D. S. MARGOLIOtTTH. CUSH (E'13, LXX Xowe/)- — Mentioned only in the title of Ps 7. The older translators appear to have read V'^ (Aq. Symm. Theod. Jer.). 'As the name of a person, the word is of uncertain mean- ing' (Delitzsch). Cush is described as a Benjamite, and was probably a follower of Saul who opposed David, 'rhe seventh psalm sheds no light on name, person, or character. W. T. Davison.
CUSHAN-RISHATHAIM (D-nipr! 1«''3. 'S.ovcapca- 66.1)1., AV Chushan-rishathaim), king of Mesopo-
• Hommel, however (Ezpofiton/ Timet [1897], vUl. 878) would rejfard the tribe mentioned here &a one existing in Central Arattla, to which he tinda further reference in 2 Ch 14^, where Zerah the Cushite is said to liave invaded Judah iu the days of Asa (cf. LXX hoth here and in 2 Ch 21i«, where he finds the Arab, tribe Mxfin7Teti, Mazin, mentioned). The name Zerah (or Dirrih) is found as a title of early Ssbnan kings. It ma^ M doulited, however, if the LXX readiDKfl really preserve eithei the ori^al text or an ancient tra^iition respecting its meaning
CUSm, CUSHITE
CUTTINGS IN THE FLESH 537
tamia or Arain-naharaim, was the tirst of those oppressors iiilo whose hands Ciod delivered Israel for their apostasy in the days of the Judges (Jg S'"'"). For eight years they were in bondage to this king, till they were delivered by Caleb's younger brother Othniel. Of Cuslian-rishathaim nothing more is known directly, and his name has not yet been found on the monuments. The country over which he ruled, ' Aram of the Two Rivers,' was in all probability the territory lying between the Euphrates and the Chaboraa, the last of the tributaries of the Great River. (See Aram- naharaim in art. Aram, p. 13S'.) Its two cities mentioned in Scripture are Ilaran (Gn 28'°) and PethoT {VfiS*, Nu 22'). It is known as Nahrina on the Egyptian monuments, and Is'ahrima in the Tel el-Ajuarna tablets, the native name of its people being Mitanni. Sayce (the soundness of whose ar^tunent, however, is denied by Moore and Dnver) tinds a remarkable correspondence between the notice of Cushan-rishathaim in Jg and the history of the reign of liamsea III. ' The eight years, he says, ' during which the king of Aram- naharaim oppressed Israel would exactly agree with the interval between the beginning of the Libyan attack npon Egypt and the campaign of the Pharaoh against Syria. We know from the Egyptian records that Mitanni of Artun- naharaim took part in the invasion of Egypt ; we also know from them that the king of Mitanni was not among those who actually marched into the Delta. He participated in the southward move- ment of the peoples of the north, and nevertheless lingered on the way. What is more probable than that he a^^ain sought to secure that dominion in Canaan which had belonged to some of his predecessors ? ' See further Othniel.
LmitATCiii.— Moore, Judga, pp. 84-89; Driver, Contemp. Bsw (1884), p. 420 S. ; Sayce, UCit, pp. 297-304.
T. NicoL.
CUSHI, CDSHITE (T'S, 's'ljn).— The word occurs with the article in Nu 12', 2 S 18" ; without the article in Jer 36", Zeph 1'. 1. With the article it is probably merely an expression of nationality, 'the Cushite' (see CusH). That in both instances it was a sutiicient designation of the person in question, seems to show that there were but few Cushites among the Israelites. In both, the foreign character of the person intended is indicated by the narrative. It was looked upon as a disgrace that Moses should have married a Cushite. In 2 S 18" the stranger is unacquainted with the ahort-cut ma<ie use of by Ahimaaz. 2. Without the article the word is used merely as a proper name. It is borne by (1) the great-grandfather of Jehudi, the latter one of Jehoiakim's courtiers (Jer 3(5") ; (2) the father of the prophet Zephaniah (Zeph 1').
K. H. WooD.s.
CUSTOM (rAot, Mt 17», Ro 13', comp. 1 Mac 10" 1 1"), toll, tax upon goods, generally aa valorem, as distinguished from Krjyaoi and <fi6pos, tribute, an annual tax on houses, lands, and persons. Costom ordinarily went into the treasury of the native government. Thus in Palestine the Herods in Galilee and Per»a received the custom, whereas in Judffia it was paid to the procurator for behoof of the Roman government. The custom (HXoi) was collected by the tax-gatherer (tiXui'tis). For full details see PUBLICAN and Taxe-S.
J. Macpiikrson.
CUTH, CUTHAH (ntws, ma ; H Xoi*ed, Xo6e ; A Xowt). — One of the cities from which Sargon brought colonists to take the place of the Israelites whom he had deported from Samaria, B.C. 722 (2 K n"-"). The.se colonists intermingled with the Israelite inhabitants who were left by Sar- ^n ; and their descendants, the Samaritans, were in consequence termed by the Jews Cuthseans
(D'fn;). According to the old Arabic geographers, Cutliah was .situated not far from Babylon, and there seem to have been two cities of the same name close to each other (de Sacy, Chrest. Arab. i. 331). This view as to the site of Cuthah ia borne out by the Assyrian inscriptions, from which we learn that Kuti (or Kutu) was a city of Middle-Babylonia. It has now been identified with the modem Tell-Ibrdhim, N.E. of Babylon, where remains of the temple of Nergal (cf. v.") have been discovered (see Schrader, COT, i. 270 f.). Cuthah has also been identified as the name of a country near Kurdistan, possibly = Ur Kasdim (Gn 11") — Neubauer, Giogr. p. 371) ; while others consider ' Cutheans ' to be another form of ' Cossseans,' a tribe dwellinjj in the Persian pro- vince Jutipa, the modem Kbuzistan, E. of the mouth of the Tigris. J. F. Stenninq.