Caleb
In the Old Testament, Caleb , the son of Jefunnes , was initially a spy of the tribe of Judah during the desert wandering of the Israelites after their exodus from Egypt . He later received hereditary property in Hebron in Canaan . He is mentioned primarily in the books Numbers , Deuteronomy , Joshua, and Judges . He is seen as a model of faithfulness to YHWH's promises, which the rest of the people of Israel continually refused and betrayed.
Another person with the same name may be called. a. mentioned in 1 Chr 2.9 EU .
etymology
The Hebrew personal name כָּלֵב kālev is the short form of a genitive connection consisting of a basic word (כָּלֵב kālev "dog") and a qualifier , which at the same time forms the theophoric element , but in the short form has failed. The result is the meaning "dog of (God)". Martin Noth takes a one-word name ("dog") and translates the name as "dog mad / mad". According to the name itself, this would also be grammatically possible, but since parallels in Akkadian ( Kal-bi- d AMAR.UD "Dog of Marduk "), Amurrian ( Ka-al-ba-DINGIR "Dog of El ") and Phoenician ( Klb If personal names exist in the "dog of the gods", the assumption of a genitive connection is more likely.
The Septuagint gives the name as Χαλεβ Chaleb .
Caleb, son of Jefunnes
According to the narrative of the Numbers, Caleb was one of the spies who Moses sent from the Paran desert (now the Negev ) to the populated land of Canaan . While the other spies terrified the people with the rumor that the land was impregnable and inhabited by giants , Kaleb dared to be the only one besides Joshua to encourage the people to trust firmly in the promise of their God during the conquest, and was almost stoned for it . Only a revelation from God saved him and restored the authority of Moses. While God subsequently denied the capture of the land of Canaan to most of Israel's desert generation, Kaleb received the promise:
- “Only my servant Caleb, because another spirit is in him and he has faithfully followed me, I will bring him to the land to which he came, and his descendants shall take it while the Amalekites and Canaanites dwell in the plain stay. "( Num 14,24f LUT )
45 years later, according to the Book of Joshua, this promise was fulfilled: At an old age, Caleb succeeded in conquering Hebron , an ancient Canaanite city in the mountains ( Jos 14: 6-15 EU ). Kaleb is the progenitor of the Calebites who settled in the Hebron area. He had a daughter named Achsa ( Jos 15,16 LUT ).
Caleb, son of Hezron
In 1 Chr 2.9 EU , Caleb is the youngest son of Hezron , his brothers are called Jerachmeel and Ram. Caleb is a grandson of Perez and great-grandson of Judah. He marries Asuba and has a daughter named Jeriot ( 1 Chr 2,18 EU ). After Asuba's death he married Efrata, who gave birth to the son Hur ( 1 Chr 2,19 EU ). After the death of his father Hezron, he married his wife Abijah, and the connection resulted in a son named Ashhur ( 1 Chr 2.24 EU ). In 1 Chr 42 EU , Mescha and Marescha are finally named as his sons. Furthermore, according to 1 Chr 2.46 EU, Haran, Moza and Gases are sons of Caleb and his concubine Efa, and Scheber and Tirhana and Schaaf and Sheva are sons of his concubine Maacha ( 1 Chr 2.48-49 EU ). In addition, a daughter named Achsa is mentioned in 1 Chr 2.49 EU .
See also
literature
- Siegfried Kreuzer: Caleb. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 3, Bautz, Herzberg 1992, ISBN 3-88309-035-2 , Sp. 963-964.
- Martin Noth : The Israelite personal names in the context of common naming , Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1928, 230.248.
- Hans Rechenmacher : Old Hebrew personal names. Münster 2012, 35.164.208.
