(14) When she came to him.--When she first reached his house as a bride.

She moved him.--He was too modest to ask for himself, and he declined her request; but she will not enter till she has gained her way.

A field.--Rather, the field. In the passage in Joshua 15:18 there is no definite article, but by the time this book was written the field then obtained by Achsah had become historical.

Lighted.--Not merely in sign of reverence (like Rebecca in Genesis 24:64, and Abigail in 1Samuel 25:25), but "leaped off" with eager impetuosity. The Hebrew verb tsanach here used occurs in Judges 4:21, where it is rendered "fastened," i.e., "drove it firmly by a blow." The LXX. render it "screamed" or "shouted from the ass;" the Vulg., "sighed as she was sitting on the ass;" but they probably had a different reading. "Suddenly," says Ewald, "as if some accident had happened to her, she fell from her ass, and on being embraced by her anxious father, she adjured him as if in words of inspiration" (Hist. Isr. ii. 366).

What wilt thou?--Caleb was unable to understand her conduct in refusing to enter the house of her bridegroom.

Verse 14. - She moved him, etc. There is some obscurity in this verse, which seems to tell us that Achsah, on her wedding-day, when she was going to her husband s house, persuaded him to ask of her father the field, viz. that in which the springs of water were, and which were not included in her original dower; and then goes on to tell us that Achsah herself made the request. The Septuagint reads, "Othniel urged her to ask the field of her father," and the Vulgate has, "Her husband told her to ask her father," and then it follows naturally, "and she lighted from off her ass," etc. But the Hebrew reading may be right, and it may be that when her husband, brave in storming a city, but timid in asking a favour, hung back, she, with the tenacious will of a woman, sprang off the ass herself, and successfully preferred her request. Dean Stanley identifies (though not with absolute certainty) the "field thus obtained by Achsah with an unusually green valley amidst the dry, barren hills of the south country, lying south or west of Hebron, called Wady Nuukur, through which Caleb and Achsah must have ridden on their way from Hebron to Debir, or Kirjath-sepher. This valley breaks into a precipitous and still greener ravine, and both the upper and lower pastures are watered by a clear, bubbling rivulet, which rises in the upper meadow, and flows to the bottom of the ravine below. The name of a village, Dewir, seems to represent the ancient Debir.

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.And it came to pass, when she came to him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she lighted from off her ass;

and Caleb said unto her, What wilt thou? See Gill on Joshua 15:18.