Joshua 14:10

"And now, behold, Jehovah hath kept me alive, as he spake, these forty and five years, from the time that Jehovah spake this word unto Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness: and now, Lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, and to go in and out and to come in. Now therefore give me this hill-country, whereof Jehovah spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakim were there, and cities great and fortified: it may be that Jehovah will be with me, and I shall drive them out, as Jehovah spake."

"And Jehovah hath kept me alive ..." Every person of advanced age should be aware of the special providence that has been given in making it possible. In no person is unbelief any more stupid and pitiful than when it occurs in persons past threescore and ten years of age.

"These forty and five years ..." This and Moses' mention of his being "forty years old" (Joshua 14:7) when Moses sent out the spies, and of his being now eighty-five years old are among the most important chronological facts given in Joshua. Israel wandered in the wilderness only about 38 years, because the first two years of the traditional "forty years" were utilized in the giving of the Law, the construction of the tabernacle etc. The sending out of the spies evidently occurred after about two years had elapsed following the Exodus (Numbers 10:11).[18] Thus, thirty-eight years later when Israel entered Canaan, Caleb would have been seventy-eight years of age. Since he gives his age here as eighty-five, that would allow seven years for the Conquest of Canaan up to this point. As Longacre said, "This (Joshua 14:10) is the only statement in the book that bears on the length of time the conquest was supposed to cover."[19]

"It may be that Jehovah will be with me ..." (Joshua 14:12). Some have expressed surprise that a man of such courage and conviction as that of Caleb should have appeared to express a little doubt here by the employment of the words "may be." This is not true. Those words, in this context, express conviction without presumption. "`It may be' expresses not doubt, but full dependence upon the Lord."[20] "The expression also signifies HOPE."[21] Critics think they have found a contradiction between Joshua 10:36-39 which describe the fall of Hebron to Joshua, and this passage, along with Joshua 15, where Caleb actually takes the place, subdues it, and occupies it."[22] Cook's wise comment on this is:

"The Anakims had in the course of Joshua's southern campaign been expelled from "this mountain" (Hebron); but they had only withdrawn to the neighboring cities of Philistia (Joshua 11:22). Thence they had, as must be inferred from the text here, returned and reoccupied Hebron, probably when Joshua and the main force of the Israelites were campaigning against the northern confederacy."[23]