Cush (Heb. Kusky W'2, deriv.. nncertain ; A. Y. "Cush," Gen. x, 6, 7, 8 ; 1 Chron. i, 8, 9, 10; Psa. vH, tiUe ; Isa. xi, 11 ; "Ethiopia," Gen. ii, 18 ; 2 Kings xix,9; Esth.i,l; viii,9; Job xxviii, 19 ; Psa.lxviii,
31; Ixxxvii, 4; Isa. xviii, 1; xz, S, 5; xxxtb,^ xliii, 8 ; xlv, 14 ; Ezek. xxix, 10 ; xxx, 4, 5; xxxri 5; Nah. iii,9; Zeph.iii,10; " Ethiopians," In. n 4 ; Jer. xlvi, 9 ; Ezek. xxx, 9), the name of two h and of the territory or territories occnpied by tk 4 scendants of one of them.
1. (Sept. Xovc, Vulg. Chm.) A wm (appaiod the eldest) of Ham. B.C. dr. 2510. In the geaeil gy of Noah's children Cush seems to be an individa for it u said '* Cush begat Nimrod*' (Gen. x 9 Chron. i, 10). If the name be older than his ta^ may have been called after a country allotted to )k The following deecendants of Cush are his sons, Seba, Havilah, Sabtah or Sabta, Bani and Sabtechah or Sabtecha; his grandaona, the hI of Baamah, Sheba and Dedan; and Khnrod, vli^l mentioned after the rest, seems to have beei a meter descendant than they, the text not neeoK proving him to have been a son. See Ham. T only direct geographical information given in this sage is with reference to Nimrod, the beginaiag whose kingdom was in Babylonia, and who went, according to the reading whkh we preftz, Assyria, and founded Nineveh and other citiei. reasons for our preference are : (1) that if we ml "Out of that land went forth Asshnr,"* instead of b went forth [intx>3 Asshur," i. e. Assyria, there i§ v account given but of the "beginning' of Xisrodt kingdom; and (2) that Asshur the patriarch vt^ seem here to be quite out of place in the genealogr.- Smith, s. V. See Nimrod.
Land of Ccsh.— From the eldest son of Ham (Go. X, 6 ; 1 Chron. i, 8) seems to have been doircd t^-* name of the land of Cush, which is commonly reoderc by the Sept. AiOiowiay and by the Vulgate .£du^, in which they have been followed by almost sU o^ versions, ancient and modem. The German tms^ tion of Luther has Mokrenkutdy which is equivikst b Negroland, or the Country of the Blacks. A mlsn was called CuskH (*^O^a, Atdio^, u&kiopt, Jer. xm, ^ the ftminine of which was CuskiA^ (H^C^ A^ ^ruro-a, jEthiopissaj Num. xii, 1), and the plnnJ, Csi- iim"^ (Q^^D^S, AiOioirec, ^EtMopes, Amos ix, 7). See Ethiopian. * * Of the four sons of Ham," says i»- phus {ArU, i, 6, 2), "time has not at all hurt the nsse of Chus ; for the Ethiopians over whom he reigned ire even at this day, both by themselves and l(y all ma in Asia, called dU»i/et." The Peshito Sjriac Tosot of Acts viii, 27, styles both queen Candace and ber treasurer Cvshceans. See Candacb.
The locality of the land of Cush is a question vpos which eminent authorities have been divided; (of whUe Bochart (Phalegy iv, 2) maintained that it wis exclusively in Arabia, Gesenius {Lex. in voce) hM with no less pertinacity, that it is to be sought f(s no- where but in Africa. In this opinion he is supportri by Schulthess of Zurich, in his Parodies (p. 11, K'l> Others again, such as Michaelis (^^Hctleg. Geogr. Bk Ext. cap. 2, p. 287) and RosenmQller {BibL (kogr.\f^ Morren, i, 80 ; iii, 280), have supposed that the vMOt Cush was applied to tracts of country both in AitUa and Africa^-a circumstance which would easily be a^ counted for on the very probable soppoeition thsS ibt descendants of the primitive Cushite ^bes who lad settled in the former country emigrated acros tk Red Sea to the latter region of the effth, carryiof with them the name of Cush, their remote progeaktv. This idea hod been developed by Ei<^hom (Z>e OticA- tew, Ohrduf, 1774). The term Cush is genersIlT «{> plied in the Old Testament to the countries aoirth cf the Israelites. It was the southern limit of Egvfl (Ezek. xxix, 10), and apparently the most -wreOeii} of the provinces over which the rale of Ahasuerut ex- tended, *'from India even unto Ethiopia** (Esth. i,l; viii, 9). Egypt and Cush are associated in the mtjcr- ity of instances in which the word occurs (Pta. Ixts,
CFSH
613
CFSH
; Isa. xviil, 1 ; Jer. xlvi, 9, etc.) ; tmt in two pas- ^s Cash stands in close juxtaposition with Elam a. xi, U) and Persia (Ezek. xxxviii, 5). The Cnsh-
king, Zerah, was utterly defeated by Asa at Mare- ih, and pursued as fiir as Gerar, a town of the Plii- tines, on the southern border of Palestine, which IS apparently under his sway (2 Chron. xiv, 9, etc.).
2 Chron. xxi, 16, the Arabians are described as relllng "beside the Cushites,'* and both are men- med in connection with the Philistines. The wife Moses, who, we learn fhnn Exod. ii, was the daugh- r of a Midianite chieftain, is in Num. xii, 1, denomi- ited a Cnshite. Further, Cush and Seba (Isa. xliii, , Cush and the Sabeans (Isa. xlv, 14), are associated
a manner consonant with the genealogy of the de- endants of Ham (Gen. x, 7), in which Seba is the n of Cosb. From all these circumstances it is evi- )nt that under the denomination Cush were included ith Arabia and the country south of Egypt on the estem coast of the Red Sea. It is possible also that le vast desert tracts west of Egypt were known to le Hebrews as the land of Cush, bat of this we have 3 certain proof. The Targumist on Isa. xi, 11, shar- ig the prevailing error of his time, translates Cush Y India, but that a better knowledge of the relative ositions of these countries was anciently possessed is (ear from Esth. i, 1.