As Willie McVey put it, “Woe betide any son of Anak who crossed Caleb’s path that day!”
With all the provisos regarding the tribal territories out of the way, we read, “Then the children of Judah came to Joshua in Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him: ‘You know the word which the Lord said to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh Barnea’” (Jos 14:6). For his steadfast fealty along with Joshua in the face of Israel’s madness, he had been promised first choice of land in the territory of Judah. Yet the man Caleb is an enigma. Was he a Jew, related to a man named Kenaz? There is no evidence of that. Was he a Gentile? His name, kaleb, from a word meaning “yelp,” and so linked with a dog, was the appellation of disdain given by Jews to Gentiles. Well, Caleb seemed to say, then I will be faithful like a dog! Three times he’s called “the Kenizzite.” The Kenizzites were contemporaries of Abram (Gen 15:19), one of ten people groups inhabiting Canaan. It seems Caleb was not a born Judahite since the scripture reads, “To Caleb the son of Jephunneh he gave a share among the children of Judah” (Jos 15:13). In any case, Caleb was honest-hearted: “I brought back word to him as it was in my heart” (14:7); whole-hearted: “I wholly followed the Lord my God” (v 8); and brave-hearted, a true Coeur de Lion: “Now therefore, give me this mountain…for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said” (v 12). Imagine! A farm in the Vale of Eshcol? The fields near Bethlehem? No, this mountain—where the giants lived—Mt Hebron. We see no trace of bitterness for wandering 40 years for others’ stupidity. O for such straightforward, unblinking faith in God!