Who was Cushan-Rishathaim?

The first cycle of oppression and deliverance in the book of Judges involves oppression by a man named Cushan-rishathaim, king of Aram-Naharaim (Judg 3:8-11). Who was this king, where did he come from, and why might he have oppressed Israel?
The judge who delivered Israel from the hand of Cushan-rishathaim was Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother” (Judg 3:9). Othniel is also mentioned in the book of Joshua as the man who conquered the city of Debir (Josh 15:17), making it certain that this is at the beginning of the Judges period, not long after the initial settlement of the land by the Hebrews. Steinmann calculates that Othniel delivered Israel from Cushan-rishathaim about 1371 BC, which seems reasonable.
Cushan-rishathaim is identified as the king of Aram-Naharaim. Aram-Naharaim was the ancient kingdom of Mitanni, located in the upper plain of Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Extra-biblical records refer to this kingdom in one of three ways:
- by its state name (Mitanni [Egyptian name], Hanigalbat [Assyrian name])
- by its position on the Euphrates (Naharin / Naharina [Egyptian name; corresponds to the Hebrew Nahariam, “rivers”)
- by its perceived ethnicity (Hurrians, based on its native language)
This kingdom arose during the 17th or 16th centuries BC. It began to shrink in the mid-14th century (shortly after their defeat by Othniel). Mitanni was crushed by the Hittite king Suppiluliuma I in 1340 BC, and became a client state of the Hittites. It was absorbed into the Middle Assyrian empire in the 13th century BC. As Clyde Billington has pointed out, the interaction between early Israel and the kingdom of Aram-Naharaim (Mitanni) makes the theory of a late date for the Exodus from Egypt (c. 1270 BC) an impossibility.
The name is better translated “Cushan of the Rishathaim.” His name is Cushan, and he comes from a people known as the Rishathaim. The name “Rishathaim” is a plural that refers to an Indo-European people who invaded Mesopotamia (and as far as India) in the 17th century BC. The Egyptians (e.g. Hatshepsut) refer to them as Reshet or Reshu. Ugaritic texts (prior to 1200 BC) refer to them as Rishim. Assyrian texts refer to them as Ursu/Urshu, probably related to the city of Warsuwa. Tablets from Ebla refer to a city of Urshu at about this time. Also in about the 17th century BC, the old Indus Valley civilization was conquered by an Indo-Aryan people identified as Rsi, a “fair-haired” people from the far north. These people shared names and gods with the rulers of Mitanni (e.g. Mitra, Varuna, Indra, Nasatyas). While the official language of Mitanni was Hurrian, the ruling Rishim military class originally spoke a language closely related to Indian Sanscrit. Sanscrit is an Indo-European language closely related to Greek, Latin, German, and English.
In the 10th year of Amenhotep III (1380 BC), Shuttarna II of Mitanni gave him his daughter (Kelu-heba) in marriage. Shuttarna II was followed by his son Artashumara, but he was killed by the military commander Uthi, who then installed another son of Shuttarna II on the throne, Tushratta, as a puppet king. Eventually Tushratta came of age and killed all the conspirators.
Kolberg suggests that Cushan may be identified with Shuttarna II, and that he died in battle against Othniel. Artashumara was killed by Uthi when he refused to return to battle against Israel. This led to unrest, and ultimately to the fall of the kingdom to the Hittites in 1340.
References:
Billington, Clyde E. (2005). “Othniel, Cushan-Rishathaim, and the Date of the Exodus.” Beyond the Jordan: Studies in Honor of W. Harold Mare. Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers. Pp. 117–132.
Kolberg, Bruno. “A Proposed Chronology of the Judges Era,” 2023, https://www.academia.edu/42826496/A_Proposed_Chronology_of_the_Judges_Era.
Steinmann, Andrew. “The Mysterious Numbers of the Book of Judges,” 2005, https://etsjets.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/files_JETS-PDFs_48_48-3_JETS_48-3_491-500.pdf