Achsah Meaning in the Bible

Achsah (Hebrew עַכְסָה) means 'anklet' or 'bangle,' from a root for the ornament worn on the ankle. Some older books soften it to 'adorned'; the concrete object is the better reading and fits the everyday, physical way Hebrew names are formed.

She is Caleb's daughter, and she is offered as the prize for taking Kirjath-sepher. Othniel, Caleb's nephew and later the first judge of Israel, takes the city and marries her (Joshua 15:16-17). That could have been the end of her part in the story.

Instead she speaks. She asks Othniel for a field, then dismounts in front of her father and makes her own request: 'Give me a blessing; for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And he gave her the upper springs, and the nether springs' (Joshua 15:19). She had been given dry ground in the Negev, and she asked for what would make it worth having. Caleb gives her more than she asked.

The account is repeated almost word for word in Judges 1:12-15, which is how the compilers flag something worth noticing. Achsah is rare as a modern name, but the episode is one of the clearest pictures in Scripture of asking plainly and being answered generously.