Kalev
b. 1352 BCE · Biblical era · Egypt
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Kalev, son of Yefuneh, represented the tribe of Yehudah among the twelve scouts Moshe sent from the wilderness of Paran to explore Canaan (Numbers 13:2-6). Ten of the scouts returned frightened by the land's fortified cities and giants. Kalev silenced the people and urged, 'Let us by all means go up' (Numbers 13:30). With Yehoshua he tore his clothes and pleaded with Israel not to rebel or fear (Numbers 14:6-9). Because he had 'a different spirit' and followed God fully, God promised that he and Yehoshua alone of their generation would enter the land (Numbers 14:24, 30). Forty-five years later, aged 85, he reminded Yehoshua of that promise. He said he was as strong as the day he was sent, and asked for the hill country of Hebron, which became his portion (Joshua 14:6-14). He drove out the three Anakite chiefs there. He offered his daughter Achsah to whoever took Kiryat Sefer, and his kinsman Otniel won her (Joshua 15:13-17). The Talmud identifies him with 'Caleb son of Hezron' of 1 Chronicles 2 (Temurah 16a; assumed also in Sanhedrin 69b), which would make him the great-grandfather of Betzalel.
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Egypt
What they did here
Born in Egypt during the bondage. He was of the generation 'who came out of Egypt', of whom only he and Yehoshua would enter the land (Numbers 32:11-12). General Egypt pin.
Egypt in this era
In the biblical narrative Egypt is where Abraham went during a famine, where Joseph became the pharaoh's chief minister, and where Jacob's descendants were enslaved until Moses led the Exodus (traditional Jewish chronology: 1313 BCE). Historians find no direct Egyptian or archaeological record of these events; many see the story as taking shape over centuries, possibly around older memories of Semitic groups living in Egypt.
About Egypt
Egypt, the Nile valley and delta in northeast Africa, was home to one of the world's oldest states, ruled by pharaohs from about 3000 BCE. In the Torah's narrative Abraham sojourned there, Joseph rose to power there and the Israelites were enslaved before the Exodus; historians find no direct evidence for these events, though many think the story may preserve older memories. Greek traders and travellers knew Egypt from the 7th century BCE; Alexander's conquest (332 BCE) brought Ptolemaic and then Roman rule (from 30 BCE), with Alexandria a capital of Greek learning and home to a large Jewish community. After the Arab conquest (639-642) Fustat and then Cairo became its centres; Maimonides lived and wrote in Fustat in the 12th century.
In Egypt at the same time
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Kalev’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Kalev’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn from recorded birth and death years (reign years for rulers whose lives are undated); where only one end of a life is known, a span of about 70 years is assumed.
Jewish world
Hindu world
Egyptian world
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.