Cush

2 definitions found

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Cush
     black. (1.) A son, probably the eldest, of Ham, and the father
     of Nimrod (Gen. 10:8; 1 Chr. 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 (Ezek. 29:10,
     A.V. "Ethiopia," Heb. Cush), with which it is generally
     associated (Ps. 68:31; Isa. 18:1; Jer. 46:9, etc.). It stands
     also associated with Elam (Isa. 11:11), with Persia (Ezek.
     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 (29:10; comp. 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; Zeph. 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.'"
     

From Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's) [hitchcock]:

  Cush, Cushan, Cushi, Ethiopians; blackness