Judges 1:15

And she said unto him, Give me a blessing: for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the nether springs.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(15) A blessing—i.e., “a present” (Genesis 33:11).

A south land.—The word also means “a dry and barren land” (Psalm 126:4). The LXX. read “hast given me (in marriage) into a south land.”

Springs of water.—In thus asking for the fertile land which lay at the foot of the mountain slope, she showed herself at once more provident and less bashful than her husband.

The upper springs and the nether springs.—The word here rendered “springs” is gulloth, i.e., “bubblings.” Probably the district for which she asked was called “the upper Gulloth” and “the lower Gulloth,” just as we have “the upper and the nether Beth-horon” (Beit-ur el-foka and el-tahti). The addition of “the deep green glen” to the arid mountain tract of Debir enormously increased the value of her portion. “The source of this incident,” says Dean Stanley, “was first discovered by Dr. Rosen. . . . The word gulloth well applies to this beautiful rivulet. The spots are now called Ain-Nunkûr and Dewîr-ban, about one hour south-west of Hebron. Underneath the hill on which Debir stood is a deep valley, rich with verdure from a copious rivulet, which, rising at the crest of the glen, falls with a continuity unusual in Judean hills down to its lowest depth” (Jewish Church, ii. 264, and Sin. Palest., p. 165. Mr. Wilton, in his Negeb, p. 16, identifies it with Kurnuil). Othniel had a son, Hathath (1Chronicles 4:13), and his posterity continued to late times (Judith 6:15).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

1:9-20 The Canaanites had iron chariots; but Israel had God on their side, whose chariots are thousands of angels, Ps 68:17. Yet they suffered their fears to prevail against their faith. About Caleb we read in Jos 15:16-19. The Kenites had settled in the land. Israel let them fix where they pleased, being a quiet, contented people. They that molested none, were molested by none. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Render "and the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem, and took it, and smote it," etc. With regard to the capture of Jerusalem there is some obscurity. It is here said to have been taken, smitten with the edge of the sword, and burned, by the children of Judah. In Joshua 12:8, Joshua 12:10 the Jebusite and the king of Jerusalem are enumerated among Joshua's conquests, but without any distinct mention of the capture of the city; and in the marginal reference we read that the Jebusites were not expelled from Jerusalem, but dwelt with the children of Judah (compare Judges 1:21). Further, we learn from Judges 19:10-12 that Jerusalem was wholly a Jebusite city in the lifetime of Phinehas Judges 20:28, and so it continued until the reign of David 2 Samuel 5:6-9. The conclusion is that Jerusalem was only taken once, namely, at the time here described, and that this was in the lifetime of Joshua; but that the children of Judah did not occupy it in sufficient force to prevent the return of the Jebusites, who gradually recovered complete possession.

Set the city on fire - A phrase found only at Judges 20:48; 2 Kings 8:12, and Psalm 74:7.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. Now the children of Judah had fought against Jerusalem, and had taken it—The capture of this important city, which ranks among the early incidents in the war of invasion (Jos 15:63), is here noticed to account for its being in the possession of the Judahites; and they brought Adoni-bezek thither [Jud 1:7], in order, probably, that his fate being rendered so public, might inspire terror far and wide. Similar inroads were made into the other unconquered parts of Judah's inheritance [Jud 1:9-11]. The story of Caleb's acquisition of Hebron is here repeated (Jos 15:16-19). [See on [208]Jos 15:16.]

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And she said unto him, Give me a blessing: for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the nether springs. See Gill on Joshua 15:19.

Geneva Study Bible

And she said unto him, Give me a blessing: for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the nether springs.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

15. a blessing] i.e. a present as implying good-will, cf. Genesis 33:11; 1 Samuel 25:27 etc.

thou hast set me in the land of the South] the Negeb (Jdg 1:9 note), where the waterless district of Debir was situated.

springs of water] Gullath- or Golath-maim, so LXX. cod. A Joshua 15:19, an ancient place-name, called after the springs mentioned further on: land in Palestine is valueless without springs. Gullath or Golath, pronounced Gulloth in the text, has the ending ath as in other old Canaanite names, e.g. Zephath, Baalath, Zarephath; the rendering ‘springs’ is conjectural; in Zechariah 4:3, 1 Kings 7:41 f. the word means ‘bowl.’

the upper springs and the nether springs] Gullath-illith and Gullath-taḥtith (changing the plur. of the text to sing.), proper names, without the article. These must have lain between Debir and Hebron; if Debir is eḍ-Ḍâharîyeh, the springs of Seil ed-Dilbeh1[23], 7 m. N. of Dâharîyeh, answer to the requirements. They are 14 in number, feeding a stream which runs for 3 or 4 miles and does not dry up. The springs fall into three groups, and may well correspond with Gullath-upper and Gullath-lower. This attractive story was no doubt told to explain how the springs came to be in the possession of the Othnielites of Debir, when they ought by rights to belong to the clan of Caleb in Hebron; cf. the stories of the wells of Rehoboth and Beer-sheba, Genesis 26:22-33.

[23] Given in the P.E.F. large Map of W. Palestine, sheet xxi.

Judges 1:15

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

After the conquest of Jerusalem, the children of Judah (together with the Simeonites, Judges 1:3) went down to their own possessions, to make war upon the Canaanites in the mountains, the Negeb, and the shephelah (see at Joshua 15:48; Joshua 21:33), and to exterminate them. They first of all conquered Hebron and Debir upon the mountains (Judges 1:10-15), as has already been related in Joshua 15:14-19 (see the commentary on this passage). The forms עלּית and תּחתּית (Judges 1:15), instead of עלּיּות and תּחתּיּות (Joshua 15:19), are in the singular, and are construed with the plural form of the feminine גּלּות, because this is used in the sense of the singular, "a spring" (see Ewald, 318, a.).