Cush (IV)

IV. CUSH. Bochart¹ has shewn very clearly, that there was a Country called the Land of Cush in Arabia Petræa, bordering upon Egypt; that this Country extended itself principally upon the Eastern shore of the Red Sea; and at its extremity, to the Point of this Sea inclining towards Egypt and Palestine. The proofs of his opinion are these. Zipporah the Wife of Moses, who was of Midian, is called a Cushite by Moses himself. Now Numb. xii. 1.Midian, as Josephus, Ptolemy and S. Jerom all agree, lay upon the Red Sea, to the eastward of it, in Arabia. Cush was therefore in the same Hab. iii. 7.Country. Habakkuk mentions the Land of Cush or Cushan, as synonymous with that of Midian, I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction, and the curtains of the land Job xxviii. 19.of Midian did tremble. Job speaks of the Topaz of Cush. Now the Topaz is to be found only in an Island of the Red Sea, near the Country which we are speaking Isai. xviii. 1. Zeph. iii. 10.of ¹. Isaiah and Zephaniah describe Egypt to us as situated beyond the Rivers of Cush; which cannot be understood of the Rivers of Ethiopia. King Tirhakah, 2 Kings xix. 9.who marched to attack Sennacherib and Zerah, who at another time made an irruption upon the Land of Judah, were 2 Chr. xiv. 9.both Kings of Cush, of the Country which we have been speaking of, bordering upon Egypt and Palestine, as all the circumstances of the History demonstrate. Thus there are three Countries of the name of Cush, described in Scripture, and all confounded by Interpreters, under the general name of Ethiopia.

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