Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 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.
15. a blessing ] i.e. a present as implying good-will, cf. Gen 33:11; 1Sa 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 Jos 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 Zec 4:3, 1Ki 7:41 f. the word means ‘bowl.’
the upper springs and the nether springs ] Gullath-illith and Gullath-tatith (changing the plur. of the text to sing.), proper names, without the article. These must have lain between Debir and Hebron; if Debir is e-haryeh, the springs of Seil ed-Dilbeh 1 [23] , 7 m. N. of Dharyeh, 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, Gen 26:22-33.
[23] Given in the P.E.F. large Map of W. Palestine, sheet xxi.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 15. See Clarke on Jud 1:12.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the 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 comments on Jos 15:19].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(15) A blessingi.e., a present (Gen. 33:11).
A south land.The word also means a dry and barren land (Psa. 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-Nunkr and Dewr-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 (1Ch. 4:13), and his posterity continued to late times (Jdt. 6:15).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
Ver. 15. To convince all ] To set them down, to leave them excuseless, speechless, self-condemned, .
Of all their hard speeches ] Their rude, crude, crooked, cross speeches, uttered with perverse lips; so Solomon calls them, Pro 4:24 , as if the upper lip stood where the nether lip should.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
a blessing: Gen 33:11, 1Sa 25:18, 1Sa 25:27, 2Co 9:5, *marg. Heb 6:7, 1Pe 3:9
a south land: Which was probably dry, or very ill watered.
give me also springs of water: Let me have some fields with brooks, or wells already digged.
Reciprocal: Gen 21:25 – reproved Num 13:17 – southward Jos 15:19 – Give me