Joshua 14:8

8 My brothers, however, who went up with me, made the heart of the people like water: but I was true to the Lord with all my heart.

Joshua 14:8 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 14:8

Nevertheless, my brethren that went up with me
Meaning the rest of the spies, excepting Joshua, that went up with him into the land of Canaan to spy it, which they might be properly said to do, since they went up a hill or mountain, in order to go into it, ( Numbers 13:17 ) ;

made the heart of the people melt;
discouraged them, filled them with fears, sunk their spirits, that their hearts flowed, and became as weak as water, having no strength left in them, or hope of possessing the land; being told what stout and gigantic men the inhabitants of it were, and how strongly fortified were their cities:

but I wholly followed the Lord my God;
and did not join with them in an ill report of the good land; but having the fear of God before his eyes, walked after that, and delivered in his report faithfully, according to the dictates of his conscience, and the real sentiments of his mind; of this phrase, (See Gill on Numbers 14:24).

Joshua 14:8 In-Context

6 Then the children of Judah went to Joshua in Gilgal; and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, said to him, You have knowledge of what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God, about me and about you in Kadesh-barnea.

7 I was forty years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh-barnea to make a search through the land; and the account which I gave him was in keeping with his desire.

8 My brothers, however, who went up with me, made the heart of the people like water: but I was true to the Lord with all my heart.

9 And on that day Moses took an oath, saying, Truly the land where your feet have been placed will become a heritage for you and your children for ever, because you have been true to the Lord your God with all your heart.

10 And now, as you see, the Lord has kept me safe these forty-five years, from the time when the Lord said this to Moses, while Israel was wandering in the waste land: and now I am eighty-five years old.