Cush

Cush (meaning black) refers primarily to the eldest son of Ham and grandson of Noah, from whom descended the Cushite peoples of northeast Africa (Genesis 10:6–8; 1 Chronicles 1:8–10). Cush was the father of Nimrod, the first great empire-builder of the post-flood world. The land of Cush, named for this ancestor, corresponds broadly to the region south of Egypt — the area known in antiquity as Ethiopia or Nubia, in modern terms roughly Sudan and northern Ethiopia. The river Gihon in Genesis 2:13 is said to encompass the whole land of Cush, connecting the primordial geography to this region.

Cush and the Cushites appear throughout the prophetic literature. Isaiah 18, 20, and 45, Ezekiel 29–30, and Psalm 68:31 all address or mention Cush, often as a representative of the distant nations that God will one day bring into his purposes. Ethiopia (Cush) stretching out its hands to God (Psalm 68:31) became in patristic interpretation a prophecy of the Gentile mission and the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8. The name Cush is also applied to a Benjaminite (Psalm 7 superscription) and may have been used as a personal name.