Caleb

Etymology

Most likely from 'kel' (whole, all) and 'lev' (heart) — 'wholehearted.' The word also means 'dog' in Hebrew, which in the ancient Near East could signify loyalty and devotion rather than insult.

Who they were

Caleb is one of the Old Testament's great models of sustained courage. When Moses sent twelve spies into the promised land, ten returned terrified by the fortified cities and giant inhabitants. Only Caleb and Joshua dissented. Caleb silenced the crowd and said, 'We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.' God's verdict was decisive: of the entire exodus generation, only Caleb and Joshua would enter the land, because Caleb 'has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly.' Caleb then spent forty years in the wilderness with a generation that had rejected his counsel. When the time finally came to enter the land, Caleb was eighty-five years old — and asked for the hardest assignment. 'Give me this hill country,' he said to Joshua, referring to Hebron, where the very giants the spies had feared still lived. 'I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out.' He took Hebron. His story is about the kind of faithfulness that outlasts everything — doubt, delay, forty years of waiting — and still has the energy to fight at the end.

Family

Father

Jephunneh (the Kenizzite)

Children

Achsah,Iru,Elah,Naam

Character qualities

• Courage against majority opinion
• Decades-long faithfulness
• Physical vigour in old age
• Confidence in God's promises
• Willingness to take the hardest assignment

Key verse

Numbers 14:24

Where they appear

Themes

Variants & related forms

Kaleb · Calev · Chalev

Related names