CUSH koosh (כּ֗וּשׁ, LXX Χουσί).

1. The name of an individual in the title of Psalm 7. The person is a Benjaminite against whose words David has uttered this psalm of lament in which he “prays for deliverance from his enemies, especially from a colleague who has betrayed him” (M. Dahood, Psalms I, Anchor Bible [1966], 41).

2. One of the sons of Ham listed in the Table of Nations (Gen 10:6-8; 1 Chron 1:8-10). Cush is both a person and a nation, for from him descended the southernmost peoples known to the Hebrews.

CUSH kush, כּ֗וּשׁ; LXX Χους, and Αἰθιοπία, a land lying to the S of Egypt. See Ethiopia.

1. Confusion corrected. In the OT only one word is involved—Kush, which is usually tr. as “Ethiopia,” with the exception of Isaiah 11:11, and in 2 Samuel 18:21-23, where the gentilic Kushi appears, which is rendered (KJV) as a proper noun “Cushi.” The LXX regularly trs. the word Αἰθιοπία (except Gen 10:6-8 and 1 Chron 1:8-10, where it has Χοῦς). Even RSV is not entirely consistent for it twice uses “Cushite” (viz. 2 Sam 18:21-23 and Num 12:1).

2. Land and people. Sometimes the word Kush is clearly used to refer to the land. This is the case in Isaiah 11:11; 18:1; Zephaniah 1:1, Esther 1:1. The reference of the word to the people appears in Isaiah 20:5; Jeremiah 46:9; Ezekiel 38:5.

3. Location. It would appear that originally Kush referred to a piece of territory lying between the second and the third cataracts of the Nile. Then it came to refer to a broader area corresponding to what is commonly known as Nubia. Sometimes reference is made to Arabia, for in 2 Chronicles 21:16 the Arabians are said to be near the Ethiopians, which may be thought of as being two areas separated merely by the Red Sea. Ezekiel 29:10 shows that Ethiopia lay at the southern extremity of Egypt, for Syene is the modern Aswan and lies at the first cataract. Passages like Psalm 68:31; 87:4; Zephaniah 2:12; 3:10 indicate that for Israel it lay on the edge of the southern horizon. At this point some contend strongly for the claim that Ethiopia did not have a negro population, even though the Gr. word Αἴθιοψ means “burnt face,” allowing only for the possibility that they were negroid but of an olive complexion. Jeremiah 13:23 does not necessarily conflict with this claim.

4. History. As far as the earliest reference to be found is concerned, it seems to indicate that Ethiopians first appear as part of Egypt in the days of the Egyptian monarch, Sesostris I (1971-1930). Around the year 1000 b.c. Ethiopia broke with Egypt and set up an independent capital at Napata. A few centuries later in the twenty-fifth, or Ethiopian, dynasty, i.e. from 715-663 b.c., Ethiopia ruled over Egypt. During this time it was that Tirhakah “king of Ethiopia” (Isa 37:9) came up to make war against Hezekiah. He was driven off by the Assyrians, when Ashur-banipal got the upper hand of them, somewhere between 689-676 b.c.

5. Connotations. At times the reference to Ethiopia is merely one that implies a country lying as far off as possible (cf. Ezek 29:10). During the new kingdom (c. 1570-1085 b.c.) the term Cush takes on a much wider meaning, including at least all of what later became known as Nubia. From passages like Isaiah 45:14 one may deduce that the land of Cush was a land of merchants. It may also be inferred that there may have been Arabian Cushites (2 Chron 21:16). Lastly, one may correctly assert that the Ethiopians, as Judah knew them, were a race of striking appearance (see Isa 18:2).

6. Problems. A few problems are encountered in connection with the meaning of the term “Kush.” The first of these is the land of Cush (Gen 2:13), which is said to be encircled by the Gihon River. This reference demands a location near Mesopotamia and lies therefore almost as far N as Cush lies S. There is also the problem of the wife of Moses, the Cushite woman of Numbers 12:1. She either came from the area adjacent to the Sinai peninsula (the Zipporah of Exod 2:21) or possibly after Zipporah’s death may have been an Ethiopian who, in a manner not known to us, came into that same peninsula. Another problem has to do with Zerah the Ethiopian, who according to 2 Chronicles 14:9, 12, 13, appeared in the land of Judah in the days of King Asa with a huge army. History has yet to find an answer to the question how in a time when Ethiopia had no power in Egypt, Zera should have been able to muster so large a force.

7. Prominent personages from Ethiopia. Zerah and Tirhakah have already been mentioned as being great Ethiopian kings in their day. A character of less importance is the runner who brought the news of Absalom’s death to King David after the great battle near Mahanaim (2 Sam 18:21-23). Another Ethiopian is the foreigner employed somehow at the king’s court in the days of the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians (587 b.c.), the man who took pity upon the Lord’s prophet and secured permission to draw him up out of the cistern into which he had been cast by his adversaries (Jer 38:7ff.).