2. (Sept XaXfi/3.) A '* son of Hur, the first-bom of Ephratah" above named (and therefore the grandson of the preceding), according to 1 Chron. ii, &, where his sons are enumerated. B.C. ante 1658. Some, however, have identified him with the foregoing, sup- posing a corraption in the text
3. (Sept XoXt/S, but XaXe/3 in 1 Chron. ii, 49 ; Eo- clus. xlvi, 9 ; 1 Mace, ii, 56 ; v. r. XaXou/3 in 1 Sam. XXX, 14; Josephus XaX«/3oc, A nt, iii, 14, 4, etc.) Usually called "the son of Jephunneh'* (Num. sdii, 6, and else- where [see Jephunneu]), sometimes with the addition "the Kenezite" (Num. xxxii, 12; Josh, xiv, 6, 14), from which some have hastily inferred that he may have been a foreigner, and only|>rote/ytei to Judaism. See Ken AZ. Caleb is first mentioned in the list of the mlers or princes (K*^Up^), called in the next verse (&*^^K^) *' heads," one fttim each tribe, who were sent to search the land of Canaan in the second year of the Exode (B.C. 1657), where it may be noted that these officers are all dififerent from those named in Nam. i, ii, vii, X, as at that time phylarchs of the tribes. Ca- leb was one of these family chieftains in the tribe of Judah, perhaps as chief of the fiunily of the Hezron- ites, at the same time that Nahshon, the son of Ammina- dab, was prince of the whole tribe. He and Oshea or Joshua, the son of Nun, were the only two of the whole number who, on their return from Canaan to Kadesh-Bamea, encouraged the |>eople to enter in bold- ly to the land, and take possession of it, for which act of faithfulness they narrowly escaped stoning at the hands of the infuriated people. In the plague that en- sued, while the other ten spies perished, Caleb and Joshua alone were spared. Moreover, while it was
announced to the congregation by Motes that, for this rebellions murmuring, idl that had been numbered from twenty years old and upward, except Joehna and Caleb, should perish in the wilderness, a special pran- ise was made to the latter that he should survive to en- ter into the land which he had trodden upon, and thst his seed should possess it Accordingly, forty-f ve years afterward (B.C. 1612), when some progress had been made in the conquest of the land, Caleb came to Joshua and reminded him of what had happened st Kadesh, and of the promise which Moses made to hua with an oath. He added that though he was now eighty-five years old (hence he was bom B.C. 1698), he was as strong as in the day when Moses sent him to spy out the land, and he claimed possession of the land of the Anakim, Kiijath-Arba, or Hebron, and the neighboring hill-country (Josh. xiv). This was im- mediately granted to him, and the foUowing chapter relates that he took possession of Hebron, driving out the three sons of Anak ; that he offered Achsah, hb daughter, in marriage (comp. 1 Sam. xvii, 25 ; Hygm. Fab, 67) to whoever would take Riijath-Sepher, L e. Debir; and that when Othniel, his younger brother, had performed the feat, he not only gav« him his daughter to wife, but with her the upper and nether springs of water which she asked for. After this we bear no more of Caleb, nor is the time of his deatii re- corded. But we learn from Josh, xxi, 18, tlurt, in the distribution of Cities out of the diflflsrent tribes for the priests and Levites to dwell in, Hebron fell to the priests, the children of Aaron, of the fiunily of the Ko- hatbites, and was also a city of refuge, whUe the sur- rounding territory continued to be the possessicm of Caleb, at least as late as the time of Da^d (1 Sam. XXV, 8), being still called by his name (1 Sam. xxx, 14). His descendants are called CaUbOet (^3^3 for "^abs, Kaltbbi'f 1 Sam. xxv, 8; Sept translates as if a paronomasia were intended, kvvikS^, Auth. Vers. " house of Caleb'*). His name seems to be inserted in 1 Chron. ii, 49, by way of distinction from the oth- ers in the same list See Ewald, /jr. Getch. ii, 288 sq.
Caleb-eph'ratah, a name occurring only in the present text of 1 Chron. ii. 24, as that of a place when Hezron died (HTi^fiK ^bsa, be^Kdtb' EphvTthdk, ffi Caltb to Ephrath). But no such place is elewbeie referred to, and the composition of the name is a most ungrammatical one. Again, neither Hezron or his son could well have given any name to a place in Egypt, the land of their bondage, nor did Hezron prob- ably die, or his son live, elsewhere than in Egypt The present text therefore seems to be corrupt, and the read- faig which the Sept. and Vulg. suggest (ijX^tv XtiXiff tic 'E^a^o, inffresnu ett Caleb ad E^knttkd) is prob- ably the troe one, viz., J^lJ^fiH a?D fita, meaning either "Caleb came to Ephrath," i. e. Bethlehem- Ephratah), or, still better, " Caleb came in unto Eph- rah." The whole information giv«n seems to be that Hezron had two wives, the first, whose name is not given, the mother of Jerahmeel, Bam, and Caleb or Chelubai; the second, Abiah, the daughter of Machir, whom he married when sixty years old, and who bare him Segub and Ashur. Also that Caleb had two wiTea, Azubah, the first, apparentiy the same as Jerioth, and Ephrah, the second, the mother of Hur; and that this second marriage of Caleb did not take place till after Hezron^s death.— Smith, s. v. See Neobb-Calbb.