Commentary on Joshua - Keil & Delitzsch - David Cox

Keil and Delitzsch <strong>Commentary</strong> on the Old Testament
14:6). According to Judg 1:13 and 3:9, Othniel was Caleb's younger brother. Caleb
gave him his daughter for a wife, as marriage with a brother's daughter was not
forbidden in the law (see my Bibl. Archäol. ii. §107, note 14).
Verse 18-19. When Achzah had become his wife ( "as she came," i.e., on her coming
to Othniel, to live with him as wife), she urged him to ask her father for a field. "A
field:" in Judg 1:14 we find "the field," as the writer had the particular field in his
mind. This was not "the field belonging to the town of Debir" ( Knobel ), for Othniel
had no need to ask for this, as it naturally went with the town, but a piece of land that
could be cultivated, or, as is shown in what follows, one that was not deficient in
springs of water. What Othniel did is not stated, but only what Achzah did to attain
her end, possibly because her husband could not make up his mind to present the
request to her father. She sprang from the ass upon which she had ridden when her
father brought her to Othniel. tsaanach , which only occurs again in Judg 4:21, and in
the parallel passage, Judg 1:14, is hardly connected with tsaana` (OT:6800), to be
lowly or humble ( Ges. ); the primary meaning is rather that suggested by Fürst , to
force one's self, to press away, or further; and hence in this case the meaning is, to
spring down quickly from the animal she had ridden, like naapal (OT:5307) in Gen
24:64.
Alighting from an animal was a special sign of reverence, from which Caleb inferred
that his daughter had some particular request to make of him, and therefore asked her
what she wanted: "What is to thee?" or, "What wilt thou?" She then asked him for a
blessing (as in 2 Kings 5:15); "for," she added, "thou hast given me into barren land."
hanegeb (OT:5045) 'erets (OT:776) (rendered a south land) is accus. loci; so that
negeb is not to be taken as a proper name , signifying the southernmost district of
Canaan (as in v. 21, etc.), but as an appellative, "the dry or arid land," as in Ps 126:4.
"Give me springs of water," i.e., a piece of land with springs of water in it. Caleb then
gave her the "upper springs and lower springs:" this was the name given to a tract of
land in which there were springs on both the higher and lower ground. It must have
been somewhere in the neighbourhood of Debir, though, like the town itself, it has
not yet been found.
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