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1 And these are the countries which the children 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 children of Israel, distributed for inheritance to them. 2 By lot was their inheritance, as the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses, for the nine tribes, and for the half tribe. 3 For Moses had given the inheritance of two tribes and an half tribe on the other side Jordan: but unto the Levites he gave none inheritance among them. 4 For the children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim: therefore they gave no part unto the Levites in the land, save cities to dwell in, with their suburbs for their cattle and for their substance. 5 As the LORD commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did, and they divided the land. 6 Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the LORD said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadesh-barnea. 7 Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to espy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart. 8 Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt: but I wholly followed the LORD my God. 9 And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children's for ever, because thou hast wholly followed the LORD my God. 10 And now, behold, the LORD hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the LORD spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. 11 As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in. 12 Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the LORD spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the LORD will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the LORD said. 13 And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance. 14 Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite unto this day, because that he wholly followed the LORD God of Israel. 15 And the name of Hebron before was Kirjath-arba; which Arba was a great man among the Anakims. And the land had rest from war.
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[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Joshua 14:1-5
Just as those who submit to the law, which is the “shadow” of that true law, diligently serve a “shadow and copy” of “heavenly things,” so those who divide the inheritance of the land in Judea imitate the “copy and shadow” of a heavenly division. Thus truth was in heaven, “but a shadow and copy” of truth was on earth. And as long as this shadow remained on earth, there was an earthly Jerusalem; there was a temple, an altar and a visible worship; there were priests and high priests; and there existed regions and towns of Judea and all these things that are described in this book and are now recited.

Source: HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 17.1
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Joshua 14:1-5
A first and a second distribution of the inheritance is reported. The first is indeed through Moses, but the second, and the more powerful, is depicted as accomplished through Jesus [Joshua]. Across the Jordan, Moses decrees property to the tribe of Reuben and the tribe of Gad and to half the tribe of Manasseh, but all the rest receive their inheritance through Jesus [Joshua]. We have already spoken first about how those who had pleased God through the law do not yet reach those things that have been perfected. They precede in time those who attain to the promises through faith in Jesus but must wait for those coming afterwards who will please God in a different time but by one faith, just as the apostle says, “They might not attain perfection without us.”

Source: HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 17.2
[AD 420] Jerome on Joshua 14:1-5
The whole account of the land of Judah and of the tribes is typical of the church in heaven. Let us read Joshua, the son of Nun, or the concluding portions of Ezekiel, and we shall see that the historical division of the land as related by the one finds a counterpart in the spiritual and heavenly promises of the other. What is the meaning of the seven and eight steps in the description of the temple? Or again, what significance attaches to the fact that in the Psalter, after being taught the mystic alphabet by the one hundred and eighteenth psalm6 we arrive by fifteen steps at the point where we can sing: “Behold, now bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord: you who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.” Why did two tribes and a half dwell on the other side of Jordan, a district abounding in cattle, while the remaining nine tribes and a half either drove out the old inhabitants from their possessions or dwelled with them? Why did the tribe of Levi receive no portion in the land but have the Lord for its portion? And how is it that of the priests and Levites, themselves, the high priest alone entered the Holy of Holies where were the cherubim and the mercy seat? Why did the other priests wear linen raiment only, and not have their clothing of wrought gold, blue, scarlet, purple and fine cloth? The priests and Levites of the lower order took care of the oxen and carts; those of the higher order carried the ark of the Lord on their shoulders. If you do away with the gradations of the tabernacle, the temple, the church, if, to use a common military phrase, all upon the right hand are to be “up to the same standard,” bishops are to no purpose, priests in vain, deacons useless. Why do virgins persevere? Widows toil? Why do married women practice continence? Let us all sin, and when once we have repented, we shall be on the same footing as the apostles.

Source: Against Jovinianus 2.34
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Joshua 14:6-9
However, he [the Lord] said they should not come to that land which they had refused, as a penalty for their unbelief; but their children and wives, who had not murmured, and who, owing to their sex and age, were guiltless, should receive the promised inheritance of that land. So the bodies of those of twenty years old and upwards fell in the desert. The punishment of the rest was put aside. But they who had gone up with Joshua, and had thought fit to dissuade the people, died without delay of a great plague. Joshua and Caleb entered the land of promise together with those who were innocent by reason of age or sex. The better part, therefore, preferred glory to safety; the worse part safety to virtue. But the divine judgment approved those who thought virtue was above what is useful, while it condemned those who preferred what seemed more in accordance with safety than with what is virtuous.

Source: On the Duties of the Clergy 3.8.55-56
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Joshua 14:13-14
And so, let us see who it is who first receives the inheritance from Jesus [Joshua]: “Caleb,” it says, “the son of Jephunneh.” For he requests first with certain fixed reasons and words that are described, words that are also able to instruct us for salvation.First of all, Caleb is interpreted “as a heart.” Who, therefore, is “as a heart” if not the one who in all things has devoted effort to discernment, who is not said to be just any member of the body of the church but that one that is the more admirable in us, the heart? That is, he is the one who bears all things with reason and prudence and so arranges all things as if being none other than the heart.
But also Jephunneh, his father, is interpreted “conversion.” Therefore, this Caleb is the son of conversion. Why, unless he were converted to God, could Jephunneh produce from himself such fruit that he begat a heart as a son? Thus Caleb is everyone who is devoted to divine understandings and who conducts all things wisely and reasonably.

Source: HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 18.2
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Joshua 14:13-14
Thus, therefore, even now this very wise Caleb stands before Jesus [Joshua] and promises to be mighty for war and ready for battle. On that account he earnestly demands to be granted the faculty of disputation that he may contend with the dialecticians of the age who hold deceits for truth, to refute them and to subdue and to overthrow all the things that they have established with their false assertions. Moreover, finally, seeing his ardor, “Jesus [Joshua] blesses him,” it says; doubtless because he demands and dares such things. But you too, if you are willing to give attention to studies and wisely to contemplate the law of God and to be made a “heart” in the law of God, you can overthrow these great and fortified towns, that is, the assertions of falsehood. Then you also may deserve to be blessed by Jesus and to receive Hebron from him.

Source: HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 18.3
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Joshua 14:13-14
But Hebron means “union” or “marriage.” Perhaps this can be expressed by Hebron because the double cave purchased by the patriarch Abraham is there, and the remains of the fathers and their wives lie there: Abraham with Sarah, Isaac with Rebecca, and Jacob with Leah. Thus Caleb deserved to receive the remains of the fathers for an inheritance, because no doubt through the wisdom that was in him and by which he flourished both under Moses and under Jesus [Joshua], he had understood the nature of the union itself. He had perceived the reason why only Sarah lay there with Abraham and that neither Hagar nor Keturah deserved to be joined with him; or the reason why only Leah seems to lie with Jacob, and that neither Rachel, who had been loved more, nor any of the concubines was united with him in the tomb. Therefore, prudent and wise Caleb takes the inheritance with the monuments of the fathers. Jesus [Joshua] granted to him Hebron, a mother city of the Anakim nation, and it becomes “a share” for him “up to the present day.”

Source: HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 18.3
[AD 1781] Richard Challoner on Joshua 14:14
Hebron belonged: All the country thereabouts, depending on Hebron, was given to Caleb; but the city itself with the suburbs, was one of those that were given to the priests to dwell in.