Friday - Joshua 15 - Judah's Property Description

In real estate there is a document called an abstract that includes the history of a particular parcel of ground. Within that abstract you will find a survey section delineating in meets and bounds exactly where the property lines start and stop. The information is certainly valuable in its proper context and is meaningful to a surveyor, or maybe to a lawyer or a real estate agent, but it's not the kind of thing you would put on the nightstand to read for inspiration in the morning.

Now, this is almost exactly what we have in this section of Joshua. This chapter amounts to a surveyor's tedious description... in ancient form.  Most of the space here (in the 63 verses which comprise Joshua 15) is devoted to listing the cities and distinguishing the borders of the land that was given to the tribe of Judah. If ever there were disputes about what area belonged to Judah and which areas were rightfully the possessions of their bordering tribes, this section of Joshua would have been of principle value in settling them.

Most of the details are general and apply to the whole tribe.  Those specifics were important for the sake of national peace and unity. However, there is one small section that was very much local and even familial in its importance. Remember how we just read yesterday that Caleb claimed a mountain which God had promised to him? Well, after he had taken it, he promised to give his daughter Achsah in marriage to whoever would help him by conquering Kirjathsepher. His nephew Othniel succeeded, and therefore got the girl. In this transaction we find that Caleb was not only a receiver of good things, he was also a giver. His daughter asked him (through her new husband) for some springs of water to go with their property.   Caleb complied.