Joshua 15: Judah’s territory and more about Caleb.

This chapter describes the territory given to the tribe of Judah, and lists many of its cities and borders. Judah received a major portion of the land of Canaan; its eastern border was the Salt Sea (the Dead Sea), and the western border was the Great Sea (the Mediterranean).

Although Judah was the fourth son of Jacob, he played a more significant role in many of the Old Testament stories than his older brothers did. So, it is not surprising that the tribe of Judah received extensive territory in the south of Canaan, which in later time became the nation of Judah, along with the tribe of Benjamin’s small territory. The name ‘Judah’ also eventually led to the name ‘Jewish’, coming from the Roman province of Judaea. The name ‘Judah’ also means “praise”, specifically praise of God (see Swedenborg’s work, Arcana Caelestia 456).

Praise itself is a commendation of a person’s good qualities. To give praise is part of our love for our neighbour; to receive praise underscores our sense of our own value. To praise the Lord is to give thanks to Him, and to affirm the difference that the Lord makes in our life. Ultimately, praise is part of our faith in the Lord to lead us through this life and for eternity.

This uplifting, positive spiritual meaning of Judah does not mean that Judah (the man in the Old Testament) was without faults. He had his flaws, as everyone does, but at times Judah changed the course of events for a better outcome. It was Judah who persuaded his brothers to sell Joseph rather than kill him, and he also offered himself as a hostage for the sake of his brothers (Arcana Caelestia 4815[2]).

Chapter 15 lists very many locations in Judah’s territory. Here are just a few of the places listed, along with their meaning and spiritual significance:

Judah = “praise”

Spiritually = our worship of God

Which includes these, and many more aspects…

Zin = “flat, level ground”

Spiritually = life under God’s guidance

Kadesh Barnea = “holy wanderings”

Spiritually = becoming purified

Beth Hoglah = “house of the partridge”

Spiritually = bringing to birth

En Rogel = “water spring of the foot”

Spiritually = life in everyday activities

Jerusalem = “dwelling place of peace; wholeness”

Spiritually = our highest spiritual state

Nephtoah = “to be open”

Spiritually = to be part of all life

Timnah = “allotted portion”

Spiritually = what the Lord has created me for

Mount Hebron, which was in the territory of Judah, was given to Caleb as an inheritance because of his faithfulness to God. We read in this chapter that he conquers the giants living there, and drives them away from Mount Hebron. Caleb makes a promise that whoever takes the nearby city of Kirjath-sepher will have his daughter, Achsah, for a wife. Caleb’s brother’s son, Othniel, captures the city and marries Achsah. Caleb blesses Achsah and gives her springs of water upon her request, and he also gives Othniel a field.

The spiritual meaning of this touching story is that our spiritual life is intended to come together to be like a family (Arcana Caelestia 3020), just as Caleb, Achsah and Othniel are all close members of a family. Spiritual life is about bringing together our beliefs, our loves and affections, our intentions, and our actions. These different aspects of spiritual life become like one family where everyone – or everything – is interwoven together.

457. Nearly everyone who enters the next life from the world imagines that hell is the same for everybody, and that heaven is too, when in fact there are limitless differences and variations in both. Hell is never exactly the same for one person as it is for another, and neither is heaven, just as one man, spirit, or angel is never given to be exactly like another. At my merest thought of two being exactly alike or equal, people in the world of spirits and those in the angelic heaven were horrified. They said that every unified whole is formed from the harmony of many constituent parts, and that that whole depended on this harmony. Indeed a simple whole cannot possibly exist, only a harmonized whole. Every community in heaven forms a whole in this way, and all the communities, that is, heaven in its entirety, form a whole. And all this derives from the Lord alone by means of love. A certain angel was counting up merely the most general classes of joy found among spirits, that is, among members of the first heaven. They came to about four hundred and seventy-eight. This demonstrated how countless the less general classes must be and how innumerable the divisions within each class. And with so many in the first heaven alone, how limitless must be the classes of happiness in the heaven of angelic spirits, and still more in the heaven of angels!