Joshua 14 Bible study: Give me this hill country

In chapter 13 the LORD told Joshua, "Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh" (13:7). Here the giving begins: "These are the inheritances which the children of Israel took in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed to them" (14:1), "by the lot of their inheritance, as the LORD commanded by Moses, for the nine tribes, and for the half-tribe" (14:2) (tap lot). Numbers had set it down: the lot, "the land shall be divided by lot" (Numbers 26:55); the tribes, "the nine tribes, and to the half-tribe" (Numbers 34:13); and the men who would divide it, "Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun" (Numbers 34:17), with "one prince of every tribe" (Numbers 34:18). The chapter says it twice: "as the LORD commanded by Moses" (14:2), and "The children of Israel did as the LORD commanded Moses, and they divided the land" (14:5) (tap divided). The dividing closes with the same opening words and the same men, in the same order: "These are the inheritances, which Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed for inheritance by lot" (19:51).

Joshua 14:14→leads toMatthew 19:29

Hebron became Caleb's inheritance "because he followed the LORD, the God of Israel wholeheartedly" (14:14). Peter said to Jesus, "Behold, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?" (Matthew 19:27). Jesus answered "you who have followed me" (Matthew 19:28), and said that everyone who has left houses, family or lands "for my name’s sake, will receive one hundred times, and will inherit eternal life" (Matthew 19:29). Jesus doesn't cite Joshua 14, so setting the two side by side is a reading. Some hear them together: following, then inheriting, the order of Caleb's story, now with Jesus as the one followed. Others keep them apart: Caleb's inheritance was a city in the land, sworn by Moses (14:9, 14:13), while Jesus speaks of what is left "for my name’s sake" and of eternal life.

מָלֵאmale'say ma-LAY

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "be full, fill"; Strong's lists "have wholly" among the ways it is rendered. With acharei, "after", it is what the WEB gives as "wholly followed". This chapter says it three times, in three voices: Caleb of himself, "I wholly followed the LORD my God" (14:8); Moses' oath as Caleb recalls it, "because you have wholly followed the LORD my God" (14:9); and the book's own reason, "because he followed the LORD, the God of Israel wholeheartedly" (14:14). In the Hebrew Bible male is followed directly by acharei eight times. Six are about Caleb: these three, "has followed me fully" (Numbers 14:24), Numbers 32:12 (with Joshua) and Deuteronomy 1:36. The other two say it of those who didn't: the men who came out of Egypt, "because they have not wholly followed me" (Numbers 32:11), and Solomon, who "didn’t go fully after the LORD, as David his father did" (1 Kings 11:6).