16 And Caleb said, I will give Achsah, my daughter, as wife to the man who overcomes Kiriath-sepher and takes it. 17 And Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's brother, took it: so he gave him his daughter Achsah for his wife. 18 Now when she came to him, he put into her mind the idea of requesting a field from her father: and she got down from her ass; and Caleb said to her, What is it? 19 And she said, Give me a blessing; because you have put me in dry south-land, now give me springs of water. So he gave her the higher spring and the lower spring.

The Cities of Judah

20 This is the heritage of the tribe of Judah, by their families.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on Joshua 15:16-20

Commentary on Joshua 15:13-19

(Read Joshua 15:13-19)

Achsah obtained some land by Caleb's free grant. He gave her a south land. Land indeed, but a south land, dry and apt to be parched. She obtained more, on her request, and he gave the upper and the nether springs. Those who understand it but of one field, watered both with the rain of heaven, and the springs that issued out of the earth, countenance the allusion commonly made to this, when we pray for spiritual and heavenly blessings which relate to our souls, as blessings of the upper springs, and those which relate to the body and the life that now is, as blessings of the nether springs. All the blessings, both of the upper and the nether springs, belong to the children of God. As related to Christ, they have them freely given of the Father, for the lot of their inheritance.

Commentary on Joshua 15:20-63

(Read Joshua 15:20-63)

Here is a list of the cities of Judah. But we do not here find Bethlehem, afterwards the city of David, and ennobled by the birth of our Lord Jesus in it. That city, which, at the best, was but little among the thousands of Judah, Micah 5:2, except that it was thus honoured, was now so little as not to be accounted one of the cities.