OTHONIEL (Heb. 'Othniel'). - Judge of Israel, son of Kenaz and brother of Caleb. He conquered Kiriath-sepher and obtained in marriage his cousin Achsah (Josh. 15:13-19; Judg. 1:12-15). He was the only judge of the southern tribes; he defeated a certain Chushan-rishathaim, king of 'Aram Nahārajim (the Nabrima of the el-Amarna letters, near the great bend of the Euphrates opposite Alexandretta): Judg. 3:7-11.

The uncertainty of these indications, the presence of the Arameans of northern Syria as far south as Canaan, have led some to see in Chushan, with his arabized name, a raiding chief coming not from Aram but from Edom (M.-J. Lagrange): an easy passage between r and d. In reality, however, it is not improbable that a raid by Arameans reached Judah. Nomadic bands operate even at a great distance from their starting bases; and in the time of O. (14th century: L. Desnoyers [v. bibl.], p. 407 ff.) the Syrian populations, following the collapse of the Hittite Empire, were so unstable that incursions of this kind are not implausible (cf. Gen. 14).

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: M.-J. Lagrange, Le livre des Juges, Paris 1903, pp. 8-10, 46-49; C. F. Burney, The book of Judges, London 1918, p. 63 ff.; L. Desnoyers, Histoire du peuple hébreu, I, Paris 1922, p. 131 ff. and notes: M. Sallé, La S. Bibbia. Vecchio Test., II, Turin 1924, pp. 52 f. 93 f.

Francesco Spadafora

@incollection{ec9_othoniel_ebr_othniel, author = {Spadafora, Francesco}, title = {Othoniel (Ebr. 'Othniel')}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {445--446}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/othoniel-ebr-othniel} }

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