Ethiopia

Ethiopia (Greek, land of burnt faces) is the rendering of the Hebrew Cush throughout the Old Testament, denoting the region south of Egypt along the Nile, corresponding roughly to modern Sudan and northern Ethiopia. One of the rivers of Eden flowed through the land of Cush (Genesis 2:13), and Cush was a son of Ham (Genesis 10:6). Ethiopia figures in the Table of Nations as an early civilization and appears throughout the prophets as a distant power allied with or threatened alongside Egypt. Its armies were formidable — Zerah the Ethiopian commanded a million-man army against Asa of Judah (2 Chronicles 14:9). The prophets envision Ethiopia's ultimate submission to the LORD (Psalm 68:31; 87:4; Isaiah 45:14; Zephaniah 3:10). The Ethiopian eunuch's conversion (Acts 8:27–39) was an early fulfillment of this prophetic vision, bringing the gospel to sub-Saharan Africa.