Discovery BoxJudges 1:14 
Context1:14 One time Acsah 1 came and charmed her father 2 so she could ask him for some land. When she got down from her donkey, Caleb said to her, “What would you like?”
Judges 11:39
Context11:39 After two months she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. She died a virgin. 3 Her tragic death gave rise to a custom in Israel. 4
1 tn Heb “she”; the referent (Acsah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Heb “him.” The pronoun could refer to Othniel, in which case one would translate, “she incited him [Othniel] to ask her father for a field.” This is problematic, however, for Acsah, not Othniel, makes the request in v. 15. The LXX has “he [Othniel] urged her to ask her father for a field.” This appears to be an attempt to reconcile the apparent inconsistency and probably does not reflect the original text. If Caleb is understood as the referent of the pronoun, the problem disappears. For a fuller discussion of the issue, see P. G. Mosca, “Who Seduced Whom? A Note on Joshua 15:18 // Judges 1:14,” CBQ 46 (1984): 18-22. The translation takes Caleb to be the referent, specified as “her father.”
3 tn Heb “She had never known a man.” Some understand this to mean that her father committed her to a life of celibacy, but the disjunctive clause (note the vav + subject + verb pattern) more likely describes her condition at the time the vow was fulfilled. (See G. F. Moore, Judges [ICC], 302-3; C. F. Burney, Judges, 324.) She died a virgin and never experienced the joys of marriage and motherhood.
4 tn Heb “There was a custom in Israel.”
