Cushan-Rishathaim כושן רשעתים
king of Aram-Naharaim; the first servitude after Joshua
"And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram-Naharaim; and the children of Israel served Cushan-Rishathaim eight years."
Aram-Naharaim is Aram of the Two Rivers, the land beyond the upper Euphrates, from which Abraham came. This is the first servitude in the book and the first deliverance: Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger kinsman, goes out to war, and the land has quiet for forty years.
The name itself stands apart. "Rishathaim" is a dual form of the word for wickedness; Scripture does not give such a name at birth. What lies behind the epithet the text does not explain, and neither do we.
The window follows the verse: eight years of servitude. Seder Olam Rabbah 12 says those eight fall within Othniel's forty, and the count begins there.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Tanakh
- Shoftim 3:8–11 — eight years of servitude and Othniel's victory
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Seder Olam Rabbah 12 — the eight years of servitude fall within Othniel's forty
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.