Joshua 14:8-14 ESV

The Pulpit Commentary - Joshua 14:8

Personal influence. Assuredly no Israelite could look without emotion upon the face and form of Caleb, the utterer of the words of the text. His very existence was a memorial of a memorable day. And when he arose and stood before Joshua, and the two engaged in the conversation recorded in this chapter, who could note them without recollecting that out of the laymen of Israel they were the only survivors of the generation to which they belonged? Like venerable towers that rear their heads... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Joshua 14:9

And Moses sware on that day (cf. Numbers 14:21-24 ; Deuteronomy 1:35 , Deuteronomy 1:36 ). Keil raises the difficulty that in the above passage not Moses, but God is said to have sworn, and that no special inheritance is promised to Caleb, but only that he shall enter the promised land. But this is not the fact, as a comparison of this passage with Deuteronomy 1:36 will show. That either passage gives the ipsissima verba of Moses is unlikely. The main sense of the promise is given... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Joshua 14:10

Forty and five years. This marks the date of the present conversation as occurring seven years after the invasion. Caleb was forty years of age when be went to spy the land of Canaan. For thirty-eight years the Israelites wandered in the wilderness. And Caleb was now eighty-five years old. This remark has been made as far back as the time of Theedoret. Doubtless the apportionment of the land, and its occupation by the Israelites, was a long and tedious business (see also Joshua 13:1 ). ... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Joshua 14:11

As yet am I as strong this day. A vigorous and respected old age is ordinarily, by Nature's own law, the decreed reward for a virtuous youth and a temperate manhood. Caleb's devotion to God's service had preserved him from the sins as well as from the faithlessness and murmuring of the Israelites. And thus, with a body not enfeebled by indulgence, he presents himself before Joshua with undiminished strength, at a time when most men are sinking under the weight of their infirmities, and is... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Joshua 14:12

This mountain. The neighbourhood of Hebron is described by Bartlett 'Egypt to Palestine,' p. 401, as "a region of hills and valleys." In one of the hollows in this "hill country of Judaea" Hebron still nestles, hut at a height which is "only 400 feet lower than Helvellyn," the highest point but one in England. The Dean remarks on the fact that Palestine was a mountainous country, and that therefore in its history we may expect the characteristics of a mountain people. Whereof the Lord spake... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Joshua 14:12

The Anakims. I. WE HAVE " ANAKIMS " IN OUR INHERITANCE . Some of the highest blessings are fenced about with She greatest difficulties. 1 . No earthly inheritance is without its peculiar disadvantages. Some of the "Anakims" which resist us in our efforts to fulfil our mission are (a) the evil in our own heart, e.g; indolence, fear, earthliness; (b) the temptations of the world, arising from bad examples, customs, distracting pleasures; (c) direct hindrance in... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Joshua 14:12

Caleb's inheritance. But little comparatively is said in the sacred writings concerning Caleb. What is recorded is decidedly in his favour, He stands before us as a model of unbending integrity. Selected from among the princes of Judah to be one of the twelve appointed to search the land of Canaan, he remained stedfast in his adherence to the will of God. Neither the remembrance of the giant sons of Anak and their fortified towns, nor the passionate wailings of his brethren, could make... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Joshua 14:13

A true man. Consider Caleb—the companion of Joshua in early enterprise, constant faithfulness, Divine reward. From the epithet Kenazite, constantly applied to him; the fact that one of the "dukes of Edom" bears the name Kenaz; and the expression, "Unto Caleb he gave a part among the children of Judah" ( Joshua 15:13 ), which suggests that though settled amongst them he was not really of them, many have, with considerable probability, concluded that Caleb was a proselyte. One of those... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.