Judges 1:13

And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it: and he gave him Achsah his daughter to wife. [See comments on Joshua 15:17].

And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it: and he gave him Achsah his daughter to wife. Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.

13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. Ver. 13. Raging waves of the sea] Unsettled, turbulent, and arrogant spirits; boldly belching out their abominable opinions and detestable doctrines. Wandering stars] That were never better than meteors. Sir Francis Drake in his Travels reporteth that in a certain island to the southward of Celebes, among the trees night by night did show themselves an infinite swarm of fiery-like worms flying in the air, whose bodies, no bigger than an ordinary fly, did make a show, and give such light as if every twig on every tree had been a lighted candle, or as if that place had been the starry sphere. Lo, such were these impostors.

(13) Othniel.—Joshua 15:15-17. It is here added that he was Caleb’s younger brother. (See Judges 3:9.) The Hebrew may mean either that Othniel was “son of Kenaz and brother of Caleb” (in which case he married his niece); or “son of Kenaz, who was Caleb’s brother” (as in “Jonadab, the son of Shimeah David’s brother,” 2 Samuel 13:3), in which case Achsah was his cousin. The Masoretes, to whom is due the punctuation, &c., of our Hebrew Scriptures, show by their pointing that they understood the words in the former sense. But though Ben-kenaz may simply mean Kenezite (Joshua 14:6; Numbers 32:12), it is strange in that case that Othniel should never be called a son of Jephunneh. If he was a brother of Caleb’s, he must have lived to extreme old age, and have been an old man when he married Achsah. For the importance of Caleb’s family, see 1 Chronicles 27:15. The Rabbis identify Othniel with the Jabez who is so abruptly introduced in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10, and connect Achsah’s petition with the prayer there recorded; and they suppose that he founded the school of scribes at Jabez (1 Chronicles 2:55), and was a teacher of law to the Kenites.

Verse 13. See Clarke on Jude 1:12.

13. Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother] The language leaves it uncertain whether Othniel was the nephew (LXX. cod. B) or the brother (LXX. cod. A, Vulgate) of Caleb; but tradition favours the latter alternative. Elsewhere, though in later documents, Caleb is styled ‘the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite’ Josh, Joshua 14:6; Joshua 14:14 D; Numbers 32:12 P. Kenaz was not the actual father, but the name of an Edomite tribe Genesis 36:15; Genesis 36:42; ‘the son of Kenaz,’ therefore, is equivalent to ‘the Kenizzite.’ Kenaz being a tribe, we must suppose that Othniel and Caleb were really clans belonging to it. As a tribal name Othniel may be compared with Israel and Jeraḥ ?meel. Caleb was closely connected with Jeraḥ ?meel (1 Chronicles 2:9; 1 Chronicles 2:25; 1 Chronicles 2:42; 1 Chronicles 2:49), a clan settled in the Negeb, S. of Caleb (1 Samuel 27:10; 1 Samuel 30:29), which, as the present narrative shews, settled in Hebron and the neighbourhood. How Caleb came to find a home in Judah is told in Joshua 15:13 JE, cf. Joshua 14:6 ff. D. In the time of David Caleb was still distinct from Judah, 1 Samuel 30:14; but later on the clan became absorbed into Judah, so much so that in Numbers 13:6; Numbers 34:19 P Caleb is the ‘prince’ of Judah, and the Chronicler knows of hardly any other Judahites outside the Calebite family (1 Chronicles 2). The present story gives the tribal traditions under the guise of a narrative dealing with individuals (cf. Judges 1:3 note). Othniel is called ‘the younger’ (not in Joshua 15:17) brother of Caleb to account for his being of an age to marry Caleb’s daughter, as in Judges 3:9 to explain how he outlived Caleb so long. The marriage indicates an alliance between the Othniel clan and an off-shoot of Caleb. Contrast the account of the conquest of Debir by Joshua and all Israel given in Joshua 10:38-39; Joshua 11:21 D.

OF HEBRON, AND EXPLOIT AND REWARD OF OTHNIEL, Judges 1:10-15. This passage is nearly identical with Joshua 15:14-19. It may have been copied from the Book of Joshua, or from some older work.