OTHNIEL (Hebr. 'Othnî'êl). - A judge of Israel, son of Cenez and brother of Caleb. He conquered Cariath Sepher and obtained in marriage his cousin Axa (Jos. 15, 13-19; Iude. 1, 12-15). He was the only judge of the southern tribes; he defeated a certain Chusan Rasathaim, king of Aram Nahârajim (the Nahrima of the letters of el-'Amârnah, near the great bend of the Euphrates opposite Alexandretta): Iude. 3, 7-11.
The uncertainty of these indications, and the presence of Arameans from northern Syria as far south as Canaan, have led some to see in Chusan, whose name is Arabized, a marauding chieftain coming not from Aram but from Edom (M.-J. Lagrange): an easy shift between r and d. In reality, however, it is not improbable that a raid by Arameans reached Judah. Nomadic bands operate even at great distances from their starting points; and in the time of O. (14th century: L. Desnoyers [V. BIBLICA.], p. 407 ff.) the Syrian peoples, following the collapse of the Hittite Empire, were so unsettled that raids of this kind are not unthinkable (cf. Gen. 14).