1. Judges 3:10 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What is noteworthy about the mention of God’s giving the enemy into Othniel’s hand?

Judges 3:10 (ESV)

10 The Spirit of the LORD was upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the LORD gave Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand. And his hand prevailed over Cushan-rishathaim.

This is the second time (and then third time later in the verse) in this story that the word hand is used; the first is in Judges 3:8, where the Lord sold Israel into the hand of the enemy. In the cycle of the judges, the terminology of selling/giving into the hand is usually used to depict the Lord’s action of disciplining his people through an enemy. Only here, in the Othniel cycle, is the mention of Lord's delivering the enemy into the hand of the judge. Thus, Othniel is uniquely described as accomplishing the complete reversal of Cushan-Rishathaim’s oppression.1