CUSHAN-RISHATHAIM
(koo' shan ri sha thay' im) HEBREW: KUSAN RISATAYIM
"Cushan of double wickedness"
_______________

A monarch of Mesopotamia, Cushan-rishathaim ruled over the Israelites for eight years until the first of the judges, Othniel, led a successful rebellion against him. Scholars have been unable to identify this ruler, nor are they sure that he really came from Mesopotamia. Some identify Cushan as one of the Kassites who governed Mesopotamia between the 16th and 12th centuries B.C. Others refer to him as a ruler from Cush, a region under Egyptian control, located along the Nile in the modern country of Sudan; as the head of a nomadic tribe, also called Cush, living in the desert region south of Othniel's own tribe of Judah; as an Edomite chieftain; or as a Syrian monarch who conquered the Israelites around 1200 B.C. as his army moved across their territory to seize Egypt.

{E2 Dictionary of Biblical People}

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.