing in the creator himself, but ascribes to him only the praise and glory which is due, [and] acknowledges, proclaims, [and] celebrates him [as] the author and bestower of all goods (Gen. 14:20; ch. 24:27; Exod. 18:10; Ps. 15:7; Ps. 17:47; Ps. 25:12; Ps. 27:6; and in very many others). The third: “To bless” [creature-to-creature] is twofold. For either the creature prays to God [for] some good for the creature — and so Isaac “blessed his sons” (Gen. 27 & 28); Jacob [blessed] King Pharaoh (Gen. 47:7 & 10), and his own sons (Gen. 49:25 & 28); so the Priests bless the people, the sons of Israel (Num. 6:23), by this formula prescribed by God himself: “The Lord bless thee, and keep thee. The Lord show his face to thee, and have mercy on thee. The Lord turn his countenance to thee, and give thee peace.” And the effect of this Sacerdotal [priestly] blessing, and the divine promise, is subjoined in these words: “And they (the Priests) shall invoke my name upon the sons of Israel, and I will bless them.” Or [secondly] the creature praises the creature — and so even sometimes “the wicked is blessed” (Ps. 10:3), and in the Apostle (Rom. 16:18) “[those who] contrive dissensions and scandals in the Christian Church, by sweet speeches and benedictions, seduce the hearts of the innocent.” But Joshua blessed Caleb in one or other, or even in both, of those ways. His outstanding religion and obsequiousness toward God, [his] faith and obedience toward Moses and toward himself [Joshua], [his] greatness of soul in approaching and overcoming dangers, and the whole choir of the very many virtues which were in him, he pursued [praised] with a public and signal laudation; and at the same time he asked of God Almighty, that he would deem him worthy of his own most munificent blessing — and [that], as a certain pledge, as it were, and a divine token of the holy Society [Fellowship] established with him [Joshua] in exploring the land (and preserved in repelling the slanderers [among] the obstinate explorers, and in bearing the threatening insults of the raging people), he [Caleb] should receive “Hebron” — which, by its name (as I said, q. 5), imports “Society” — [and] by the best right obtain and possess [it] with his whole posterity. But that he might possess [it] in fact, [the city] had first to be tamed by war (v. 12). But that handing-over of the inheritance is referred also below (ch. 15:13; Judg. 1:20; 1 Macc. 2:56).
II. By the name of “Hebron” here [is] contained not only the city Hebron itself, but also the wider and more ample neighborhood. Together with Hebron, the city “Debir” [was] also given [at the same time], as will be seen below (ch. 15).
III. [There] is added, “until the present day” — which [day], into what time it fell, is not established. For the author of this book is indeed Joshua; yet he would not speak so of his own time, because [it was] either present [to him], or certainly next to that day. But who, of the later [men], added particles of this kind — whether Samuel, Ezra, or some other Prophet — “the Rabbis contend, and the case is still before the Judge [sub iudice].” Yet [that] it is not Ezra seems clear from the last verse of the following chapter, where “until the present day the Jebusite is said to dwell at Jerusalem with Juda.” For that was not [so] in Ezra’s time. See Prolegomenon 2. But how “until the present day” was Hebron Caleb’s, since it was afterward given to the Levites and to fugitives [refugees]? There will be below (chs. 20 & 21) a more opportune place for answering.