Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The division of Canaan by lots among the twelve tribes is prepared; whence certain things are premised, namely that the tribe of Levi must be excluded from it, and the tribe of Joseph must be divided into two, namely Ephraim and Manasseh, and that Caleb must be given, outside the lot, that portion of land which God had formerly assigned to him through Moses on account of his merits.
Vulgate Text: Joshua 14:1-15
1. This is what the children of Israel possessed in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the families of the tribes of Israel gave them. 2. Dividing all things by lot, as the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses, to nine tribes and the half tribe. 3. For to two and a half tribes Moses had given a possession beyond the Jordan: without the Levites, who received no land among their brothers; 4. but in their place the sons of Joseph succeeded, divided into two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim: nor did the Levites receive any other part in the land except cities to dwell in, and their suburbs for feeding their cattle and livestock. 5. As the Lord had commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did, and they divided the land. 6. Therefore the children of Judah came to Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, spoke to him: You know what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God, about me and you in Kadesh-barnea. 7. I was forty years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I reported to him what seemed true to me. 8. But my brothers who had gone up with me made the heart of the people melt; nevertheless I followed the Lord my God. 9. And Moses swore on that day, saying: The land that your foot has trodden shall be your possession, and your children's forever, because you have followed the Lord my God. 10. Therefore the Lord has granted me life, as He promised, until the present day. Forty-five years have passed since the Lord spoke this word to Moses, when Israel was walking through the wilderness: today I am eighty-five years old, 11. still as strong as I was at the time when I was sent to explore; the strength of that time perseveres in me to this day, both for fighting and for marching. 12. Therefore give me this mountain which the Lord promised, you yourself also hearing, in which the Anakim are, and great and fortified cities: if perhaps the Lord is with me, and I shall be able to destroy them, as He promised me. 13. And Joshua blessed him and gave him Hebron as a possession. 14. And from that time Hebron belonged to Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite until the present day: because he followed the Lord God of Israel. 15. The name of Hebron was formerly called Kiriath-Arba: Adam, the greatest man among the Anakim, was buried there, and the land rested from wars.
Verse 1: Eleazar the Priest and Joshua
1. WHICH ELEAZAR THE PRIEST (THAT IS, THE HIGH PRIEST) AND JOSHUA THE SON OF NUN, AND THE HEADS OF THE FAMILIES (THAT IS, OF THE TRIBES) OF THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL GAVE THEM, — that is to say, also the twelve princes according to the twelve tribes of Israel: for each tribe had its own prince. In Hebrew, the heads of the fathers (that is, the princes) of the tribes of the children of Israel. Therefore three presiders and executors of the division and allotment are mentioned here, namely the first is Eleazar the High Priest, the second is Joshua the prince of the people, and the third rank is made up of the twelve princes of the tribes, each of whom represented his own tribe and took care of it, lest any injustice or diminution of lot should be done to them, so that with the princes of the tribes being content, all the tribes would be content and acquiesce in the allotment.
Moreover, Eleazar is placed here before Joshua because he is more worthy: for the High Priest is more worthy than the prince and king.
Abulensis denies this and considers Joshua to have been more worthy than Eleazar; but I have shown the contrary from the very words of Scripture in Numbers 27:21.
Verse 3: Without the Levites
3. WITHOUT THE LEVITES, WHO RECEIVED NO LAND AMONG THEIR BROTHERS, — because the portion of the Levites was the Lord, that is, the offerings; for the offerings and the share of victims sacrificed to God went to the Levites.
Verse 4: The Sons of Joseph Divided into Two Tribes
4. BUT IN THEIR PLACE THE SONS OF JOSEPH SUCCEEDED, DIVIDED INTO TWO TRIBES, MANASSEH AND EPHRAIM. — Masius here criticizes the Vulgate translator for adding some things to the Hebrew. For in the Hebrew there is only: because the sons of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim. But I respond that our translator renders it more clearly by translating: "But in their place the sons of Joseph succeeded," as if to say: Since, with the tribe of Levi excluded, only eleven tribes remained to divide Canaan, for this reason the tribe of Joseph was divided into two, to complete the number of twelve tribes of Israel, and so to receive two portions of the promised land, one for the tribe of Joseph, the other for the tribe of Levi — which the latter would have received if it had been counted among the twelve. But now with that tribe excluded, the other part of the tribe of Joseph succeeded it and constituted the twelfth tribe, and thus obtained the twelfth part of the promised land. For God wished Canaan to be distributed to twelve tribes, and therefore to be divided into twelve portions, and by this reasoning the tribe of Joseph also succeeded the tribe of Reuben in the right of the firstborn, which was that the firstborn (as Reuben was) should obtain a double portion of the paternal inheritance, while the other brothers received a single one. Reuben lost this right because of incest committed with Bilhah, his stepmother, and therefore it was given to the chaste Joseph. Whence he himself, through his two sons, namely Ephraim and Manasseh, constituted two tribes and obtained a double lot of the Holy Land.
Verse 6: Caleb Speaks to Joshua at Gilgal
6. TO JOSHUA IN GILGAL. — For there were the camp and quarters of Joshua and the Hebrews; therefore all these things were done there, and this first division of Canaan was made among five tribes: for the later division among the seven remaining tribes was made at Shiloh, chapter 18, verse 1.
AND CALEB THE SON OF JEPHUNNEH THE KENIZZITE SPOKE TO HIM. — This Caleb had explored the Holy Land, having been sent by Moses with Joshua and the other ten spies, and when these were slandering the land and stirring up the people's murmuring, Caleb with Joshua resisted and suppressed the murmuring by praising the promised land and showing that it was easy to conquer with God's help. Therefore God, as a reward, commanded that Hebron and its surrounding area be given to him outside the lot, Numbers chapters 13 and 14; which accordingly he here demands that Joshua assign to him. Therefore this Caleb is different from the Caleb who was the ancestor of Bezaleel, and the immediate son of Hezron, son of Perez, son of Judah, about whom see 1 Chronicles 2:18, as I proved against Rabbi Solomon in Exodus 31:1. Even though this Caleb too descends from Judah and perhaps from Perez and Hezron, but through grandfathers and great-grandfathers.
Caleb in Hebrew means the same as dog, and this fittingly, because he like a dog barked at the spies who were slandering the Holy Land, and suppressed the murmuring of the people. Again, Caleb means the same as "like a heart," because with a generous and magnanimous heart he defended the cause and faith of God against the other spies and the murmuring people.
THE SON OF JEPHUNNEH. — Some take Jephunneh not as a proper name but as an appellative, meaning sharp-eyed, sagacious, from פנה pane, which means to look, to inspect, to see through. But it is certain that Jephunneh is the proper name of Caleb's father, whose etymology, however, once given, eminently suits Caleb, as being most sharp-eyed and most prudent.
THE KENIZZITE. — Why is Caleb called a Kenizzite? The Kenizzites are numbered among the other peoples of Canaan, Genesis 15:19. But it is certain that Caleb is not called a Kenizzite from that source: for he was by nation and race a Hebrew, not a Canaanite. Again, there was another Kenaz descended from Esau (whence, as Saint Jerome testifies in his Hebrew Places, some Edomites were called Kenizzites), about whom see Genesis chapter 36, verses 15 and 42; but it is equally certain that Caleb is not called a Kenizzite from him: for it is established that he was a Jew, not an Edomite, and descended from Jacob, not from Esau.
I say therefore that Caleb is called a Kenizzite from his grandfather or great-grandfather, who was named Kenaz and was an outstanding man, and therefore communicated his name to his descendants, so that they were called Kenizzites from him; we gather that this is so from the fact that the name Kenaz was frequent and famous in Caleb's family; for Caleb's brother, who was the father of Othniel the judge, was called Kenaz: also Caleb's grandson through his son was named Kenaz, as is evident from the next chapter, verse 13; Judges chapter 1:13; 1 Chronicles 4:13 and 15: and this from his grandfather or great-grandfather, a distinguished man who was called Kenaz, as it appears.
Therefore it is not likely that this Kenaz was Caleb's stepfather or uncle, as some claim. Kenaz therefore begot Jephunneh, Jephunneh begot Caleb, and hence Caleb was called a Kenizzite. Whence Kenizzite in Hebrew means the same as "this one is my possession" or "this one is my nest," says Pagninus in Hebrew Names, as if to say: Caleb was truly the grandson and heir of his grandfather Kenaz, a distinguished man, and along with the possession and inheritance he also possessed and inherited his heroic virtues: therefore he truly was, and could be called, a Kenizzite, just as much as an Israelite and a son of Abraham.
Verse 9: The Land Your Foot Has Trodden
9. THE LAND THAT YOUR FOOT HAS TRODDEN SHALL BE YOUR POSSESSION. — What this land was, Moses did not specify in Numbers chapter 14, verse 24; but from this it is clear that it was Hebron, which Caleb visited while he was surveying the land with the other spies, when they did not dare to approach it because of fear of the giants inhabiting it.
Verse 10: Forty-five Years; the Chronology of Joshua
10. FORTY-FIVE YEARS HAVE PASSED SINCE THE LORD SPOKE THIS WORD TO MOSES, WHEN ISRAEL WAS WALKING THROUGH THE WILDERNESS; TODAY I AM EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS OLD.
This passage sheds great light on this entire book; for Caleb in these words encompasses the whole chronology of that time, from which it is certainly concluded that Joshua waged war with the Canaanites for six years, and having subdued them, divided their land in the seventh year among the twelve tribes of Israel. This therefore is the summary and synopsis of Joshua's deeds.
In the first year of his leadership and governance, on the tenth day of the first month, Joshua led the people of Israel across the Jordan, the waters giving way, into the land of Canaan, as we heard in chapters 3 and 4. He celebrated the Passover in Gilgal on the fourteenth day of the first month in the plain of Jericho; the following day the people ate of the grain of the land, and after this, on the next day the manna ceased, as was said in chapter 5. From this it is clear that Joshua and the Hebrews entered Canaan immediately after the death of Moses — that is, at the beginning of the 41st year from the exodus from Egypt — and after destroying Jericho, waged war with the other nations for six years. For in the seventh year, after all were subdued, Joshua divided Canaan among the Hebrews. That this is so is evident from comparing the history reviewed in this chapter with what is narrated in Numbers 13 and Deuteronomy 2. For when Joshua was beginning this division, Caleb says to him in this verse that when he was sent among others from Kadesh-barnea to explore the land of Canaan (Numbers 13), he was 40 years old, and from that time to the present 45 years had elapsed, and he was now 85 years old. Now it is certain that he was sent with the other spies in the second year from the exodus from Egypt, Numbers 10 and 13, and Joshua 14, from which year until the 40th year from the exodus — when Moses died and Joshua was appointed leader — 38 years elapsed; now count from year 38 to 45, and you will have seven years, in the first six of which the Canaanites were defeated and slain in war, and in the seventh their land was divided, when Caleb was already 85 years old. Therefore this division of the land was made in the 47th year from the exodus from Egypt, which was the seventh year — at least begun — of Joshua's leadership. So Theodoret here, Question 16, Abulensis on chapter 13, Question 3, and on chapter 22, Question 2, where he refutes Josephus who defines the time of war as five years, and Lyra who defines it as six years. So also Masius, Magalianus, and others here. Finally, this is the common opinion of the Hebrews.
Verse 11: Caleb's Strength Preserved in Old Age
11. STILL AS STRONG. — God preserved for Caleb in his old age his original vigor, both as a reward for his faithfulness, so that he might possess and enjoy the promised land — for which he had stood against the murmurers — while still vigorous and strong; and also so that he might be an eyewitness of all the things that had been done by Moses in the desert and might narrate them to the younger Hebrews: for all the murmurers were punished with death by God in the desert; therefore their young sons, who had not murmured, entered the promised land. To these therefore Caleb, an old man, testified and proclaimed the wonders that God had performed for their fathers in the desert. So also shortly after Christ, there were long-lived men — Saint John, Saint Simeon, Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, Saint Polycarp, and many others — so that later generations would be eyewitnesses or ear-witnesses of the deeds of Christ.
Similar was Paul of Concordia, whose vigorous old age Saint Jerome describes thus in Epistle 21 to the same: "Behold," he says, "the hundredth cycle of your age revolves, and you, always keeping the commandments of the Lord, meditate on the blessedness of the future life through the examples of the present. Your eyes are bright with light, your feet make sure steps, your hearing is keen, your teeth are white, your voice is resonant, your body solid and full of vitality, your grey hairs are at odds with your ruddy complexion, your strength disagrees with your age: the more advanced old age has not dissolved the tenacity of your memory, as we see in most people; cold blood has not dulled the sharpness of your keen intellect; a furrowed brow has not roughened your face contracted with wrinkles; nor, finally, does a trembling hand guide a wandering stylus through the curved paths of the wax tablet: the Lord shows us in you the vigor of the future resurrection, so that we may know it is due to sin that others, still living, are already dying in the flesh; and due to righteousness that you counterfeit youth in an alien age."
Both for fighting, — with the giants dwelling in Hebron, which was given to me by God, so that I might expel them and conquer Hebron and claim it for myself. Whence it follows:
Verse 12: Give Me This Mountain
12. THEREFORE GIVE ME THIS MOUNTAIN WHICH THE LORD PROMISED, YOU YOURSELF ALSO HEARING, IN WHICH THE ANAKIM ARE. — "This mountain," on which are situated the cities of Hebron, Debir, and Anab: for God promised these to Caleb, Numbers 14:24. For although Scripture does not name them there specifically, nevertheless Moses declared the same thing by his spoken word, as is evident from this passage — namely, that the land promised to Caleb by God at that place was the highlands of Hebron.
The reason why God assigned these lands to Caleb above others was first, the unconquered and lofty virtue and fortitude of Caleb, by which he had just said that although he was now eighty-five years old, he was still as strong in mind and body as when he was forty years old. Second, because the highlands of Hebron were occupied by the Anakim, that is, giants, whom the other Hebrews greatly feared and would not have dared to attack, as Caleb did attack them. Third, because forty years before, Caleb had entered these highlands and had surveyed them together with the giants, and had told the people that they could easily be conquered through God's help, while the other timid spies denied this and frightened the people away from entering the promised land with fear of the giants. God therefore wished to show that what Caleb had said was true, and to defeat the giants through him.
Thus with God as our leader we overcome the strongest foes and the most difficult challenges, if, relying on God, we undertake the task confidently and courageously. For God provides the help He has promised, and assists, strengthens, and advances those who begin, so that they easily accomplish what would otherwise be a difficult task. Thus David with a pebble struck down that tower of flesh, as Chrysostom says — namely Goliath — because, trusting in God, he entered the duel with him with great courage. Saint Anthony, as Saint Athanasius testifies, once saw the devil in the form of a giant raising and hiding his head among the clouds, but recognizing his deception, he said: In vain do you try to tempt me with that huge body. Come, if you have any power and strength against me, use it: "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?" At these words that gigantic phantom vanished. The devil throws such phantoms of difficulties before each person; but if, relying on God, we scorn them and strive against them, they will go up in smoke.
In which the Anakim are, — namely giants descended from the giant Anak: for although Joshua expelled these giants from Hebron in chapter 11, verse 12, nevertheless from this it is clear that some escaped that destruction and fled to the Philistines, and from there, having recovered their strength, returned to Hebron and occupied it as the seat of their ancestors, and therefore Caleb had to expel them again.
IF PERHAPS. — Not that Caleb doubts God's promises, but that he thinks modestly of himself and fears lest by his own fault or negligence he should turn away the help God promised him.
Verse 13: Joshua Blessed Him
13. And Joshua blessed him, — that is, Joshua wished all prosperity upon Caleb, and especially a happy outcome of the conquest of the mountain cities which the giants occupied, as if to say: May God prosper you, may God bless you, may God subject the giants to you. So Abulensis. Differently, Arias and Vatablus say: He blessed, that is, praised the courage and virtue of Caleb. Masius, however, says it means: he granted (to Caleb) what he heard.
Verse 14: Because He Followed the Lord
14. BECAUSE HE FOLLOWED THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL. — In Hebrew, because he fulfilled after the Lord God of Israel, that is, because he fully followed God, just as Israel — that is, Jacob — his father and patriarch, had formerly followed Him. The Septuagint renders: because he followed the commandment of the God of Israel. The same translators, however, in verse 8, render: but I adhered to the Lord my God.
The meaning is, as if to say: Caleb not only lived piously and holily in his private life, but also diligently and constantly promoted the glory of God and the prosperity and salvation of his neighbors — namely, the Hebrews — in every way he could, to the very last act of his life, and discharged with gravity, attentiveness, and constancy the office to which God had appointed him. So Masius.
Verse 15: Kiriath-Arba and Adam; the Burial Place Debate
15. THE NAME OF HEBRON WAS FORMERLY CALLED KIRIATH-ARBA: ADAM, THE GREATEST MAN AMONG THE ANAKIM, WAS BURIED THERE. — He shows that the Anakim, that is, giants, were in Hebron, as he said in verse 12, from the fact that Hebron was formerly called Kiriath, that is, the city of Arba the giant.
Note first: This city was called Hebron; for it is said of it in Numbers 13:23: "Hebron was built seven years before Zoan, the city of Egypt." Then Hebron was occupied by Arba the giant with his descendants, and thence was named Kiriath, that is, the city of Arba, who was "Adam," that is, a man, "the greatest among the Anakim;" or who was antonomastically called Adam because he was the greatest man among the giants and had chosen Hebron as his seat and burial place. Whence from the Hebrew you may properly and clearly translate: Hebron was formerly called Kiriath-Arba; this man had been the greatest among the Anakim. So the Chaldean, Masius, Cajetan, Vatablus, Arias, Pagninus, and others. That this is the genuine meaning of this passage is evident from the Hebrew, and from the fact that this Arba was the father of Anak, as is said in chapter 15, verse 13, and chapter 21, verse 11. From Anak descended the Anakim giants. Hence Arba is here called the greatest, both in the enormity of his body, and in his sovereignty and dominion, and in the glory of his deeds, and in his dignity, as the one who was the father, indeed the patriarch of the Anakim, from whom this whole offspring of giants was propagated, and therefore his name was given to Hebron, in which these giants dwelt. The same is clear from the Septuagint, who translate: the name of Hebron was formerly the city of Arba (some incorrectly read Argob), the metropolis of those Anakim.
Saint Jerome interprets these words differently in his commentary on Matthew chapter 27, and in his Questions on Chronicles, as do the Hebrews in Bereshit Rabbah, that is, in the greater Genesis, and following them Lyra, Hugo, Dionysius the Carthusian, and Abulensis, namely as follows: Hebron was formerly called Kiriath-Arba, that is, the city of the four, namely four distinguished men, because in it were buried four Patriarchs — namely Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — with their wives. Regarding the last three, this is evident from Genesis chapter 47, verse 30, and elsewhere; regarding Adam, it is evident from this passage. For this reason Saint Jerome seems to have retained here the name Adam as the proper name of the first man, to indicate that he was buried in Hebron, and therefore he expressed the word "situs," that is, "was buried," which is not in the Hebrew but can be understood.
Moreover, although Saint Jerome seems more inclined to this opinion, he nevertheless does not fully and plainly establish it. Hear him in the Epitaph of Saint Paula: "She went up to Hebron, which is Kiriath-Arba, that is, the town of the four men: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the great Adam, whom the Hebrews think was buried there according to the book of Joshua; although most think the fourth was Caleb, whose memorial is shown beside it." Saint Jerome is followed by Isidore, Rupert, Marianus, Scotus, and others already cited.
The name Hebron favors this interpretation, which in Hebrew signifies fellowship, union, joining together — namely, in it four great Patriarchs were joined together in fellowship of burial.
Moreover, that John Lucidus, in book 1 of his work On the Correction of Time, chapter 4, considers that Adam was a giant because he is here called "Adam, the greatest among the Anakim," is unlikely: for then he would have been a monstrous man created by God, and a monster of nature. He is therefore called "the greatest among the Anakim" not in stature but in dignity, because he was the first man created by God, and the parent of all others, endowed with great knowledge, wisdom, and grace, and placed in paradise. The phrase "among the Anakim" only signifies that he was buried in Hebron among the Anakim.
Again, Saint Jerome received his opinion from the Hebrews, who in Bereshit Rabbah write that the name Arba, which means four, was given to that city because in ancient times four men lived there — Aner, Eshcol, Mamre, and Abraham; the same were circumcised there; also four most famous matrons were buried there — Eve, Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah; and four Patriarchs — Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and because from that place Abraham pursued and defeated four kings. But as very many things in those Commentaries are known to be fictitious, so these must be considered poorly established and probable.
Now hear Abulensis: This is the truer and more common meaning, which almost all Catholics hold. For Adam is said to have lived near the city of Hebron, and there to have ended his days, and there he was buried with his wife Eve; there also they say he was formed by God. For it is certain that he was fashioned outside of paradise. Eve, however, was formed in paradise from Adam's rib, Genesis 2; so also the peoples who now dwell near the city of Hebron testify, which is called by the inhabitants the Valley of Tears, because Adam there mourned Abel, killed by Cain, for a hundred years. So Abulensis. The same things are reported by Salignacus, Bredembachius, Burchard, and from them Adrichomius in his Description of the tribe of Judah, numbers 7, 90, 91, 100, and 143. Hence also King David was inaugurated, and reigned in Hebron, as in the ancestral city of his fathers and forefathers, 2 Samuel chapter 2, verse 3. There also was the house of Zechariah, in which Saint John the Baptist was born and raised.
Hence also Masius, on chapter 15, verse 13, asserts that the cities near Hebron were named Debir, that is, a sacred inner chamber, and as it were an oracle; Kiriath-Sepher, that is, the city of letters, because in it, as in an archive, the records of the ancient Fathers were preserved.
But all these things seem to have been accepted from Saint Jerome, whose authority later Latin writers commonly followed. For the more ancient and more learned authorities assert that Adam lived in Judea and Jerusalem, and there died and was buried not in Hebron but on Golgotha, or Mount Calvary, where Christ was crucified — indeed, that Mount Calvary received its name from the skull of Adam. So Origen, Homily 35 on Matthew; Saint Epiphanius, Heresy 46, which is that of the Tatians; Saint Athanasius, Treatise on the Passion of the Lord; Saint Cyprian, Sermon on the Resurrection; Saint Ambrose, Book 5, Epistle 19, and on Luke chapter 23; Theophylact and Euthymius on Matthew chapter 27; and even Saint Jerome himself, Epistle 17 to Marcella; Saint Cyril, Moses Bar Cepha, Book on Paradise; Saint Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople; Anastasius of Sinai, Book 6 of the Hexaemeron, and others whom Suarez cites and follows, Part 3, Question 46, article 10; and Sixtus of Siena, Book 6 of his Bibliotheca, annotation 132. These ancient authorities are followed by more recent ones, namely Baronius, Pererius, Torniellus, Fevardentius — who says this is the consistent opinion of the Church — Salian, and others.
Some attempt to reconcile both opinions by saying that Adam was first buried in Hebron, then in Golgotha. So Honorius of Autun in his Chronicle, Villalpando in his Apparatus, Book 1, chapter 9, Delrio, and Serarius favors this: and this is based on the tradition of the inhabitants of the Holy Land, which Burchard, Adrichomius, and others record; Genebrard, however, in Book 1 of his Chronology, says that according to the Hebrews Adam was buried in Hebron, but according to the Fathers in Golgotha. Be that as it may, it is certain to me that this passage does not signify Hebron. For Adam here is not a proper name but an appellative, meaning "man"; and it does not denote the first man, but the giant Arba.
Thus in 2 Samuel 7:19 it says: "This is the law of Adam (that is, of man), O Lord God." And Hosea 11:4: "With the cords of Adam I will draw them" — Adam meaning man, with which men are usually drawn — and often elsewhere, especially in the Hebrew. For Adam is derived from אדמה adama, which word signifies red earth, just as the Latin homo comes from humus (earth), Genesis 2. For it explains who Arba was, namely Adam, that is, a man who was the greatest, both in the mass of his body and in power, dignity, and authority. Whence it seems that Arba means the same as ar rab, that is, great, powerful, a prince, from the root רבה raba, that is, to be many, that is, he was great, so that the aleph in Arba is not radical but prosthetic or formative of the name; unless you prefer to take Arba literally, meaning four, and the fourth or the square, as if Arba were the fourth of the first giants and princes, or as if he alone were equal and equivalent to four others.
Moreover, God, on account of Caleb, to whom He gave Hebron, so directed the lots in the allotment of the tribes that the lot of the tribe of Judah fell near Hebron, lest Caleb, possessing it, should be separated from his tribe of Judah. Finally, Saint Jerome, Adrichomius, and others assign Caleb's tomb near Hebron.
AND THE LAND RESTED FROM WARS. — This concluding clause, in the Hebrew manner, should be referred to what precedes, not immediately but remotely — namely, to the wars completed by Joshua, which were treated in the preceding chapters — as if to say: When the wars were finished and the Canaanites subdued, since their land was to be divided by lot among the twelve tribes of Israel, and since Caleb had asked and obtained his lot in it from Joshua, that land rested from wars, being now subject to the victorious Hebrews.