Dan, whose portion proved too small, obtained certain cities both from Judah and from Ephraim.  135 As

regards the lot, we may probably accept the Rabbinical tradition, that two urns were set out, one containing

the names of the ten (or rather nine and a half) tribes, the other the designation of the various districts into

which the country had been arranged, and that from each a lot was successively drawn, to designate first

the tribe, and then the locality of its inheritance.

This is not the place, however interesting the task, to describe the exact boundaries and cities of each tribe.

We can only attempt the most general outline, which the reader must fill up for himself. Beginning in the far

south, at Kadesh in the wilderness, and along the borders of Edom, we are within the territory of Simeon;

north of it, bounded on the west by the land of the Philistines, and on the east by the Dead Sea, is the

possession of Judah; beyond it, to the east, that of Benjamin, and to the west, that of Dan; north of Dan we

reach Ephraim, and then Manasseh, the possession of Issachar running along the east of these two

territories, and ending at the southern extremity o f the Lake of Gennesaret; by the shore of that lake and far

beyond it is the territory of Naphtali, first a narrow slip, then widening, and finally merging into a point.

Asher occupied the seaboard, north of Manasseh; while, lastly, Zebulon is as it were wedged in between

Issachar, Manasseh, Asher, and Naphtali.

It only remains briefly to notice the incidents recorded in connection with the territorial division of the land.

1. It seems that before the first lot was drawn in the camp at Gilgal, Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, came

forward with a special claim. It will be remembered, that of the twelve princes sent from Kadesh only he and

Joshua had brought "a good report of the land," in the spiritual sense of the expression, as encouraging the

people to go forward. And when the Divine sentence doomed that rebellious generation to death in the

wilderness, Caleb and Joshua alone were excepted. Strictly speaking, no more than this might have been

implied in the promise by Moses, now claimed by Caleb: "Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden

shall be thine inheritance" (Joshua 14:9), since to have survived was to obtain the inheritance.136

But there seems to have been more than merely a promise of survival, although it alone is mentioned in

Numbers 14:24, 30. For we infer from the words and the attitude of Caleb, and from the similar privileges

afterwards accorded to Joshua (19:49, 50), that Moses had, by direction of the Lord, given these two a right

of special and personal choice. This on account of their exceptional faithfulness, and as the sole survivors

of the generation to whom the land had been given. It was as if the surviving proprietors might choose their

portion,137 before those who, so to speak, were only next of kin had theirs allotted to them. Of this Caleb

now reminds Joshua, and in words of such vigorous faith, as make us love still better the tried old warrior of

Jehovah. Appearing at the head of "the house of fathers," in Judah, of which he was the head,138 he first

refers to the past, then owns God's faithfulness in having preserved him to the age of eighty-five, with

strength and courage undiminished for the holy war.

From 14:9 we infer that, when the twelve spies distributed themselves singly over the land, for the purposes

of their mission, Caleb specially "searched" that "mountain," which was the favorite haunt of the dreaded

Anakim. If this be so, we discover a special meaning and special faith on the part of Caleb, when he, rather

than Joshua, attempted to "still the people before Moses , and said, Let us go up at once" (Numbers 13:30).

In that case there was also special suitableness in the Divine bestowal made then and there:

"Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance" (Joshua 14:9,

But even if otherwise, the courage and faith of the old warrior shine only the more brightly, as, recalling the

terror formerly inspired by the Anakim and the strength of their cities, he claims that very portion for his

own. Yet his courage bears no trace of self-sufficiency,139 only of believing dependence upon the Lord. "If

so be Jehovah will be with me, and I shall drive them out" (ver. 12).