16 And Caleb saith, 'He who smiteth Kirjath-Sephar, and hath captured it—I have given to him Achsah my daughter for a wife.' 17 And Othniel son of Kenaz, brother of Caleb, doth capture it, and he giveth to him Achsah his daughter for a wife. 18 And it cometh to pass, in her coming in, that she persuadeth him to ask from her father a field, and she lighteth from off the ass, and Caleb saith to her, 'What—to thee?' 19 And she saith, 'Give to me a blessing; when the land of the south thou hast given me, then thou hast given to me springs of waters;' and he giveth to her the upper springs and the lower springs.
20 This 'is' the inheritance of the tribe of the sons of Judah, for 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.