Remember the five little ladies that upset the apple-cart of only sons getting part of a man's inheritance?  Well, they paved the way for new boldness among women in asking for fair treatment.  Women even began to speak up when there was something that they wanted.  Imagine that!!

Achsah was just such a woman.  She had been offered up as the grand prize, by her father, to any man who could defeat her father's enemies.  I can't even imagine how Achsah felt--she was to have no say in who she married.  It was to be the luck of the draw.  She must have been very beautiful for such a contest to have taken place and for young men to risk their lives in battle for her.

Worst of all, her father was one of the two most revered men in all Israel--he was setting a precedent where the value of women was concerned.  Remember Joshua and Caleb?  They were the two men who led the Israelis into the promised land and took the city of Jericho.  Well, Achsah's father was Caleb.  Mercy.

Caleb's nephew Othniel was the winner of the contest.  He defeated Caleb's enemies.  Caleb could  have done it himself--he was a great warrior--but by now he was probably an old man.

As Othniel took away his prize on a donkey to go home with him, Achsah told him to ask her father for her to give her an additional field for a wedding present.  Caleb granted the request.  Then Achsah got off of her donkey and went to speak to Caleb herself.  "Father, give me another present.  For the land you gave me is a desert.  Give us some springs as well."   So much for being a quiet little mouse.  This was one smart woman.  I think she probably "read" her father pretty well.  If he was any man at all he would have known his daughter deserved something more than being a booby prize in a battle.

So Achsah got her extra field.  And Caleb heard her, and also gave her, "The upper and the lower springs."  Both springs.  She could now irrigate the land she had been given.

Don't you just love sassy women!!