In this penultimate chapter I turn to the political history of Judah. My objective will be to discern more precisely what might have provoked this war commemoration on the behalf of the Calebites’ eponymous ancestor. Why did biblical authors celebrate Caleb’s valor? In order to answer this question, I will begin by examining evidence from the independent history of King David that I isolated in the first chapters of this book. From there I will consider other factors that shed light on the historiographical contexts in which the figure of Caleb assumed shape and color.

Abigail, David, and Calebite Territories

The earliest biblical passage to mention Caleb refers not to a person but to a place, namely “the Negeb of Caleb.” The passage belongs to the account of David’s time in the employ of the Philistine ruler at Gath. In Chapter 3 I situated that passage in relation to the independent history of David’s reign over Judah (HDR). A lengthy excerpt from the HDR has often served as the point of departure for previous treatments of David’s relationship to the Calebites. Depicting an event from David’s time as a warlord prior to his mercenary service at Gath, the excerpt portrays the fate of a wealthy Calebite landowner named Nabal. While this “churlish fellow” refuses to pay for the “protection” afforded by David and his warriors, his brave wife goes out of her way to provision the troops with a generous array of fine foods.