Chushan-rishathaim

AI summary: Chushan-rishathaim matters because the cross references place him at the opening of the judges cycle, where Israel's unfaithfulness leads to foreign domination and God's mercy raises a deliverer. His rule becomes the first large-scale example of the discipline-and-rescue pattern that shapes the book. Taken together, the material presents Chushan-rishathaim as an oppressor whose domination helps establish the theological rhythm of Judges.¹

Cush of double wickedness, or governor of two presidencies, the king of Mesopotamia who oppressed Israel in the generation immediately following Joshua (Judg. 3:8). We learn from the Tell-el-Amarna tablets that Palestine had been invaded by the forces of Aram-naharaim (A.V., “Mesopotamia”) more than once, long before the Exodus, and that at the time they were written the king of Aram-naharaim was still intriguing in Canaan. It is mentioned among the countries which took part in the attack upon Egypt in the reign of Rameses III. (of the Twentieth Dynasty), but as its king is not one of the princes stated to have been conquered by the Pharaoh, it would seem that he did not actually enter Egypt. As the reign of Rameses III. corresponds with the Israelitish occupation of Canaan, it is probable that the Egyptian monuments refer to the oppression of the Israelites by Chushan-rishathaim. Canaan was still regarded as a province of Egypt, so that, in attacking it Chushan-rishathaim would have been considered to be attacking Egypt. ³