Joshua 15:16-17

Ver. 16, 17. And Caleb said, &c.— To encourage his troops to take Debir, Caleb, at the head of the army, declared publicly, that he would give his daughter in marriage to whoever undertook and succeeded in storming that city. Among the Hebrews, fathers had an absolute power over the marriage of their children. Saul exercised this right, as well as Caleb, 1 Samuel 17:25.; and prophane history supplies us with many similar instances. Othniel, Caleb's nephew, the son of his brother Kenaz, offered himself. The Spirit of God, without doubt, incited him, as it afterwards did to deliver his fellow-citizens, Judges 3:9. Thus Providence every way rewarded Caleb's virtue, by giving him the country which God had promised him, and by procuring to him the possession of it, by means of the valour of one of the greatest men of the tribe of Judah, who became his son-in-law.