Othniel

Othniel son of Kenaz was the younger brother (or nephew) of Caleb from the tribe of Judah. He first appears in Joshua 15.17 when he captures the Canaanite city of Debir, a feat for which Caleb had offered his daughter Achsah as a bride. In the opening chapters of Judges, after Joshua's generation died, Israel abandoned God and was handed over to Cushan-Rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia, for eight years. Othniel is the first example of the repeated cycle in Judges: the people cry out, God raises a deliverer, the deliverer defeats the oppressor, and the land rests. The Spirit of the LORD came upon Othniel and he judged Israel, going out to war against Cushan-Rishathaim and prevailing. The land had rest for forty years during his lifetime (Jdg.3.11). His story is told with brevity and without complication, which has led scholars to see it as the literary template for the longer and more troubled deliverer narratives that follow — Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, and Samson.