Biblical Nations - Cushites

Cushites

Key Scripture: 2 Kings 19:9-10

Figures: Moses' wife, Zerah, Tirhakah

This week we will look at another kingdom that is believed to come from the area along the Red Sea, south of modern day Israel - Cush.  Although it is mentioned dozens of times throughout Scripture, there remains some debate about its precise identity.  The consensus view, however, is that the Cushites were a people group that was established along the Nile, upstream from Egypt.  Many Biblical translations use the word "Ethiopia" to describe the nation, but it almost certainly does not correspond to the modern nation that bears that name.  Let's look through the Biblical and historical details of a people group that played an important role in the history of the Hebrew people.

Cush is the name of one grandson of Noah, born to Ham, but the first Biblical mention of an area carrying that name actually appears in a geographic discussion of the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2.  The Gihon, one of four rivers that flowed into the paradise where Adam and Eve lived, is said to have flowed around the land of Cush.  We know that Cush's most famous son, Nimrod, built several cities throughout Mesopotamia which is bounded by two of the other rivers - the Tigris and Euphrates - that entered the Garden, so it's plausible that this first reference is pointing to a region populated by these descendants of Cush.  The land bearing the name of a different son of Cush named Havilah is mentioned in relation to the fourth river, the Pishon.  There are some interesting claims that the Gihon could be Iran's Karun River, while Saudi Arabia's Wadi al-Rummah could correspond to the Pishon, but those theories are somewhat beyond the scope of this study.  In any case, we know that the offspring of Cush were certainly found both in the Fertile Crescent as well as the African continent.  Historians and other scholars favor the latter as the likely location for the Cush that became a powerful kingdom, sometimes also called Kush or Nubia, and place it generally along the Nile River on either side of the modern border between Egypt and Sudan.

As recorded in the book of Numbers, Moses was opposed by his siblings for having married a Cushite woman.  We know he married Zipporah before leading the Hebrew people out of Egypt, and she was a Midianite.  Since so much time had lapsed since their union, however, it is likely that the wife that was the subject of this particular acrimonious discussion was a different person (perhaps a second living wife or a later wife after the death of his first).  The next Scriptural reference to a Cushite is found during the reign of King David when a foreign messenger is sent by Joab to share news of Absalom's defeat and death.  No additional details are provided about this man, however, so it is difficult to draw any new conclusions about his people group from his story.  After the unified nation of Israel was divided Judah's King Asa was listed as the first good ruler who did what was right in God's eyes, and during his reign he faced a massive invasion of Cushite forces led by a king named Zerah.  Against an army twice the size of his own, Asa called out to God in prayer for deliverance and was able to defeat Cush.

The prophet Isaiah was commanded by God to walk barefoot and naked for three years as a display of what He would do to both Cush and Egypt at the hands of the king of Assyria.  Interestingly, Jerusalem was spared a siege at the hands of Sennacherib, the Assyrian king who had just destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel, when he heard that King Tirhakah of Cush was marching to fight against him.  Tirhakah is associated with a Cushite/Nubian ruler named Taharqa who actually controlled Egypt as part of the 25th dynasty, which lasted for nearly 100 years and was known as the Reign of the Black Pharaohs.  The Assyrians never made it back to finish the siege of Jerusalem and Sennacherib was assassinated by his own sons shortly thereafter, although his successors were instrumental in driving the Cushites back to their original borders and setting up their own puppet rulers as pharaohs, such as Necho who played prominently in Biblical history as the one who killed Josiah, Judah's last good king.  Cush was never again as large or powerful.  The remainder of references to Cush are limited to prophecies of the nations who will be judged and destroyed, or who will bring tribute to God's chosen people.  Although a weakened version of the Cushite kingdom persisted for several centuries until after the time of the Romans, they are assumed to have eventually crumbled internally before being absorbed by the Aksum to the south.