We read in Parashat Shelach of God’s decree in the wake of the sin of the scouts that the entire generation would perish in the wilderness, and their children would enter Eretz Yisrael. The exception was Kalev, who had opposed the other spies and encouraged the people to proceed into the land. God promised, “But My servant Kalev…I will bring him to the land to which he had come…” (14:24). Similarly, in Moshe’s account of cheit ha-meragelim in Sefer Devarim (1:36), God promises, “I shall give him [Kalev] the land upon which he treaded.”
Rashi (to 14:24 and 13:22) explains this promise as referring to a more specific reward than permission to enter Eretz Yisrael. Earlier (13:22), when the Torah describes the scouts’ excursion into the land, it speaks of their arrival in the city of Chevron in the singular form (“va-yavo ad Chevron”). Rashi, citing the Gemara (Sota 34b), explains that this refers to Kalev, who temporarily left the other spies to pray at the patriarchs’ burial site in Chevron. After his courageous opposition to the other spies when they presented their findings to the people, God rewarded Kalev by promising that he and his descendants would be given rights to the city of Chevron, where he had gone to pray. Indeed, as Rashi notes, we are told toward the beginning of Sefer Shofetim (1:20) that Benei Yisrael gave the city of Chevron to Kalev. This is also mentioned in Sefer Yehoshua (14), where we read that Kalev approached Yehoshua, recounted the story of the spies and God’s promise, and requested the city of Chevron. He asks that Yehoshua give him “this mountain of which the Lord had spoken that day,” clearly indicating that God had assigned to him specifically the hill of Chevron.
A bit more detail regarding Kalev’s possession of Chevron is given several chapters later in Sefer Yehoshua (21:11-12), where Chevron is listed among the cities that were allocated for the leviyim. More specifically, Chevron was designated as a city of residence for kohanim. However, the verse adds, “sedei ha-ir” (“the city’s fields”) were given to Kalev, and not to the kohanim, in fulfillment of God’s promise. Rashi, in his commentary to Masekhet Makkot (10a), explains this term as referring to the small villages outside the city. Thus, Kalev did not receive the city of Chevron itself – which was assigned as a city of kohanim – but rather the outlying areas around the city.
Malbim, in his commentary to Sefer Yehoshua (chapter 15), notes that this distinction between the city and its suburbs helps reconcile what would otherwise appear as contradictory accounts of the Israelite conquest of Chevron. In the tenth chapter of Sefer Yehoshua (verse 37), we read that the Israelite army led by Yehoshua captured the city of Chevron, whereas in chapter 15 (verse 14), we find that Kalev, after Yehoshua granted him the city of Chevron, courageously captured the region from the fearsome “yelidei ha-anak” tribe that had inhabited it. As the Malbim explains, it seems that Yehoshua captured the actual city of Chevron – which would later be designated as a city of kohanim – and Kalev seized the suburban areas around the city from the “yelidei ha-anak.”
Indeed, as mentioned earlier, Kalev was promised the “land upon which he treaded” – meaning, the area where he had independently gone during the spies’ excursion through Eretz Yisrael. And here in Parashat Shelach, when the Torah records Kalev’s visit to Chevron, it writes, “…he came to Chevron, and there were Sheshai, Achiman and Talmai, the ‘yelidei ha-anak’.” The Torah specifies that Kalev’s pilgrimage was to the area of the “yelidei ha-anak.” Naturally, then, the area he received was specifically the region inhabited by these “yelidei ha-anak,” which was the area he had visited during the spies’ excursion, as opposed to the city itself, which was given to the kohanim.
Courtesy of Yeshivat Har Etzion - www.etzion.org.il