Chapter 14 Distribution of the Land - The Lot Allocated to Caleb.
This chapter commences the account of the distribution of land to the children of Israel in the land of Canaan itself. However, prior to that distribution it describes the claim of Caleb to Hebron, through a promise made to him by Moses forty five years earlier, after his report that the land to which he was sent as a spy was good; and the grant which Joshua made of it to him, with his blessing.
‘ And these are the inheritances which the children of Israel took 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 children of Israel, distributed to them, by the lot of their inheritance, as YHWH commanded by the hand of Moses, for the nine tribes and for the half tribe.'
In Numbers 34:16-29 the names of those who would take part in the distribution of the land under Eleazar, the son of Aaron, and Joshua, the son of Nun, were given. There were ten ‘heads of the fathers' (princes over the elders) for the nine and a half tribes. Eleazar had precedence because as ‘the Priest' he would be responsible for the use of the Urim and Thummim (compare Numbers 27:21-22). (When Eleazar is mentioned first it is always because consultation has to take place ‘before YHWH' - Joshua 14:1; Joshua 17:4; Joshua 19:51; Joshua 21:1). The word for ‘tribes' is again the word signifying ‘jurisdiction over'.
The land was to be distributed by lot (Numbers 26:55), ‘the lot of their inheritance'. So their inheritances (Joshua 14:1) were divided to them by lot. This would probably be by the Urim and Thummim, but it may have been by sticks being tossed with each of their tribal names on them, or each territory on them. Unlike the division of Transjordan this division was looked on as directly the work and will of YHWH. But a great deal of hard work would already have gone into determining the lands to be divided, and how they were to be divided. The whole land had to be surveyed. The first surveys probably mainly took place during the course of Joshua's campaigns.
“As YHWH commanded by the hand of Moses, for the nine tribes and for the half tribe.” See Numbers 34:13; compare Numbers 26:55; Numbers 33:54. The two and a half tribes had already received their inheritance. Note the stress on the participation of YHWH.