The following questions are left unanswered: Which tribe(s) had gone the way of apostasy and therefore became affected by the oppression? Where are the altars of the Baals and the Asheroth? How does Cushan-rishathaim oppress Israel? Where/how do the Israelites cry out to the Lord? How does God raise up Othniel? How does Othniel win? Obviously the narrator’s intention here is not to enable the reader to reconstruct in his/her mind the historical events. This brief account functions as a paradigmatic model against which the rest must be interpreted.¹