But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.
My servant Caleb. Joshua was also excepted, but he is not named, because he was no longer in the ranks of the people, being a constant attendant on Moses.
Had another spirit. Under the influence of God's Spirit, was a man of bold, generous, heroic course, above worldly anxieties and fears. 'Our Lord, in the parable of the marriage of the king's son, said, "Many are called, but few chosen." These words do but state a truth which had long before been finding its fulfillment in the kingdom of God, and which, alas! is always accomplishing there. They were fulfilled in the history of that entire generation which went out of Egypt; these were "called" to a kingdom, yet were not in the end "chosen" to it, since with most of them God was not well pleased, and they died in the wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:1-10; Hebrews 3:7-19; Jude 1:5). They were fulfilled on a smaller scale in those twelve to whom it was given the first to see the promised land; two only drew strength and encouragement from that sight, and they only were "chosen" to inherit it' (Trench 'On Par.,' p. 237).