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.
Source:
Smith’s Bible Dictionary
Cush (1)
kush (כּוּשׁ, kūsh):
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.
Source:
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Cush
Black.
(1.) A son,
probably the eldest, of Ham, and the father of Nimrod (Gen_10:8; 1Ch_1:10).
From him the land of Cush seems to have derived its name. The question of the
precise locality of the land of Cush has given rise to not a little
controversy. The second river of Paradise surrounded the whole land of Cush (Gen_2:13, R.V.). The term Cush is in the Old
Testament generally applied to the countries south of the Israelites. It was
the southern limit of Egypt (Eze_29:10,
A.V. “Ethiopia,” Heb. Cush), with which it is generally associated (Psa_68:31; Isa_18:1;
Jer_46:9, etc.). It stands also
associated with Elam (Isa_11:11), with
Persia (Eze_38:5), and with the Sabeans
(Isa_45:14). From these facts it has
been inferred that Cush included Arabia and the country on the west coast of
the Red Sea. Rawlinson takes it to be the country still known as Khuzi-stan, on
the east side of the Lower Tigris. But there are intimations which warrant the
conclusion that there was also a Cush in Africa, the Ethiopia (so called by the
Greeks) of Africa. Ezekiel speaks (Eze_29:10;
compare Eze_30:4-6) of it as lying
south of Egypt. It was the country now known to us as Nubia and Abyssinia (Isa_18:1; Zep_3:10,
Heb. Cush). In ancient Egyptian inscriptions Ethiopia is termed Kesh.
The Cushites appear to have spread along extensive tracts, stretching from the
Upper Nile to the Euphrates and Tigris. At an early period there was a stream
of migration of Cushites “from Ethiopia, properly so called, through Arabia,
Babylonia, and Persia, to Western India.” The Hamite races, soon after their
arrival in Africa, began to spread north, east, and west. Three branches of the
Cushite or Ethiopian stock, moving from Western Asia, settled in the regions
contiguous to the Persian Gulf. One branch, called the Cossaeans, settled in
the mountainous district on the east of the Tigris, known afterwards as
Susiana; another occupied the lower regions of the Euphrates and the Tigris;
while a third colonized the southern shores and islands of the gulf, whence
they afterwards emigrated to the Mediterranean and settled on the coast of
Palestine as the Phoenicians. Nimrod was a great Cushite chief. He conquered
the Accadians, a Tauranian race, already settled in Mesopotamia, and founded
his kingdom, the Cushites mingling with the Accads, and so forming the Chaldean
nation.
(2.) A
Benjamite of this name is mentioned in the title of Ps. 7. “Cush was probably a
follower of Saul, the head of his tribe, and had sought the friendship of David
for the purpose of 'rewarding evil to him that was at peace with him.'”
Source:
Easton’s Bible Dictionary