What Does Joshua 15:18 Mean?
And it came to be, when she came to him, that she stirred him to ask of her father a field; and she dropped down from her donkey. And Caleb said to her, What do you need?
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And it came to pass, as she came unto him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she lighted off her ass; and Caleb said unto her, What wouldest thou?THE KEY
The request for a field is only the beginning; Caleb’s question makes room for Achsah to name the water she still needs.
THE MEANING
A need can first appear as a partial request. Here, Achsah prompts her husband to ask for a field, and Caleb’s question gives her room to speak directly; the next verse names the springs of water she still needs. The exchange holds the request open until the need is clearer.
THE ROOT
לִשְׁאֹול
lishʾol
GROWS FROM
שאל
to ask, inquire, or request
The infinitive puts the request itself at the center: Achsah prompts Caleb to ask her father for a field. This word family connects the act of asking with the petition being asked; Caleb’s later question uses a different expression, turning the exchange toward an answer Achsah can speak directly.
ALSO GROWS
shaʾal: to ask, inquire, or request
שָׁאַל
This verb shares the root’s consonants and names the act Caleb is prompted to make.
sheʾelah: a request or petition
שְׁאֵלָה
This noun names what the asking carries: Achsah’s petition for a field.
shoʾel: one who asks
שֹׁאֵל
This form brings the person making the request into the same word family as the request itself.
THE PATTERN
A direct invitation to ask draws an unfinished desire into words, where an answer can meet it.
In Gibeon the LORD showed himself to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, Ask what I shall give you.Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.Jesus answered and said to him, What do you want me to do for you? The blind man said to him, My teacher, that I might look up again.THE THREAD
Ask of me, and I give you the nations for your inheritance, and the far edges of the earth as what your hands grasp.The Hebrew word for asking in Joshua and the word translated “Ask” in this psalm share the root שאל (shaʾal, to ask). Both connect a request with an inheritance: Achsah asks for a field, while the psalm speaks of nations and the earth as a received portion.
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