The Israelites gathered to receive their inheritance in the land of Canaan. Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the heads of the tribes oversaw the division of the land. The inheritance for the nine and a half tribes was decided by casting lots, just as the Lord had commanded through Moses. The other two and a half tribes had already received their portion east of the Jordan, and the Levites were given no share of the land—only towns to dwell in, along with pastures for their livestock.
As the Israelites settled in Gilgal, the men of Judah came before Joshua, and among them was Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite. He said to Joshua, "You remember what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God, concerning you and me at Kadesh Barnea. I was forty years old when Moses sent me to spy out the land, and I brought back a report that was true to my heart. The others discouraged the people, but I remained faithful to the Lord my God."
Caleb continued, "On that day, Moses swore that the land where my feet had walked would be my inheritance, because I followed the Lord wholeheartedly. Now, here I am—forty-five years later. The Lord has kept me alive all this time while Israel wandered in the wilderness, and today I am eighty-five years old! I am as strong now as I was then, ready for battle just as before. So give me the hill country that the Lord promised me. You know that the Anakites live there and their cities are large and fortified, but with the Lord's help, I will drive them out."
Then Joshua blessed Caleb and granted him Hebron as his inheritance. From that day on, Hebron belonged to Caleb son of Jephunneh because he followed the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. (Hebron had formerly been called Kiriath Arba, after Arba, the greatest of the Anakites.) And at last, the land rested from war.