Kirjath-sannah

Kirjath-sannah (meaning city of the palm or city of instruction/teaching) is listed in Joshua 15:49 as a town of Judah in the hill country district, identified as the same site as Kirjath-sepher (city of books) and Debir. The name variation likely reflects either different etymological traditions for the same place or a scribal variant. Debir was a city of the Anakim that Caleb promised as a bride-price to whoever could capture it.

Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother (or nephew), captured Kirjath-sannah/Debir and won Caleb's daughter Achsah as his wife. Achsah then boldly asked her father for springs of water to go with the land she had received, and Caleb gave her both the upper and lower springs—a vignette that presents the distribution of the conquered land in terms of women's initiative and patriarchal generosity. Debir later became a Levitical city assigned to the Kohathites (Joshua 21:15; 1 Chronicles 6:58). Archaeological excavation of the most likely candidate site, Khirbet Rabud, has revealed Iron Age remains consistent with the biblical period.