Achsah’s mild protest to her father has nothing to do with feeling as though her father treated her as mere property to be awarded to the man who attacked and captured Kiriath-Sepher. Instead, what she protests is the inadequacy of the land her father gave to her husband. She refers to the area associated with Kiriath Sepher as Negev land not because it was located in the Negev but because it had Negev-like characteristics: it was desert land. So she requests of him reservoirs of water, and Caleb responds generously by granting her both the upper and lower reservoirs.
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15 She said to him, “Give me a blessing. Since you have set me in the land of the Negeb, give me also springs of water.” And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.