And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he
said
Had upheld him in life, and preserved him from many dangers in
the wilderness; and had continued him not only in life, but in
health to that day, according to his promise to him, that he
would bring him into the land of Canaan, and that he should see
and possess it, ( Numbers
14:24 ) ( Deuteronomy
1:36 ) ;
these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this
word unto
Moses, and while [the children] of Israel wandered in the
wilderness;
not that the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness
forty five years, but it was while they were in the wilderness
this word or promise, concerning Caleb, was spoken by the Lord to
Moses; and it was in the second year of their coming out of
Egypt, after which they wandered in the wilderness thirty eight
years, so that they had now been in the land of Canaan seven
years; and from hence the Jewish chronologers F19
gather, that the land was seven years in subduing, and which
their commentators in general take notice of. Maimonides
F20 seems to be displeased with the
Arabs for calling the wilderness, through which the Israelites
travelled, "the desert of wandering"; but it appears from hence
to be a very proper epithet of it; and Kadesh the place where
they were first threatened, that they should be wanderers in the
wilderness for such a time, had the additional name of Barnea,
which signifies the son of a wanderer:
and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years
old;
being forty years of age when sent a spy into the land, (
Joshua 14:7 )
; thirty eight years he was with Israel in the wilderness, and
seven years more since they entered into the land, in all eighty
five; there is no necessity of understanding it that this was his
precise birth day, but that about this time, or that he was now
completely of such an age, which was more by fifteen years than
the age of man in common at that time, see ( Psalms 90:10
) .