Then the children of Judah drew near to Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, You know the thing that Yahweh spoke to Moses the man of God concerning me and concerning you in Kadesh-barnea.
"Caleb, the Kenizzite ..."  (Joshua 14:6).  "Kenaz was evidently a descendant of Edom, but was assimilated into the tribe of Judah."[14]  Caleb rose to the chief of the tribe of Judah  (Numbers 13-14).  He was born in Egypt, survived the wilderness experience of Israel, and figured prominently in his advanced age in the subjugation of Canaan.  His racial extraction does not cast a cloud upon his legitimacy as a Jew, his status being exactly the same as that of the descendants of Ruth the Moabitess (which included King David), and of Rahab the harlot.  The descendants of Ruth and Rahab enjoyed their Jewish privileges through marriage, and the same is true of Caleb.  "Before the Exodus, Caleb's father, a non-Israelite, had married a daughter of Hur of the clan of Chelubai (Caleb) in the tribe of Judah  (1 Chronicles 2:9,18,19)."[15]  From this it is perfectly clear that Caleb was not already in Canaan before the Exodus, nor had the Calebites the ownership of Hebron before Joshua.