Joshua 15:20

This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah according to their families.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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, Mic 5:2, except that it was thus honoured, was now so little as not to be accounted one of the cities.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A south land - This term ("negeb") which is often equivalent to a proper name Joshua 15:21, importing the well-defined district which formed the south of the promised land (Numbers 13:17 note), seems here used in its more general sense Psalm 126:4, for a dry or barren land. The rendering of this passage adopted by Septuagint, several versions, and Commentators, etc., "thou hast given me into a south land," i. e. "hast given me in marriage into a south land" is forced; the construction of the verb "to give," with two accusatives, is natural and common to many languages.

Springs of water - The Hebrew words מים גלה gûllâh mayı̂m are found only here and in the parallel passage, Judges 1:15. Hence, some take it as a proper name, "Gulloth-maim," which like Beth-horon Joshua 16:3, Joshua 16:5, was applied to two distinct but adjoining places - distinguished as "the upper" and "the lower." The tract in question was no doubt a mountain slope which had springs both on its higher and lower ground; possibly the modern "Kurmul".

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18, 19. as she came unto him—that is, when about to remove from her father's to her husband's house. She suddenly alighted from her travelling equipage—a mark of respect to her father, and a sign of making some request. She had urged Othniel to broach the matter, but he not wishing to do what appeared like evincing a grasping disposition, she resolved herself to speak out. Taking advantage of the parting scene when a parent's heart was likely to be tender, she begged (as her marriage portion consisted of a field which, having a southern exposure, was comparatively an arid and barren waste) he would add the adjoining one, which abounded in excellent springs. The request being reasonable, it was granted; and the story conveys this important lesson in religion, that if earthly parents are ready to bestow on their children that which is good, much more will our heavenly Father give every necessary blessing to them who ask Him.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah, according to their families. The general description of which is given in the preceding part of the chapter, as the particular cities belonging to it are enumerated in the following part; the account of the gift of Hebron to Caleb, and the taking of Debir by Othniel, with the request of Achsah, and the grant of it, are inserted between them, and stand as it were in a parenthesis.

Geneva Study Bible

This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah according to their families.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

20–32. Cities of Judah in the South

20. This is the inheritance] “The speech of Achsah to her father was the best reason for the slight notice of this desert tract in later times, and is the best introduction to the real territory of Judah, on which we now enter. ‘Give me a blessing, for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water.’ The wells of Beersheba were enough for the Patriarchs, the Amalekites, and the Kenites, but they were not enough for the daughter of Judah and the house of the mighty Caleb.” Stanley’s Sinai and Palestine, p. 161. The territory of Judah, in average length about 45 miles and in average breadth about 50, was from a very early period divided into four main regions—(i) the South; (ii) the Lowland; (iii) the Mountain; (iv) the Wilderness.

(α)  The South was the undulating pasture country which intervened between the hills, the proper possession of the tribe, and the desert country which marks the lower part of Palestine.

(β)  The Lowland, or, to give it its proper name, the Shephelah, was a broad strip of land lying between the central mountains and the Mediterranean Sea. From the edge of the sandy tract which fringes the immediate shore it stretched up to the bases of the hills of Judah—the garden and granary of the tribe—and formed the lower part of the maritime plain which extended along the whole seaboard of Palestine from “the river of Egypt” to Sidon.

(γ)  The Mountain, or “the Hill Country,” though not the richest, was at once the largest and the most important of the four. “Beginning a few miles below Hebron, where it attains its highest level, it stretches eastward to the Dead Sea and westward to the Shephelah, and forms an elevated district or plateau, which, though thrown into considerable undulations, yet preserves a general level in both directions.”

(δ)  The Wilderness, Midbah, which here, and here only, is synonymous with Arâbah, represents the sunken district adjoining the Dead Sea. See Mr. Grove’s article in Smith’s Bibl. Dict.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 20. - This is the inheritance. The territory of Judah is divided into four parts, in the summary which follows: the "south," the "valley," the "mountains," and the "wilderness." Tribe. Here מַטֶּה (see note Joshua 13:29). Joshua 15:20

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Joshua 15:20 contains the closing formula to vv. 1-19, i.e., to the description of the territory of Judah by its boundaries (vid., Joshua 18:20).