“So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day …”
Caleb son of Jephunneh is eighty-five when he speaks these words to his fellow senior citizen and current leader of Israel’s armies, Joshua son of Nun. Joshua and the high priest Eleazar are in the process of dividing the largely-conquered land of Canaan by lot to assign territory to the various tribes. In the middle of this, Caleb comes to ask a personal favor. In the process, he does some reminiscing.
He’s casting his mind back to a particular day forty-five years in the past.