Comentario sobre Josué 14:20

That were apportioned to them. They caused them to inherit [their portions].

The descendants of Yoseif were two tribes. In place of the tribe of Levi.¹Moshe and Yehoshua were commanded that the Levi’im were not to be given a portion of the land. The land was to be divided only among the other eleven tribes. The children of Menashe and Ephraim were counted as two tribes so that the land would be divided by twelve tribes. This came about through the will of Yaakov, who told Yoseif that his two sons, Ephraim and Menashe, would be considered as his own two son, Reuven and Shimon. (See Bereishis 48:7) This is mentioned here to explain how Yehoshua was to divide the land among nine and half tribes, when without Levi, there would be only eight and a half. We are told therefore that Menashe and Ephraim were counted as two tribes, thus this would compensate for the omission of Levi.

As was in my heart. But not as it was in my mouth, for the spies were united in their scheme and Caleiv was afraid to tell them that he would not say as they would.²It is difficult to resist group pressure. As long as he was with the other spies, he hid his true feelings, because he wanted them to think that he agreed with them. Otherwise, he was afraid that they would harm him. But when he returned [to Moshe] he contradicted them.³By the time Caleiv returned to Moshe, he said with all his heart, “The land through which we passed to scout it, that land is very, very good. If Adonoy desires us, He will bring us into the land and give it to us.” (Bamidbar 13:7,8). This is what is stated there, “Because he possesed in him a different spirit,”⁴Bamidbar 14:24. for what he said to them by mouth was not what was in his heart.

It is now forty five years. From this we learn that it took seven years to conquer the land, for it was in the second year⁵After they went out of Egypt. that Moshe sent the spies.⁶To spy out the land. After that, there remained thirty eight years during which they traveled through the wilderness, and seven years to conquer the land, which add up to forty five years.

The greatest man among the giants. The father of Achimon, Sheishai, and Talmai was Arba.⁷Chevron was the home of these four famous giants, the three brothers and their father. Another explanation: [It was called Kiryas-arba, the city of four]⁸There are other interpretations regarding what the “four” refers to. Some say it refers to the burial place of four great men and their wives: Odom and Chava, Avrohom and Soroh, Yitzchok and Rivkoh, and Yaakov and Leah. because of the father and the three sons, for they are referred to as the offspring of the “Anak,” [the giant].⁹See Bamidbar 13:22.

And the land had respite from war. This refers back to the previous subject.¹⁰See above 11:23. The conclusion of the verse does not seem connected to the subject matter of Caleiv’s receiving Chevron as his inheritance. Rashi, therefore comments that indeed, it refers to the earlier topic discussed in the previous chapter. After the seven years of conquest, the Emorites were humbled and they no longer gathered for war against them. Therefore they began to be occupied in the division of the land [among the tribes] the Midrash Aggadah comments that the greatest man among giants refers to our father, Avrohom. Because of him, the land [of the Canaanite people,] had respite from war during the forty years [that Bnei Yisroel] lingered in the wilderness. They were so rewarded because they honored the Patriarch in Kiryas-arba, when they said to him, “You are a prince of God in our midst.”¹¹Bereishis 23:6.