Caleb

Holy Caleb (in Hebrew hot, valiant) was the son of Jephunneh of the tribe of Judah (Numbers 13:6) and a companion of Joshua. He is commemorated on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers (in the Russian calendar on 27 December, a movable day).

When the Israelites, on the way from Egypt to the land of Canaan, came to the wilderness of Paran, Moses received a command from God to send twelve men, one from each tribe, to explore the Promised Land. Caleb and Joshua were among the twelve spies. After forty days of travel they returned with fruits of the land: a branch of a vine with a cluster of grapes, carried by two men on a pole, pomegranates and figs. All the spies said the land was exceptionally fertile, but ten added that its inhabitants were many and of gigantic stature. This news threw the camp of Israel into terror; the people wept all night, murmuring against Moses and Aaron. Caleb saw how deeply the news had shaken the people and advised them to set out at once and take the land, in full hope that the Lord is faithful to His promise, however many and fierce the enemies. The ten spies went on spreading their tales, and the people, seized with panic, forgot at once all the Lord's miracles and said it would be better to return to Egypt. Caleb and Joshua grieved at the folly and blindness of the sons of Israel, said that the land of Canaan was very good, fertile and beautiful, and that if they followed God's commands and advanced without fear, they would easily overcome its inhabitants. Yet the sons of Israel were so stirred up by the words of the ten spies that they wished to stone Joshua and Caleb. Their conduct angered the Lord, who pronounced judgment on them: every Israelite over twenty years of age, except Caleb and Joshua, would die in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land. The ten spies who had incited the people were struck dead at once.

Of Caleb the Lord testified in the book of Numbers: because he had another spirit in him and followed Me fully, I will bring him into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it (Numbers 14:24). Forty-⁠five years later, when the land had been conquered and divided among the tribes, Caleb, an old man of eighty-⁠five, asked Joshua for his portion, reminding him of God's promise, and asked as his place Kiriath-⁠arba (Hebron), where the sons of Anak lived in great fortified cities, saying that perhaps the Lord would be with him and he would drive them out (Joshua 14:6-12). He conquered Kiriath-⁠arba and then went with the Israelites against Kiriath-⁠sepher, another city, later called Debir. There he promised to give his daughter Achsah as wife to the one who would take the city. His nephew Othniel took on the task and, after the conquest, received the promised reward. Of Caleb's end nothing is known.

He was an energetic, faithful and resolute man, brave among the timid, confident among the faint of faith. His hand never weakened in unshakeable trust in God's help, and his heart was always full of hope in the goodness, almighty power and righteousness of the Lord. Of his descendants the holy books name his daughter Achsah, his great-⁠grandson, the craftsman Bezalel, and a descendant, the rich Nabal of the time of David.