Judges 1:15

a blessing i.e. a presentas implying good-will, cf. Genesis 33:11; 1 Samuel 25:27 etc.

thou hast set me in the land of the South the Negeb(Judges 1:9 note), where the waterless district of Debir was situated.

springs of water Gullath- or Golath-maim, so LXX. cod. A Joshua 15:19, an ancient place-name, called after the springs mentioned further on: land in Palestine is valueless without springs. Gullath or Golath, pronounced Gulloth in the text, has the ending athas in other old Canaanite names, e.g. Zephath, Baalath, Zarephath; the rendering -springs" is conjectural; in Zechariah 4:3; 1 Kings 7:41 f. the word means -bowl."

the upper springs and the nether springs Gullath-illith and Gullath-taḥtith (changing the plur. of the text to sing.), proper names, without the article. These must have lain between Debir and Hebron; if Debir is eḍ-Ḍâharîyeh, the springs of Seil ed-Dilbeh 1 [23], 7 m. N. of Dâharîyeh, answer to the requirements. They are 14 in number, feeding a stream which runs for 3 or 4 miles and does not dry up. The springs fall into three groups, and may well correspond with Gullath-upperand Gullath-lower. This attractive story was no doubt told to explain how the springs came to be in the possession of the Othnielites of Debir, when they ought by rights to belong to the clan of Caleb in Hebron; cf. the stories of the wells of Rehoboth and Beer-sheba, Genesis 26:22-33.

[23] Given in the P.E.F. large Map of W. Palestine, sheet xxi.