Now, behold, Yahweh has kept me alive, as he spoke, these forty-five years, from the time that Yahweh spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness: and now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old.
"It may be that Jehovah will be with me ..."  (Joshua 14:12).  Some have expressed surprise that a man of such courage and conviction as that of Caleb should have appeared to express a little doubt here by the employment of the words "may be."  This is not true.  Those words, in this context, express conviction without presumption.  "`It may be' expresses not doubt, but full dependence upon the Lord."[20]  "The expression also signifies HOPE."[21]  Critics think they have found a contradiction between  Joshua 10:36-39 which describe the fall of Hebron to Joshua, and this passage, along with  Joshua 15, where Caleb actually takes the place, subdues it, and occupies it."[22]  Cook's wise comment on this is: