Joshua 15:14

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.

And Caleb drove thence the three sons of Anak,.... Some think this was after the death of Joshua, and is here inserted by some other person divinely inspired, and thoroughly acquainted with this fact, that the gift and the possession of this place might appear in one view; but it rather seems to be done before: Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak; the very same giants Caleb saw at Hebron, when he was sent a spy into the land, Numbers 13:22; for these may as well be supposed to have lived to this time as himself, unless it can be thought that they were the sons of those men, called by their fathers' names; and though they were driven out when Joshua took Hebron, yet while he was engaged in making other conquests, or however before he died, they regained the possession of that city, and of the parts adjacent to it, from whence Caleb, with the help of his tribe, expelled them, conquered, and slew them, Judges 1:10.

Joshua 15:14 . Caleb drove thence — That is, from the said territory, from their caves and forts in it; these giants having either recovered their cities, or defended themselves in the mountains. Caleb did not drive them out by his own power alone, but by the confederate army of the tribes of Judah and Simeon, ( Jdg 1:3-9 ,) in which it is probable he had a principal command, and led on that party which assaulted this city. The three sons of Anak — Either the same whom he had seen forty-five years before, and was not at all affrighted at them; ( Numbers 13:22 ; Jdg 1:10 ;) and so they were long-lived men, as many were in those times and places; or their sons called by their fathers’ names, which was very usual.

Thence, i.e. from the said territory, from their caves and and forts in it: compare Joshua 14:12 . This and the following work was done either in Joshua’s life-time, as may seem from Joshua 11:21 , or after his death, as is related Judges 1:10 ; these giants having either recovered their cities or defended themselves in the mountains. Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai; either the same who are mentioned Numbers 13:33 , and so they were long-lived men, such as many were in those times and places; or their sons, called by their fathers’ names, which is very usual.

Verse 14. - The three sons of Anak. This also must not he pressed literally. Possibly these men were three chiefs of the Anakim. The children of Anak. סתנאדנךשׂסךד יְלִידֵי , thus supporting the view taken in the last note (see for the word Genesis 14:14 ; Genesis 17:12 , where it is used of a slave born in the house ). Joshua 15:14

Thence, i.e., out of Hebron, Caleb drove (ויּרשׁ, i.e., rooted out: cf. יכּוּ, Judges 1:10 ) the three sons of Anak, i.e., families of the Anakites, whom the spies that were sent out from Kadesh had already found there ( Numbers 13:22 ). Instead of Caleb, we find the sons of Judah (Judaeans) generally mentioned in Judges 1:10 as the persons who drove out the Anakites, according to the plan of the history in that book, to describe the conflicts in which the several tribes engaged with the Canaanites. But the one does not preclude the other. Caleb did not take Hebron as an individual, but as the head of a family of Judaeans, and with their assistance. Nor is there any discrepancy between this account and the fact stated in Joshua 11:21-22 , that Joshua had already conquered Hebron, Debir, and all the towns of that neighbourhood, and had driven out the Anakites from the mountains of Judah, and forced them back into the towns of the Philistines, as Knobel fancies.

For that expulsion did not preclude the possibility of the Anakites and Canaanites returning to their former abodes, and taking possession of the towns again, when the Israelitish army had withdrawn and was engaged in the war with the Canaanites of the north; so that when the different tribes were about to settle in the towns and districts allotted to them, they were obliged to proceed once more to drive out or exterminate the Anakites and Canaanites who had forced their way in again (see the remarks on Joshua 10:38-39 , p. 86, note).

36 . save ] Heb. zûlathî , in the Hex. only here, Deuteronomy 4:12 and Joshua 11:13 . Caleb the son of Jephunneh ] In the O. T. Kaleb—probably meaning dog (as from a tribal totem, W. R. Smith, Kinship , 200, 219), though other meanings have been suggested1[110]—is the name both of an individual and of a tribe, as among other Semites; Nabatean Kalba (Cooke, N. Sem. Inscr. 237); Arab. Kilâb (Wellh. Reste , 176 f., 217) and el-Kleib, a small tribe, (Musil, Ar. Petr. iii. 120 f.). In JE frequently Kaleb alone ( Numbers 13:30 ; Numbers 14:24 ; Joshua 15:14 ; Joshua 15:16 f.); those passages in JE in which he is called son of Yephunneh 2[111] are usually regarded as editorial, but it would be rash to say that the name of his father was not already found in JE by the deuteronomists. In D and P Kaleb the son of Yephunneh ( Numbers 13:6 ; Numbers 14:6 ; Numbers 32:12 ; Numbers 34:19 ). According to J, Joshua 15:17 (= Jdg 1:13 ) Kaleb was the brother of Ḳçnaz (the sons of Ḳçnaz were Edomite, Genesis 36:11 ; Genesis 36:15 ; Genesis 36:42 ) and is called the Kenizzite in secondary passages of JE, Joshua 14:6 ; Joshua 14:13 f., which also explain along with Joshua 15:13 how Joshua gave him Ḥebron in fulfilment of Moses’ promise to him. In David’s time the clan was still distinct from Judah or at least the memory of its original distinction was then preserved, 1 Samuel 30:14 .