Othniel was a judge of a very different type. His contemporaries
said, that before the sun of Joshua went down, the sun of Othniel,
his successor in the leadership of the people , appeared on the
horizon. The new leader's real name was Judah; Othniel was one
of his epithets, as Jabez was another. (22)

Among the judges, Othniel represents the class of scholars. His
acumen was so great that he was able, by dint of dialect reasoning,
to restore the seventeen hundred traditions (23) which Moses had
taught the people, and which had been forgotten in the time of
mourning for Moses. Nor was his zeal for the promotion of the
study of the Torah inferior to his learning. The descendants of
Jethro left Jericho, the district assigned to them, and journeyed to
Arad, only that thy might sit at the feed to Othniel. (24) His wife,
the daughter of his half-brother Caleb, was not so well pleased
with him. She complained to her father that her husband's house
was bare of all earthly goods, and his only possession was
knowledge of the Torah. (25)

The first event to be noted in Othniel's forty years' reign (26) is his
victory over Adoni-bezek. This chief did not occupy a prominent
position among the Canaanitish rulers. He was not even accounted
a king, nevertheless he had conquered seventy foreign kings. (27)
The next event was the capture of Luz by the Israelites. The only
way to gain entrance into Luz was by a cave, and the road to the
cave lay through a hollow almond tree. If the secret approach to
the city had not been betrayed by one of its residents, it would
have been impossible for the Israelites to reach it. God rewarded
the informer who put the Israelites in the way of capturing Luz.