Caleb
One of the twelve men sent to scout Canaan. He and Joshua alone urged Israel to go in, and alone of their generation lived to enter the land, where Caleb received Hebron.
Caleb son of Jephunneh represented the tribe of Judah among the twelve scouts (Numbers 13:6); he is also called a Kenizzite (Numbers 32:12). When the others said that Canaan could not be taken, he urged the people to go up at once (Numbers 13:30). For this he and Joshua were exempted from the sentence that the whole generation would die in the wilderness, and he was promised the land he had walked on (Numbers 14:24) (Numbers 14:30).
Forty-five years later, at the age of eighty-five, he came to Joshua at Gilgal, reminded him of the promise made at Kadesh-barnea and was given Hebron (Joshua 14:6–14). He drove out the three sons of Anak from it and gave his daughter Achsah in marriage to Othniel, who took the town of Debir (Joshua 15:13–19).
In the timeline
- c. 1445–1406 or c. 1259–1220 BC, traditional dateForty Years in the Wilderness
At Kadesh-barnea the Israelites refuse to enter Canaan after their scouts report on it, and are sentenced to wander until that generation has died. Forty years after leaving Egypt their children camp opposite Jericho.