1. The land of Canaan was divided among the Israelites by Eleazar the priest and by Joshua son of Nun and by the heads of the families of the tribes of Israel.

2. They divided the land by drawing lots as Yahweh had commanded through Moses for the nine.

3. (Remember that Moses had given the two and a half tribes beyond the Jordan their own property; to the Levites, he had given no land,

4. but the sons of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim.) The Levites were given no share of the land except certain towns to live in, with pasture lands nearby for their cattle and property.

5. In dividing the land, the Israelites did as Yahweh had commanded Moses to do.

6. When the sons of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal, Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, said to him, "You know what Yahweh said to Moses, the man of God, at Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me.

7. I was forty years old when Moses, the servant of Yahweh, sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy on this land, and I made an honest report about it to him.

8. But the men who had gone with me discouraged the people, whereas I myself faithfully obeyed Yahweh my God.

9. That day Moses made this promise to me, 'Because you have obeyed Yahweh my God, the land your foot may walk upon shall be the land which you and your children will own forever.'

10. From then till now, Yahweh has kept me alive in accordance with his promise. It is forty-five years since Yahweh made this promise to Moses (Israel was then journeying through the wilderness), and now I am eighty-five years old.

11. Today I am still as strong as the day when Moses sent me out on the raid; for fighting, for going and coming, I am as strong now as then.

12. Give me then the highlands that Yahweh promised me. You know that there are a race of giants called the Anakim and their towns are great and strong. But if Yahweh is with me, I shall drive them out as Yahweh said."

13. Joshua blessed Caleb, son of Jephunneh, and gave him the city of Hebron as an inheritance.

14. And hence Hebron down to the present day belongs to the descendants of Caleb son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, because he obeyed Yahweh the God of Israel.

15. The name of Hebron in earlier times was Kiriath-arba. Arba had been the greatest man of the Anakim. And the country had rest from war.





“Para consolar uma alma na sua dor, mostre-lhe todo o bem que ela ainda pode fazer.” São Padre Pio de Pietrelcina