JU3-7: A Copyist Error In Our Bibles That Has Yet To Be Corrected To This Day

I wanna show you something really interesting about the Hebrew language and how it can lead to misunderstandings in Scripture.

Take a look at the Hebrew letter RESH: 

ר

Next, take a look at the Hebrew letter DALET:

ד

Pretty darn similar to each other, aren’t they?

In fact, one would think that if handwritten, it would be pretty easy to mix up one with the other.

For example, take a look at these 2 words in Hebrew using these exact 2 letters:

אֲרָם‎

And…

אֱדוֹם‎

The first word is Aram which is the name of a location.

And the second word is Edom which is also the name of a location.

I’m sure you remember the race of people called the Edomites in the Bible, right?

Edom also means the color “red”, but that’s incidental to our conversation here.

So getting back to my point, both of these words referring to 2 different place locations look pretty darn similar, right?

Okay, so let me explain why I’m bringing this up.

Take a look at Judges 3:8.

“Therefore the anger of Adonai blazed against Israel, and he gave them over into the hands of Kushan-Rish‘atayim king of Aram-Naharayim; and the people of Isra’el served Kushan-Rish‘atayim eight years.”-Judges 3:8

We’re told a ruler by the name of Kushan-Rish’atayim came down with his army and conquered certain parts of Israel.

Kushan refers to the land of Cush which is ancient Ethiopia.

So this dude was a black man.

Recall also that Cush was the oldest son of Ham, a grandson of Noah and was the brother of the accursed Canaan.

And Cush was also the father of Nimrod.

Yes, that Nimrod who was considered to be the first heroic warrior on earth. 

Most scholars believe Kushan came from an area near the Euphrates River.

Of course, we don’t know his real foreign name.

Kushan-Rish’atayim was just a nickname the Israelites gave him that translated into something like the “doubly devilish dude from Cush”.

This makes sense because that’s how the Israelites tribes subjugated by him would have viewed this warrior.

Okay, here’s the thing.

We’re told this doubly devilish dude conquered the southern tribal regions of Israel.

Yet, we’re told in verse 8 that he hailed from Aram-Naharayim.

But Aram is located way up to the north.

So what we’re being told here is that Kushan was a northerner who traveled a huge distance to attack the Israelite tribes located way down in the south.

That doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.

Keep in mind when studying history, it’s important to ferret out the political or military motivations driving a nation to do something, especially something as bold as launching an attack against another nation.

In many cases, war can be driven by the need for natural resources such as oil or food.

For instance, Japan’s Pearl Harbor attack on the USA was a response to an oil embargo placed on them.

However, in other cases, a war can be driven by the maniacal ego of a ruthless dictator.

Such as when Saddam Hussein attacked the tiny nation of Kuwait.

So again, why did Kushan Rish’atayim travel all the way down to the south to attack the Israelite tribes there?

The answer is he didn’t.

Why?

Well, I already gave you the answer above at the beginning of this post.

Because this Kushan dude actually came from the area of Edom and NOT Aram.

And where was Edom located?

You guessed it!

It was located in the South.

This ain’t speculation man.

The Cushites were known to live in Edom.

And again, Edom was located smack dab in the southern desert that bordered the southern Israelite tribes.

So no doubt, “and he gave them over into the hands of Kushan-Rish‘atayim king of Aram-Naharayim” is a copyist error.

Interesting how this mistake has been perpetuated down through the centuries to this very day in our Bibles.