Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushan-rishatha'im king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel served Chushan-rishatha'im eight years.
Sold them - i:e., delivered them into the hand of Chushan-rishathaim; i:e., of 'doubled wickedness' (Gesenius), or simply Cushan (Habakkuk 3:7). This name had been probably given him from his cruel and impious character. But the import of the name is doubtful, as it was probably a foreign, not a Hebrew word, and analogous to other Oriental titles of royalty.
King of Mesopotamia, х 'Aram-Nahraayim (H763), Aram of the two rivers] - i:e., Mesopotamia, as situated between the Euphrates and the Khabour. An ancient seal exists in which Astacadas, an Assyrian monarch at a period long posterior, is called 'king of the two rivers.' An energetic, skillful prince would, at the early time of the settlement, have easily subjugated the numerous petty states of western Asia, and Chushan-rishathaim did so in a military expedition similar to that described, Genesis 14:1-24. But it would be impossible in his circumstances to consolidate into an imperial kingdom such incongruous materials; and accordingly, Israel with some perhaps of the bordering countries which were tributary to the Mesopotamian oppressor, threw off his yoke, after a brief subjection of eight years. It may be added, that the Septuagint translators did not consider the seat of his dominion to have been in Mesopotamia; because they have rendered Aramnaharaim by: Suria potamoon, in the region near Damascus. (See this subject discussed, Gen
24.)
Served Chushan-rishathaim eight years - by the payment of a stipulated tribute yearly; the raising of which must have caused a great amount of labour and privation.