Joshua 15:13 He [Joshua, acting for God] gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh a portion among the children of Judah, according to the commandment of Yahweh to Joshua, even Kiriath Arba, named after the father of Anak (also called Hebron). 14 Caleb drove out the three sons of Anak: Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak. 15 He went up against the inhabitants of Debir: now the name of Debir before was Kiriath Sepher. 16 Caleb said, “He who strikes Kiriath Sepher, and takes it, to him I will give Achsah my daughter as wife.” 17 Othniel the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, took it: and he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife. 18 When she came, she had him ask her father for a field. She got off her donkey, and Caleb said, “What do you want?”19 She said, “Give me a blessing. Because you have set me in the land of the South, give me also springs of water.” So he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. (This story is repeated in Judges 1)
We don't know much about Achsah. But the Bible tells us, here, that she was a daughter of a leader in Israel, Caleb, who was one of the two spies sent to check out the land before the Israelis entered, and one of the two who said that they could conquer the land. Achsah was also the wife of Othniel, the first judge for Israel. (see Judges 3:9-11) She probably supported Othniel, and her father. Othniel must have thought she was worth fighting for. She also stood up for the rights of women in this patriarchal society, as related in Joshua 15 and Judges 1.
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