The Twelve Spies
Following the Exodus from Egypt, Moses dispatched twelve men, one chieftain from each tribe, to scout the land of Canaan as Israel's promised homeland. Caleb, son of Jephunneh, went as the representative of the tribe of Judah; Joshua, son of Nun, represented the tribe of Ephraim. The scouts spent forty days exploring the land, assessing its geography, the strength of its inhabitants, and its agricultural richness.
The men returned carrying samples of the land's produce, among them a cluster of grapes from the Valley of Eshcol so large that it had to be carried on a pole between two men. Ten of the spies, however, gave a discouraging report, emphasizing the land's fortified cities and its giant inhabitants — the descendants of Anak, the Nephilim — and saying that in their own eyes they had seemed like grasshoppers before them.
Faith and Its Reward
Against the fearful majority, Caleb stilled the people before Moses and urged them to go up at once and possess the land, declaring that they were well able to overcome it. He and Joshua together maintained that the people should trust God and enter the land, confident that divine assistance would secure the victory.
The Israelites refused, accepting instead the discouraging report. This unbelief was reckoned a grave sin, and it was decreed that Israel should wander forty years in the wilderness — one year for each day the scouts had spent in the land — and that the whole adult generation, all those over twenty years of age, should die there. Of that generation only Caleb and Joshua were spared to enter the Promised Land.
Inheritance in Hebron
After Israel entered Canaan and the land was apportioned, Caleb came to Joshua and asked for the hill country that had been promised him. Joshua blessed him and granted him Hebron and its surrounding region within the territory of Judah.
Caleb promised his daughter Achsah in marriage to whoever would capture the town of Debir from the giants who held it. His kinsman Othniel, son of Kenaz, took the town and so became Caleb's son-in-law. A later figure described as a Calebite, Nabal, is named among Caleb's line in the books of Samuel.
Lineage
Caleb is named the son of Jephunneh and a member of the tribe of Judah. His father Jephunneh is in places identified as a Kenizzite, while Caleb himself is reckoned in the genealogies among the descendants of Judah.
Significance in Orthodox Tradition
Caleb is honored in the Orthodox Church as one of the Righteous of the Old Testament. He is counted among the Holy Forefathers — the ancestors and faithful of Israel who looked forward to the Messiah — and is commemorated with them on the Sunday before the Nativity of Christ, the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers.
His remembrance rests on the Scriptural account of his trust in God's promise when the rest of his generation faltered, a faith for which he, with Joshua, was preserved to inherit the land.
