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- Caleb (6)
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Caleb
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other meanings of the word Caleb or Kalev see Caleb (disambiguation)
Caleb, meaning "Bold" or "Dog", the son of Jephunneh, is an important figure in the Hebrew Bible, noted for his intense devotion to God when the Hebrew nation refused to enter the "promised land" of Canaan.
When the Hebrews came to the outskirts of Canaan, the land that had been promised them by God, after having fled slavery in Egypt, Moses (the Hebrew leader) sent twelve scouts (or spies, meraglim in Hebrew) into Canaan to report on what was there—one spy representing each of the twelve (landed) tribes. Ten of the scouts returned to say that the land would be impossible to claim, and that giants lived there who would crush the Hebrew army. Only two, Joshua (from the tribe of Ephraim) and Caleb (representing Judah), returned and said that God would be able to deliver Canaan into the hands of the Hebrew nation.
The Bible records that, because of the testimony of the ten scouts, the Hebrews chose not to enter Canaan: for this disobedience, God caused them to wander in the desert for forty years before being allowed to enter Canaan and conquer it as their home. It is said that the only adult Hebrews allowed to survive these forty years and enter Canaan were Joshua and Caleb, as a reward for their faith in God. This is recorded in the Book of Numbers.
1. Gary N. Knoppers, I Chronicles 1 - 9 (New York:Doubleday, 2003), p. 305; also see pp. 347-349 in the same book.
- The Chronicler
- The Jewish Encyclopedia, 1908
- Calev in the Biblical Encyclopedia Tanakh Profiles (Hebrew/English) See also translations of names.