Cushan-Rishataim
I've been reading through Barry Webb's NICOT commentary on Judges, he noted the way Cushan-Rishataim's name is used multiple times, and it gives shape to the whole episode.
There is an introduction (3:7-8a), then we hear Cushan-Rishataim's name twice (3:8b-c). The action follows in 3:9-10c, and in the denouement we hear Cushan-Rishataim's name twice more (3:10d-e), before the ending (3:11).
We can see how the two double uses of Cushan-Rishataim's name frames the raising up of the judge his actions of saving Israel by judging and making war.
We actually know nothing about Cushan-Rishataim; Webb surveys the various suggestions as to his origin in a list that become ever more farcical:
Cushan-rishathaim has been variously identified as a Babylonian Cassite (cf. Gen. 10:8), a Nubian, an Edomite, an Asiatic usurper in Egypt (Malamat), a Midianite (cf. Num. 12:1; Hab. 3:7), a chieftain of a tribe related to the Midianites who had migrated north and settled in Syria (Kaufmann), a surviving chieftain of the southern Judean hills (Boling), and, more recently, an Aramean adventurer from the great west bend of the upper Euphrates (Kitchen).
Barry G. Webb, The Book of Judges, New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Accordance electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012), 159.
There could also be some funny business going on with his name. 3:8b describes him as "Cushan-Rishataim, king of Aram-Naharaim." Naharaim means "two rivers", so if you deconstruct Rishataim, the "aim" ending is a dual form (i.e. two) and the "Risha" beginning uses the consonants of "wicked" - hence "Double-wickedness". We don't know anything about what wickedness he got up to, but he dominated Israel for eight years, causing them to repent (at least for a time) of their apostacy and to cry out for a saviour.
Eglon the king of Moab
Anyway, that is all a precursor to what I was most interested in - the use of the name of Israel's enemy in the second section. Essentially what we see is a degradation in the name of Eglon the king of Moab throughout the episode. It begins with a short chiasm:
As the episode goes on, Eglon the king of Moab is mentioned numerous times:
However, this is the last time Eglon gets the full title. The next mention, in the same verse, is just his name, and no title:
3:17b Now Eglon was an exceedingly fat man
After this devastating description, his name is never mentioned again. He is "he", "him", and is described as in the WC (literally, something like "the upper cool room"), on his "throne" (I think this is a punny way of saying the toilet), and so overwhelmingly obese that Ehud's sword is swallowed by his fat as faeces comes out.
Indeed, the only other time he gets a mention is as "their lord" (3.25d), who had fallen on the ground, dead.
Once Eglon the king of Moab is dead, Moab are prey for the hunter, and Ehud has Israel essentially guard the Jordan so that any Moabites trying to escape back over the border get killed , with 10,000 rich and powerful men dying.
Reflection
I'm still trying to work out whether this is about making fun of Israel's enemies, or about making fun of Israel. On the one hand, the death of Eglon is told comically (with certain similarities to the poo jokes in Daniel 5), so that Israel's victory through an unlikely saviour (a lefty!) is even greater. But on the other hand, it is these morbidly obese people who are able to subdue Israel for 18 whole years. Those they killed trying to escape at the Jordan were not warriors but fat bureaucrats, and if Israel were devoted to their LORD rather than to evil, then they may have been able to withstand their Moabite "Lord".
Epilogue
Interestingly, Shamgar, the final Judge of this chapter (3:31), has no named adversary, but just the Philistines more broadly. If you're interested to read more about him, there's a fascinating blog over at isthatinthebible you might be interested in.
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