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Joshua 14

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1 And these are what the sons of Israel inherited in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the sons of Israel caused them to inherit.

2 By lot was their inheritance, as Jehovah commanded by the hand of Moses, for the nine tribes and the half tribe.

3 For Moses had given the inheritance of two tribes and a half tribe across the Jordan; and to the Levites He gave no inheritance in the midst of them.

4 For the sons of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim; and they gave no part unto the Levites in the land, but cities to dwell in, and their suburbs* for their livestock and their substance.

5 As Jehovah commanded Moses, so the sons of Israel did, and they parted the land.

6 And the sons of Judah approached Joshua in Gilgal; and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezzite said to him, Thou knowest the word that Jehovah spoke to Moses the man of God concerning me and concerning thee in Kadesh-barnea.

7 A son of forty years was I when Moses the servant of Jehovah sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy·​·out the land; and I returned him the word as it was with my heart.

8 And my brothers that went·​·up with me made the heart of the people melt; but I fully followed after Jehovah my God.

9 And Moses promised in that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy foot has trodden shall be for an inheritance to thee and to thy sons even·​·to eternity; for thou hast fully followed after Jehovah thy God.

10 And now, behold, Jehovah has caused me to live, as He spoke, these forty and five years since Jehovah spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness; and now, behold, I am today a son of five and eighty years.

11 As·​·yet I am as strong today as in the day that Moses sent me; as my power was then so is my power now, for war, and to go·​·out and to come·​·in.

12 And now, give me this mountain, of which Jehovah spoke in that day; for thou heardest in that day that the Anakim were there, and the cities are great and fortified; perhaps Jehovah will be with me, and I shall dispossess them as Jehovah spoke.

13 And Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance.

14 Therefore Hebron became an inheritance for Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezzite even·​·to this day, because he had fully followed after Jehovah, the God of Israel.

15 And the name of Hebron formerly was Kiriath-arba; he was the great man among the Anakim. And the land had quiet from war.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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Two

  

The number "two" has two different meanings in the Bible. In most cases "two" indicates a joining together or unification. This is easy to see if we consider the conflicts we tend to have between our "hearts" and our "heads" -- between what we want and what we know. Our "hearts" tell us that we want pie with ice cream for dinner; our "heads" tell us we should have grilled chicken and salad. If we can bring those two together and actually want what's good for us, we'll be pretty happy. We're built that way -- with our emotions balanced against our intellect -- because the Lord is built that way. His essence is love itself, or Divine Love, the source of all caring, emotion and energy. It is expressed as Divine Wisdom, which gives form to that love and puts it to work, and is the source of all knowledge and reasoning. In His case the two aspects are always in conjunction, always in harmony. It's easy also to see how that duality is reflected throughout creation: plants and animals, food and drink, silver and gold. Most importantly, it's reflected in the two genders, with women representing love and men representing wisdom. That's the underlying reason why conjunction in marriage is such a holy thing. So when "two" is used in the Bible to indicate some sort of pairing or unity, it means a joining together. In rare cases, however, "two" is used more purely as a number. In these cases it stands for a profane or unholy state that comes before a holy one. This is because "three" represents a state of holiness and completion (Jesus, for instance, rose from the tomb on the third day), and "two" represents the state just before it.