BIBLE DICTIONARY + WORD STUDY
How to read this: there is rarely one magic “true meaning” hidden behind an English word. A lexicon records a word’s semantic range. The intended meaning is narrowed by grammar, sentence, author, historical usage and context.
HEBREW / ARAMAIC · H3573
ku.shan rish.a.ta.yim — Cushan-rishathaim
A man living before Israel's Monarchy, first mentioned at Jdg.3.8 § Chushan-rishathaim = "twice-wicked Cushan" a king of Mesopotamia defeated by the judge Othniel the son-in-law of Caleb
2 tagged verse occurrences · see every occurrence →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.
Source: Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897). Historical dictionary wording reflects the scholarship and language of its era.
Look up Chushan-rishathaim in Smith’s Bible Dictionary and ISBE →
