But on the first manifestation of repentance, _He regarded their affliction, He heard their cry_ (Ps. cvi. 44, 45), and raised up _Deliverers_, who saved them from their enemies. The Hebrew word used to denote these Deliverers, these Saviours of their country, _Shofet, Shophetim_[178], and which we have translated _Judge_, is much the same as the _Suffes, Suffetes_ of the Carthaginians at the time of the Punic wars. Raised up on extraordinary occasions, like the Dictators in the history of Rome, they delivered the nation from some pressing danger, and their power and authority generally terminated with the crisis which had called them forth. Higher than the princes of the tribes, vested with extraordinary powers for the emergency, their office was not hereditary, though we shall see it finally tending in more than one instance towards fixedness and perpetuity, and in the person of Eli united with that of the High-priest (Judg. x. 3, 4; xii. 8–14; 1 Sam. viii. 1–3). _Invasion from the North-east. Othniel._ The crisis, which called forth the first of these Deliverers, was the invasion of the country by _Chushan-rishathaim_, king of Mesopotamia. From the seat of his dominion between the Euphrates and the Tigris he extended his conquests so far southward, that the Israelites suffered grievously from his oppressions for a space of 8 years. At the close of this period, OTHNIEL, whose valour in attacking Kirjath-sepher and marriage with the daughter of the famous Caleb have been lately recorded[179], went out against him and defeated him, and restored rest to the land for 40 years (Judg. iii. 8–11). _Invasion from the South-east. Ehud._