the eldest son of Ham, and father of Nimrod, Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtecha; and the grandfather of Sheba and Dedan. The posterity of Cush, spread over great part of Asia and Africa, were called Cushim, or Cushites; and by the Greeks and Romans, and in our Bible, Ethiopians.
CUSH, CUTHA, CUTHEA, CUSHAN, ETHIOPIA, Land of Cush, the country or countries peopled by the descendants of Cush; whose first plantations were on the gulf of Persia, in that part which still bears the name of Chuzestan, and from whence they spread over India and great part of Arabia; particularly its western part, on the coast of the Red Sea; invaded Egypt, under the name of Hyc-Sos, or shepherd-kings; and thence passed, as well probably as by the straits of Babelmandel, into Central Africa, and first peopled the countries to the south of Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, and parts farther to the south and west. The indiscriminate use of the term Ethiopia in our Bible, for all the countries peopled by the posterity of Cush, and the almost exclusive application of the same term by the Greek and Roman writers to the before mentioned countries of Africa, have involved some portions of both sacred and profane history in almost inextricable confusion. The first country which bore this name, and which was doubtless the original settlement, was that which is described by Moses as encompassed by the river Gihon, or Gyndes; which encircles a great part of the province of Chuzestan in Persia. In process of time, the increasing family spread over the vast territory of India and Arabia: the whole of which tract, from the Ganges to the borders of Egypt, then became the land of Cush, or Asiatic Ethiopia, the Cusha Dweepa within, of Hindoo geography. Until dispossessed of this country, or a great part of it, by the posterity of Abraham, the Ishmaelites and Midianites, they, by a farther dispersion, passed over into Africa; which, in its turn, became the land of Cush, or Ethiopia, the Cusha Dweepa without, of the Hindoos: the only country so understood after the commencement of the Christian aera. Even from this last refuge, they were compelled, by the influx of fresh settlers from Arabia, Egypt, and Canaan, to extend their migrations still farther westward, into the heart of the African continent; where only in the woolly-headed negro, the genuine Cushite is to be found.
Herodotus relates that Xerxes had, in the army prepared for his Grecian expedition, both Oriental and African Ethiopians: and adds, that they resembled each other in every outward circumstance except their hair; that of the Asiatic Ethiopians being long and straight, while the hair of those of Africa was curled. This is a very remarkable fact; and leads to the question, How came this singular distinction between people of the same stock? Did it arise from change of climate and of habits? or from some original difference in a particular branch of the great family of Cush? The former appears by far the more probable. It is not likely that a people descended from a common parent should naturally be distinguished by such a peculiar difference; but that it might be acquired by change of soil and condition, we have every reason to believe. We have something exactly analogous to it, in the change which the hair of animals undergoes when removed from their native state. But a modern writer has furnished us with a fact which will go farther than either theory or analogy. Dr. Prichard, in his researches into the Physical History of Man, relates, on the authority of Dr. S. S. Smith, of the negroes settled in the southern districts of the United States of America, that the field-slaves, who live on the plantations, and retain pretty nearly the rude manners of their African progenitors, preserve in the third generation much of their original structure, though their features are not so strongly marked as those of imported slaves. But the domestic servants of the same race, who are treated with lenity, and whose condition is little different from that of the lower class of white people, in the third generation have the nose raised, the mouth and lips of moderate size, the eyes lively and sparkling, and often the whole composition of the features extremely agreeable. “The hair grows sensibly longer in each succeeding race, and extends to three, four, and sometimes to six or eight inches.”
About four hundred years before Christ, Herodotus, in his second book which treats of Egypt, makes frequent mention of Ethiopia; meaning exclusively the Ethiopia above Egypt. In the time of our Saviour, (and indeed from that time forward,) by Ethiopia, was meant, in a general sense, the countries south of Egypt, then but imperfectly known: of one of which, that Candace was queen whose eunuch was baptized by Philip. From a review of the history of this remarkable people, we may see that those writers must necessarily be wrong who would confine the Ethiopians to either Arabia or Africa. Many parts of Scripture history cannot possibly be understood, without supposing them to have settlements in both; which Herodotus expressly asserts was the case. In fine, we may conclude, that in the times of the prophets and during the transactions recorded in the second books of Kings and Chronicles, the Cushites, still retaining a part of their ancient territories in Arabia, had crossed the Red Sea in great numbers, and obtained extensive possessions in Africa; where, being, in a farther course of time, altogether expelled from the east by the Ishmaelites, &c, their remains are now concentrated. It is to be observed, however, that the Cushites probably at the time of their expulsion from Egypt, migrated, or sent colonies into several other parts, particularly to Phenicia, Colchis, and Greece; where, in process of time, they became blended with the other inhabitants of those countries, the families of Javan, Meshek, and Tubal, and their distinctive character totally lost.
Cush, the eldest son of Ham (Gen 10:6; 1Ch 1:8), from whom seems to have been derived the name of the land of Cush.
The locality of the land of Cush is a question upon which eminent authorities have been divided: for while Bochart maintained that it was exclusively in Arabia, Gesenius held with no less pertinacity that it is to be sought for nowhere but in Africa. Others again, such as Michaelis and Rosenmüller, have supposed that the name Cush was applied to tracts of country both in Arabia and Africa—a circumstance which would easily be accounted for, on the very probable supposition that the descendants of the primitive Cushite tribes, who had settled in the former country, emigrated across the Red Sea to the latter region of the earth, carrying with them the name of Cush, their remote progenitor.
The existence of an African Cush cannot reasonably be questioned, though the term is employed in Scripture with great latitude, sometimes denoting an extensive but undefined country (Ethiopia), and at other times one particular kingdom (Meroe). It is expressly described by Ezekiel as lying to the south of Egypt beyond Syene (Eze 29:10; comp. Eze 30:4-6). Hence we find Mizraim and Cush (i.e. Egypt and Ethiopia) so often classed together by the prophets, e.g.Psa 68:31; Isa 11:11; Isa 20:4; Isa 43:3; Isa 45:14; Nah 3:9. The inhabitants are elsewhere spoken of in connection with the Lubim and Sukkiim (2Ch 12:3; 2Ch 16:8; Jer 46:7; Dan 11:43), supposed to be the Libyans and Ethiopic Troglodytes, and certainly nations of Africa, for they belonged to the vast army with which Shishak, king of Egypt, ’came out’ of that country, against Rehoboam, king of Judah. In these, and indeed in most other passages where ’Cush’ occurs, Arabia is not to be thought of; the Ethiopia of Africa is beyond all doubt exclusively intended, and to the article Ethiopia we refer the reader for the Scriptural notices regarding it.
Though there is a great lack of evidence to show that the name of Cush was ever applied to any part of Arabia, there seems no reason to doubt that a portion of the Cushite race did early settle there. By referring to the relative geographical positions of the south-west coast of Arabia and the east coast of Africa, it will be seen that nothing separates them but the Red Sea, and it is not unlikely that while a part of the Cushite population immigrated to Africa, others remained behind, and were occasionally called by the same name. Thus in 2Ch 21:16, among those who were stirred up against the Hebrews are mentioned the Philistines, and ’the Arabs that were near the Cushites,’ and the expression ’near’ in this connection can scarcely apply to any but dwellers in the Arabian Peninsula.
1. The eldest son of Ham, and father of Nimrod, Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtecha, most of whom settled in Arabia Felix, Gen 10:6-8 .\par 2. The countries peopled by the descendants of Cush, and generally called in the English Bible, Ethiopia, though not always. But under this name there seem to be included not less than three different countries:\par A. The oriental Cush, comprehending the regions of Persis, Chusistan, and Susiana, in Persia. It lay chiefly to the eastward of the Tigris. Hither we may refer the river Gihon, Gen 2:13 Zep 3:10 . See EDEN.\par B. The Hebrews also, in the opinion of many, used Cush and Cushan, Hab 3:7, to designate the southern parts of Arabia, and the coast of the Red sea. From this country originated Nimrod, who established himself in Mesopotamia, Gen 10:8 . The "Ethiopian woman," too, whom Moses married during the march of the Israelites through the desert, came probably from this Cush, Exo 2:16-21 Num 12:1 2Ch 21:16 .\par C. But, more commonly, Cush signifies Ethiopia proper, lying south and southeast of Egypt, and now called Abyssinia, Isa 18:1 20:3-5 Jer 13:23 Eze 29:10 Dan 11:43 .\par
Cush. (black).
1. A Benjamite, mentioned only in the title to Psa 7:1. He was probably a follower of Saul, the head of his tribe, (B.C. 1061).
2. The name of a son of Ham, apparently the eldest, and of a territory or territories occupied by his descendants. The Cushites appear to have spread along tracts, extending from the higher Nile to the Euphrates and Tigris. History affords many traces of this relation of Babylonia, Arabia and Ethiopia.
Cush, "the Benjamite," heading of Psalm 7. An enigmatic title for Saul the Benjamite, with an allusion to the similar sounding name of Saul’s father, Kish. Cush or the Ethiopian expresses one black at heart, who" cannot change his skin" or heart (Jer 13:23; Amo 9:7). David in this Psa 7:4 alludes to Saul’s gratuitous enmity and his own sparing "him that without cause is mine enemy," namely, in the cave at Engedi, when Saul was in his power (1 Samuel 24).
(Heb. Kush,
1. (Sept.
(1) that if we read “Out of that land went forth Asshur,” instead of “he went forth [into] Asshur,” i.e. Assyria, there is no account given but of the “beginning” of Nimrod’s kingdom; and
(2) that Asshur the patriarch would seem here to be quite out of place in the genealogy. SEE NIMROD.
LAND OF CUSH. — From the eldest son of Ham (Gen 10:6; 1Ch 1:8) seems to have been derived the name of the land of Cush, which is commonly rendered by the Sept.
The locality of the land of Cush is a question upon which eminent authorities have been divided; for while Bochart (Phaleg, 4:2) maintained that it was exclusively in Arabia, Gesenius’ (Lex. in voce) held, with no less pertinacity, that it is to be sought for nowhere but in Africa. In this opinion he is supported by Schulthess of Zurich, in his Paradies (p. 11, 101). Others again, such as Michaelis (Spicileg. Geogr. Heb. ‘Ext. cap. 2, p. 237) and Rosenmüller (Bibl. Geogr. by Morren, 1:80; iii. 280), have supposed that the name Cush was applied to tracts of country both in Arabia and Africa — a circumstance which would easily he accounted for on the very probable supposition that the descendants of the primitive Cushite tribes who had settled in the former country emigrated across the Red Sea to the latter region of the earth, carrying with them the name of Cush, their remote progenitor. This idea had been developed by Eichhorn (De Cuschaeis, Ohrduf, 1774). The term Cush is generally applied in the Old Testament to the countries south of the Israelites. It was the southern limit of Egypt (Eze 29:10), and apparently the most westerly of the provinces over which the rule of Ahasuerus extended, “from India even unto Ethiopia” (Est 1:1; Est 8:9). Egypt and Cush are associated in the majority of instances in which the word occurs (Psalm 48:31; Isa 18:1; Jer 46:9, etc.); but in two passages Cush stands in close juxtaposition with Elam (Isa 11:11) and Persia (Eze 38:5). The Cushite king, Zerah, was utterly defeated by Asa at Mareshah, and pursued as far as Gerar, a town of the Philistines, on the southern border of Palestine, which was apparently under his sway (2Ch 14:9, etc.). In 2Ch 21:16, the Arabians are described as dwelling “beside the Cushites,” and both are mentioned in connection with the Philistines. The wife of Moses, who, we learn from Exodus 2, was the daughter of a Midianite chieftain, is in Num 12:1, denominated a Cushite. Further, Cush and Seba (Isa 43:3), Cush and the Sabaeans (Isa 45:14), are associated in a manner consonant with the genealogy of the descendants of Ham (Gen 10:7), in which Seba is the son of Cush. From all these circumstances it is evident that under the denomination Cush were included both Arabia and the country south of Egypt on the western coast of the Red Sea. It is possible also that the vast desert tracts west of Egypt were known to the Hebrews as the land of Cush, but of this we have no certain proof. The Targumist on Isa 11:11, sharing the prevailing error of his time, translates Cush by India, but that a better knowledge of the relative positions of these countries was anciently possessed is clear from Est 1:1.
Some have sought for another Cush in more northerly regions of Asia, as in the Persian province of Chusistan or Susiana, in Cuthah, a district of Babylonia, etc.; and as Nimrod, the youngest son (or descendant) of Cush, spread his conquests in that direction, it is no doubt possible that his father’s name might be preserved in the designation of some part of the territory or people. But here again the data are not very satisfactory; indeed, the chief thing which led to the supposition is the mention, in the description of the site of Paradise (Gen 2:13), of a land of Cush, compassed by the river Gihon. Yet, even though the name of Gush were more variously applied in Scripture than it really is, it would not be more so than was the corresponding term Ethiopia among the Greeks and Romans, which comprised a great many nations far distant, as well as wholly distinct from each other, and having nothing in common but their swarthy, sun-burnt complexion —
1. The existence of an African Cush cannot reasonably be questioned, though the term is employed in Scripture with great latitude, sometimes denoting an extensive but undefined country (Ethiopia), and at other times one particular kingdom (Meroe). It is expressly described by Ezekiel as lying to the south of Egypt beyond Syene (29:10; comp. 30:4-6. Strabo, 17:817; Pliny, Hist. Nat. 6:35; Josephus, War, 4:10, 5). Its limits on the west and south were undefined; but it was probably regarded as extending eastward as far as the Red Sea, if not as including some of the islands in that sea, such as the famous Topaz Isle (Job 28:19; Pliny, Hist. Nat. 6:29; 37:8; Strabo, 16:4, 6; Diod. Sic. iii. 39). It thus corresponded, though only in a vague and general sense, to the countries known to us as Nubia and Abyssinia, so famous for the Nile and other great rivers. Hence the allusions in Scripture (Isa 18:1; Zep 3:11) to the far- distant “rivers of Ethiopia,” a country which is also spoken of (Isa 18:2) in our version as the land “which the rivers have spoiled,” there being a supposed reference to the ravages committed by inundations (Bruce’s Travels, iii. 158, and Taylor’s Calmet, iii. 593-4); but recent translators prefer to render
In the ancient Egyptian inscriptions Ethiopia above Egypt is termed Keesh or Kish, and this territory probably corresponds perfectly to the African Cush of the Bible (Wilkinson, Anc. Eg. 1:404, abridgment). The Cushites, however, had clearly a wider extension, like the Ethiopians of the Greeks, but apparently with a more definite ethnic relation. The settlements of the sons and descendants of Cush mentioned in Genesis 10, may be traced from Meroe to Babylon, and probably on to Nineveh. Thus the Cushites appear to have spread along tracts extending from the higher Nile to the Euphrates and Tigris. Philological and ethnological data lead to the same conclusion. There are strong reasons for deriving the nop-Shemitic primitive language of Babylonia, variously called by scholars Cushite and Scythic, from an ante-Shemitic dialect of Ethiopia, and for supposing two streams of migration from Africa into Asia in very remote periods; the one of Nigritians through the present Malayan region, the other and later one of Cushites, “from Ethiopia properly so called, through Arabia, Babylonia, and Persia, to Western India” (Poole, Genesis of the Earth, p. 214 sq.). Sir H. Rawlinson has brought forward remarkable evidence tending to trace the early Babylonians to Ethiopia, particularly the similarity of their mode of writing to the Egyptian, and the indication in the traditions of Babylonia and Assyria of “a connection in very early times between Ethiopia, Southern Arabia and the cities on the Lower Euphrates,” the Cushite name of Nimrod himself as a deified hero being the same as that by which Meroa is called in the Assyrian inscriptions (Rawlinson’s Herod. 1:353 n.). History affords many traces of this relation of Babylonia, Arabia, and Ethiopia. Zerah the Cushite (A. V. “Ethiopian”), who was defeated by Asa, was most probably a, king of Egypt, certainly the leader of an Egyptian army; the dynasty then ruling (the 22d) bears names that have caused it to be supposed to have had a Babylonian or Assyrian origin, as Sheshonk, Shishak, Sheshak; Namuret, Nimrod; Tekrut, Teklut, Tiglath. The early spread of the Mizraites illustrates that of the Cushites, SEE CAPHTOR; it may be considered as a part of one great system of migrations. On these grounds we suppose that these Hamite races, very soon after their arrival in Africa, began to spread to the east, to the north, and to the west; the Cushites establishing settlements along the southern Arabian coast, on the Arabian shore of the Persian Gulf and in Babylonia, and thence onward to the Indus, and probably northward to Nineveh; and the Mizraites spreading along the south and east shores of the Mediterranean, on part of the north shore, and in the great islands. These must have been seafaring peoples, not wholly unlike the modern Malays, who have similarly spread on the shores of the Indian Ocean. They may be always traced where very massive architectural remains are seen, where the native language is partly Turanian and partly Shemitic, and where the native religion is partly cosmic or high- nature worship, and partly fetichism or low-nature worship. These indications do not fail in any settlement of Cushites or Mizraites with which we are well acquainted. SEE ETHNOLOGY.
But that part of this vast region of Cush which seems chiefly intended in these and most other passages of Scripture is the tract of country in Upper Nubia which became famous in antiquity as the kingdom of Ethiopia, or the state of Meroe. The Ethiopian nations generally ranked low in the scale of civilization; “nevertheless,” says Heeren, “there did exist a better cultivated, and, to a certain degree, a civilized Ethiopian people, who dwelt in cities; who erected temples and other edifices; who, though without letters, had hieroglyphics; who had government and laws; and the fame of whose progress in knowledge and the social arts spread in the earliest ages over a considerable part of the earth.” Meroe Proper lay between the river Astaboras (now the Atbara or Tacazze) on the east, and the Nile on the west. Though not completely enclosed with rivers, it was called an island, because, as Pliny observes, the various streams which flowed around it were all considered as branches of the Nile, so that to it the above description of a “country of rivers” was peculiarly appropriate. Its surface exceeded that of Sicily more than a half, and it corresponded pretty nearly to the present province of Atbara, between 13° and 18° N. lat. In modern times it formed a great part of the kingdom of Sennaar, and the southern portion belongs to Abyssinia. Upon the island of Meroe lay a city of the same name, the metropolis of the kingdom, the site of which has been discovered near a place called Assur, about twenty miles north of the town of Shendy, under 17° N. lat. The splendid ruins of temples, pyramids, and other edifices found here and throughout the district have been described by Caillaud, Gau, Riippell, Belzoni, Waddington, Hoskins, and other travellers, and attest the high degree of civilization and art among the ancient Ethiopians. SEE MEROE.
Josephus, in his account of the expedition of Moses when commander of the Egyptian army against the Ethiopians, says that the latter “at length retired to Saba, a royal city of Ethiopia which Cambyses afterwards called Meroe, after the name of his own sister” (Ant. 2:10, 2). The same origin of the name is given both by Strabo and Diodorus Siculus, but see Mannert’s Geog. of the Greeks and Romans, 10:199. There is still a place called Merawe considerably north of the island and near Mount Berkal, where Heeren thinks there may have been a settlement of the parent state called by the same name. The opinion of Josephus that Meroe was identical with Seba accords well with the statement in Gen 10:7, that Seba was the eldest son of Cush, whose name (
In the age of Herodotus, the countries known to us as Nubia and Sennaar were occupied by two different races, one of whom he includes under the general appellation of Ethiopians, the other an immigratory Arabian race leading, for the most part, a nomadic life. This distinction has continued down to the present day. Among the original inhabitants the first place is due to the Nubians, who are well-formed, strong, and muscular, and with nothing whatever of the negro physiognomy. They go armed with spear, sword, and a shield of the skin of the hippopotamus. South of Dongola is the country of the Scheygias, whose warriors are horsemen, also armed with a double-pointed spear, a sword, and a large shield (comp. Jer 46:9, the “Cushites who handle the shield”). They were completely independent till subdued by Mehemet Ali, pacha of Egypt. It is in their country that the pyramidal monuments which adorned the ancient Meroe are first met with, and even its name has been preserved in that of their chief place, Merawe, though the original Meroe must be sought farther south. Next comes the territory of the Berbers, strictly so called, who, though speaking Arabic, evidently belong to the Nubian race. Above these regions, beyond the Tacazze, and along the Nile, the great mass of the inhabitants, though sometimes with a mixture of other blood, may be regarded as of Arab origin. But between the valley of the Nile and the Red Sea there is still, as of old, a variety of scattered aboriginal tribes, among whom the Arabic is much less common; they are, doubtless, partly the descendants of the abovementioned Sukkiim, or Troglodytes, and of the Ichthyophagi, or fish-eaters. Some of them spread themselves over the plains of the Astaboras, or Tacazze, being compelled to remove their encampments, sometimes by the inundations of the river, at other times by the attacks of the dreaded zimb, or gad-fly, described by Bruce, and which he supposes to be the “fly which is in the utmost part of the rivers of Egypt” (Isa 7:18). Another remarkable Ethiopic race in ancient times was the Macrobians, so called from their supposed longevity. They were represented by the ambassadors of Cambyses as a very tall race, who elected the highest in stature as king: gold was so abundant that they bound their prisoners with golden fetters — circumstances which again remind us of Isaiah’s description of Ethiopia and Seba in ch. 45:14. (See Ludolf, Hist, AEthiopica, F. ad M. 1681; with his Commentaries thereon, ib. 1691; and his Hodlern. Habess. status, ib. 1693). SEE AFRICA.
2. That some of the posterity of Cush settled in the south of Arabia may readily be granted; but that he gave a permanent name to any portion either of the country or people is by no means so evident: it is, at least, more a matter of inferential conjecture than of historical certainty, Almost all the passages usually cited in support of the averment are susceptible of a different interpretation.
(1.) For example, in Num 1:21, Miriam and Aaron are said to have taken offense at Moses for having married “a Cushitess;” and upon the presumption that this was the same person as Zipporah, daughter of the priest of Midian (Exo 2:16; Exo 2:21), it is inferred that Midian was in Cush. But, to say nothing of Zipporah’s high rank, or of the services of her family to Israel, there would have been something so grossly incongruous and absurd in Moses’s brother and sister complaining for the first time of his selection of a wife, after the marriage had subsisted for more than forty years, that it is evident Zipporah was now dead, and this second wife, though doubtless a proselyte to Judaism, was (whether born in Asia or Africa) a descendant of Cush, and therefore a Hamite, and not one of the Midianites, who were of Shemitic origin, being the children of Abraham by Keturah. But, admitting that it is a second marriage which is thus referred to, the case is not materially altered, for still Cush must be sought near the place of Israel’s encampment, as it cannot be supposed that Moses would go to Ethiopia to fetch a wife. SEE ZIPPORAH.
(2.) Others discover a connection between Cush and Midian, because in Hab 3:7, the clause, “I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction,” finds a parallelism in “the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble” — Cushan being held to be the poetical and high-sounding form of Cush. But this idea is met by another identification; for while it is acknowledged that part of the sublime description in that chapter refers to the Exodus and the transactions at Sinai, other portions (such as the passage of the Jordan, Hab 3:8, and the standing still of the sun, Hab 3:11) have plainly a reference to incidents in the books of Joshua and Judges. Now in the latter book (3, 10; 8:12) we find a record of signal victories successively obtained by Othniel over Cushan Rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia, and by Gideon over the princes of Midian. SEE CUSHAN.
(3.) But perhaps a stronger argument is the mention of Arabians as contiguous to the Cushites. Thus, in 2Ch 21:16, among those who were stirred up hgainst the Hebrews are mentioned the Philistines, and “Arabs that were near the Cushites,” and the expression “near” (
Yet, though there is a great lack of evidence to show that the name of Cush was ever applied to any part of Arabia, there seems no reason to doubt that a portion of the Cushite race did early settle there. According to the ethnographic table in the 10th chapter of Genesis, Cush was the father of Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Raamah (whose sons were Sheba and Dedan), Sabtechah, and also of Nimrod (Gen 10:7-8; 1Ch 1:9-10). The last mentioned appears to have moved northward, first into Babylonia and then into Assyria, but the others seem to have migrated to the south, though it is impossible accurately to trace out their settlements. Yet, even if we give Seba to Africa, and pass over as doubtful the names of Havilah, Sheba, and Dedan (for these were also the names of Shemitic tribes, Gen 10:28-29; Gen 25:3), still, in Eze 27:22, Raamah is plainly classed with the tribes of Arabia, and nowhere are any traces of Sabtah and Sabtechah to be found but in the same country. By referring, however, to the relative geographical positions of the south-west coast of Arabia and the east coast of Africa, it will be seen that nothing separates them but the Red Sea, and it is not unlikely that while a part of the Cushite population immigrated to Africa, others remained behind, and were occasionally called by the same name. In the fifth century of our era, the Himaryites, in the south of Arabia, were styled by Syrian writers Cushaeans and Ethiopians (Assemanni, Bibl. Orient. 1:360; 3, 568). The Chaldee paraphrast Jonathan, at Genesis 6, and another paraphrast at 1Ch 1:8, explain “Cush” by Arabia. Niebuhr (Beschr. p. 289) found in Yemen a tribe called Beni Chusi. Job 28:19 speaks of the topaz of Cush, and there was a Topaz Island in the Red Sea (Diod. Sic. 3, 39; Pliny, Hist. Nat. 37:8; Strabo, 16:4, 6). Yet most of these are circumstances:upon which we can lay but little stress; and the passage in 2Ch 21:16, is the only direct evidence we possess of the name “Cush” being applied in Scripture to any part of Arabia, and even that does not amount to absolute demonstration. SEE ARABIA.
3. Cush, as a country, therefore appears to be African or Arabian in all passages except Gen 2:13. We may thus distinguish a primeval and a post-diluvian Cush. The former was encompassed by Gihon, the second river of Paradise: it would seem, therefore, to have been somewhere to the northward of Assyria. See GIHON. From etymological considerations, Huet was induced to place Cush in Chusistan (called Cutha, 2Ki 17:24), Leclerc in Cassiotis in Syria, and Reland in the “regio Cossaeorum.” Bochart identified it with Susiana, Link with the country about the Caucasus, and Hartmann with Bactria or Balkh, the site of Paradise being, in this case, in the celebrated vale of Kashmir. It is possible that Cush is in this case a name of a period later than that to which the history relates, but it seems more probable that it was of the earliest age, and that the African Cush was named from this older country. Most ancient nations thus connected their own lands with Paradise, or with primeval seats. In this manner the future Paradise of the Egyptians was a sacred Egypt watered by a sacred Nile; the Arabs have told of the terrestrial paradise of Sheddad the son of Ad (q.v.) as sometimes seen in their deserts; the Greeks located the all-destroying floods of Ogyges and Deucalion in Greece; and the Mexicans seem to have placed a similar deluge in America — all carrying with them their traditions, and fixing them in the territories where they established themselves. We are told that, in the Hindoo mythology, the gardens and metropolis of India are placed around the mountain Meru, the celestial north pole; that, among the Babylonians and Medo-Persians, the gods’ mountain, Alborj, “the mount of the congregation,” was believed to be “in the sides of the north”. (Isa 14:13); that the oldest Greek traditions point northwards to the birthplace of gods and men; and that, for all these reasons, the Paradise of the Hebrews must be sought for in some far-distant hyperborean region. Guided by such unerring indications, Hasse (Entdeczkunen, p. 49, 50, n.) scrupled not to gratify his national feeling by placing the Garden of Eden on the coast of the Baltic; Rudbeck, a Swede, found it in Scandinavia; and the inhospitable Siberia has not been without its advocates (Morren, Rosenmüller’s Geog. 1:96). But, with all this predilection in favor of the north, the Greeks placed the gardens of the Hesperides in the extreme west, and there are strong indications in the Puranas “of a terrestrial paradise, different from that of the general Hindu system, in the southern parts of Africa” (As. Res. 3, 300). Even Meru was no further north than the Himalayan range, which the Aryan race crossed in their migrations. SEE EDEN.
2. (Sept.
1. Eldest son of Ham and grandson of Noah. Gen 10:6-8; 1Ch 1:8-10. His descendants are called in the A.V. Ethiopians, though the Hebrew is the same: Cush . The district also occupied by the above people, Isa 11:11, is mostly called in A.V. Ethiopia, q.v. It will be seen by the genealogy that the descendants of Cush were numerous:-
CUSH
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|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|
SEBA. HAVILAH. SABTA. RAAMAH. SEBTECHA. NIMROD.
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SHEBA DEDAN.
All these cannot be confined to Africa. Some were probably located in Arabia, and Nimrod is clearly associated with the East; so that though as a district Cush may usually refer to Africa, the Cushites must have had a much wider range. It seems clear too from Gen 2:13 that even geographically the name Cush: or Ethiopia, was also applied to a region in Asia.
2. A Benjamite enemy of David. Psa 7 title. Some consider that Shimei is referred to, as intimated in the margin , 2Sa 16:5. Others think it is Saul.
By: Emil G. Hirsch, W. Max Muller, Executive Committee of the Editorial Board.
—Biblical Data:
A nation whose founder is mentioned in Gen. x. 6; I Chron. i. 8 as brother to Mizraim (Egypt) and as a son of Ham; with the exception of the passages in Genesis, A. V. renders it "Ethiopia." This African country is evidently meant in Gen. x. 6, but in the next verse six Arabic tribes are mentioned as sons of Cush, and in verse 8, Nimrod, the representative of Babylonia (Assyria), appears as his descendant. These three verses present the vexing problem, much discussed by scholars, arising from the fact that nations identical in name extend over parts of Africa, Arabia, and Babylonia. In regard to the passages referring undoubtedly to Ethiopia, see Ethiopia. In a great many cases it is very difficult to determine whether the translators have used this Greek name correctly, or which of the two other divisions, Arabia or Babylonia, mentioned in the table of nations given in Genesis is meant.
The Arabian branch seems to be intended in II Chron. xxi. 16, where Judah, under Jehoram, is plundered by "the Arabians that were near the Ethiopians." These evidently did not come from the southwestern end of Arabia. In Num. xii. 1, Moses' wife, the Midianitish woman Zipporah, is called an Ethiopian (margin and R. V. "Cushite"). In Hab. iii. 7 the tents of Cushan (the Septuagint reads "Cushim"; the name evidently is the same as "Cush") and the land of Midian are mentioned (compare verse 3 for other names of northwestern Arabia). There are doubtful references in Isa. xliii. 3, xlv. 14, xx. 3, xviii. 1. Some critics place also the Cushite "Zerah" in northwestern Arabia (II Chron. xiv. 9).
Winckler, "Muṣri, Meluḥḥa, Ma'in," ii., in "Mitteilungender Vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft" (1898, pp. 169 et seq.; see also Schrader, "K. A. T." 3d German ed., p. 144), throws light on these passages. He shows that the Assyrians speak of this people as "Kusi" (Kûsh) in northern Arabia, subjected by Esarhaddon. See also Friedrich Delitzsch, "Die Sprache der Kossäer," Leipsic, 1884.
For the Babylonian "Cush" compare Gen. x. 6-8 (see above), and ib. ii. 13, where one of the four rivers of Paradise, the Gihon, "compasseth the whole land of Cush." The old attempts to see in this river the Nile lead to impossible geographical identifications; it must have belonged to the system of the Euphrates and Tigris. In Isa. xviii. 1 (Hebr.) the very obscure verses speaking of the land "beyond the rivers of Cush" can not mean Ethiopia, as Winckler, who refers the chapter to Merodach Baladan's legation to Hezekiah ("Alttestamentliche Untersuchungen," p. 146), has asserted. Since Schrader's "K. A. T." 1st ed., p. 87, this name of the Babylonian Cush has been explained by the Kashshi, a warlike nation from the Median Mountains, who conquered Babylonia in the seventeenth century B.C., and ruled over it for several centuries (see Babylonia). They may be identical (as usually assumed) with the Cosseans, a mountain people mentioned by the Greeks, or with the Kissians in Elam, or connected with both (see Delitzsch, "Wo Lag das Paradies?" pp. 124, 129).
As confirmation of the Biblical statements connecting peoples so remote, the following parallels have been adduced: the Greeks speak of eastern or Asiatic Ethiopians on the Red Sea in Gedrosia (compare Homer, "Odyssey," i. 23). Assyriologists since Rawlinson have often tried to find negro or nigritic types on the sculptures representing Elamites, and French explorers (F. Houssay and Dieulafoy) have recently contended that traces of dusky tribes, relatives of the nigritic aborigines of India, are recognizable in modern Susiana. Various tribes of southern Arabia seem to show African, non-Semitic descent; on Assyrian reports of "dark Arabians" see Winckler, ib. p. 144. Glaser, however ("Skizze der Geographic und Geschichte Arabiens," ii. 326-329), treats Cush as a brown-red race, extending in earliest time through Elam, Arabia, and eastern Africa. Others deny the possibility of connecting the three groups, and assume that their names possessed only an accidental similarity, completed by the ancient, vowelless orthography.
—In Rabbinical Literature:
"Cush" in rabbinical literature is taken to be Ethiopia. According to an old Haggadah known to the pre-Christian Hellenistic writers, the wife of Moses, "the Cushite" woman, was the Queen of Ethiopia. Rashi claims that she was merely designated as an Ethiopian on account of her beauty, in order to protect her from the evil eye, but Onkelos makes her a "beautiful" woman, following in this the Talmudic application of the derivatives of the name, such as "Cushi," "black" persons of "negro" race, distinguished thus by their color from other men, to draw a lesson from a comparison for Israel. 
, the "distinguished Cushite" (= negro), is a standing expression in these Talmudic analogies (Yer. Mo'ed Ḳaṭan 16b). In Sifre to Num. § 99, the question is raised, "Was Moses' wife an Ethiopian?" and the answer is given, "She was 'beautiful' and thus 'distinguished' as the Cushi is by his color, by her beauty." In further development of this identification of "Cushite" with "negro," the former becomes simply a synonym for "black" (Suk. 34b; B. B. 97b). In Isa. xi. 11 Targum renders "Cush" by 
("India"), and in their discussion of Esth. i. 1 (Meg. 11a), Rab and Samuel dispute whether Cush is at the furthest extremity of the world or very close to India. The latter opinion rests on the confusion of Cush with the name of a province extending to the borders of India, Huzistan probably (Neubauer, "G. T." p. 386).
CUSH in OT designates Ethiopia, and is the only name used there for that region. It is the same as the Egyptian Kash or Kesh. Broadly speaking, it answers to the modern Nubia. More specifically, the Egyptian Kash extended southwards from the first Cataract at Syene (Eze 29:10), and in the periods of widest extension of the empire it embraced a portion of the Sudan. It was conquered and annexed by Egypt under the 12th Dynasty (c
In Gen 10:6 Cush is a son of Ham, though his descendants as given in v. 7 are mostly Arabian. Surprising also is the statement in 2Ch 14:9 ff. that Zerah the Cushite invaded Judah in the days of Asa, at a time when the Cushites had no power in Egypt. An attempt has been made to solve these and other difficulties by the assumption of a second Cush in Arabia (cf. 2Ch 21:16). Instructive references to the Cushite country and people are found in Amo 9:7, Isa 18:1 f., Jer 13:23. Cushites were frequent in Palestine, probably descendants of slaves; see 2Sa 18:21 ff., Jer 36:14; Jer 38:7 ff. These were, however, possibly Arabian Cushites. For the explanation of the Cush of Gen 10:8 ff., and possibly of Gen 2:13, see Cossæans.
J. F. McCurdy.
CUSH as a personal name occurs only in the title of Psa 7:1-17. He is described as a Benjamite, and was probably a follower of Saul who opposed David.
(1) Son of Cham and father of Nemrod (Genesis 10).
(2) The country known to the Greeks as Chus is called Ethiopia in Isaiah 18 and 20, and was long a powerful nation.
Black: terror
ep>(Son of Cham; D. V. Chus)<p>Cush, like the other names of the ethnological table of Genesis, x, is the name of a race, but it has generally been understood to designate also an individual, the progenitor of the nations and tribes known in the ancient world as Cushites. The list of those descendants of Cush is given in Gen., x, 7-8. The country known to the Greeks as Ethiopia is called Cush (Heb. <i>Kû?</i>) in the Bible. In its broadest extension the term designated the region south of Assuan, on the Upper Nile, now known as Nubia, Senaar, Kardofan, and Northern Abyssinia. This region is referred to in Egyptian inscriptions as <i>Ke?</i> or <i>Ka?</i>. More often, however, the name <i>Cush</i> was given to a part of the territory just mentioned, called by the Greeks the Kingdom of Meroë, at the confluence of the Nile and the Astaboras (now Tacassi). It is from this kingdom that came the eunuch of Candace, Queen of Ethiopia (<a href=../bible/act008.htm#26>Acts 8:26-40</a>). Cush was long a powerful nation. In the course of the eighth century, <font size=-2>B. C.,</font> its Kings became rulers of Egypt. Shabitku, one of them, was the principal opponent of the great Sennacherib, King of Assyria. It was in vain that Isaias warned his people not to place their trust in such princes (<a href=../bible/isa018.htm#1>Isaiah 18:1</a>; <a href=../bible/isa020.htm#3>20:3, 5</a>).<p>The African Cush is best known; but there were Cushites in Asia. The "land of Cush" of Gen., ii, 13 (Heb. text), watered by the Gehon, one of the four rivers of Paradise, was doubtless in Asia. Regma, Saba, and Dadan (<a href=../bible/gen010.htm#7>Genesis 10:7</a>) were in Arabia. The Madianite wife of Moses, Sephora, is called a Cushite (<a href=../bible/exo002.htm#16>Exodus 2:16, 21</a>; <a href=../bible/num012.htm#1>Numbers 12:1</a> -- Hebrew text). Nemrod, son of Cush, rules over cities in the valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris (<a href=../bible/gen010.htm#8>Genesis 10:8-12</a>). This text points to the foundation of the first empire in this region by Cushites. It is chiefly the <a href=12734a.htm>relics</a> of a Semitic civilization that have been brought to light by archæological discoveries. But traces are not lacking, according to competent scholars, of an older civilization.<!--CLIP--><!-- google_ad_section_end -->-----------------------------------<center><script language="javascript" src="../../newadvent.catholiccompany.com/na2.js"></script></center><p><font size=-2>RAWLINSON, <i>Five Great Monarchies</i> (London, 1879), I, iii; MASPERO, <i>Histoire ancienne des peuples de l’Orient</i> (Paris. 1905).</font><p>W. S. REILLY. <br>Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter <br><i>Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary</i> <p align=center><font size=-2><i>The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IV</i><br>Copyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton Company<br>Online Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. Knight<br><i>Nihil Obstat.</i> Remy Lafort, Censor<br><i>Imprimatur.</i> +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York</font></p>
1. The Ancestor of Many Nations
(1) The first of the sons of Ham, from whom sprang Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah and Sabtecah. He was also the father of Nimrod, who rounded Babel (Babylon) and the other great states of Shinar or Babylonia (Gen 10:6-8). The meaning of the name is uncertain.
(2) The name of the country around which the Gihon flowed (Gen 2:13), rendered “Ethiopia” in the King James Version, but in view of the distance of that country from the other rivers mentioned, this seems to be an unlikely identification.
2. A District of the Garden of Eden
Fried. Delitzsch has suggested (Wo lag das Paradies? 74ff) that the watercourse in question is the canal
3. Probably Not in Asia Minor
Another theory is, that the Cush of Gen 2:13 is the
4. The Ethiopian Cush
(3) The well-known country of Cush or Ethiopia, from Syene (Eze 29:10) southward - Egyptian
5. Negroes Probably Not Included
In the opinion of W. Max Müller (Asien und Europa, 112), the Egyptians, when they became acquainted with the Negroes, having no word to express this race, classed them with the
Cush appears to have been the ancient name of the land of Ethiopia in Africa. The name Cushite, or person of Cush, was sometimes used as a general term for all the dark-skinned peoples of Africa. For details see ETHIOPIA.