Cush (Bible)
In the Bible, Cush is the name of the grandson of Noah, whose descendants, the Ethiopians, and the countries in which Cushitic peoples live.
The name of Cush is also found in Egyptian sources and it describes the Nubia region. At the end of the 8th century conquered the Nubian rulers of the kingdom of Kush even for almost 50 years, the power in Egypt. Therefore, the Cushites in the Bible are usually presented as a dark-skinned Africans (in translation by Martin Luther, they will consistently as " Moors ") is. However, the Bible also reported as a Cushite inhabitants of Palestine and Arabia.
Of these, to distinguish the speakers today Cushitic languages in Ethiopia and Somalia ( whose language is, however, named after the Biblical Cushites ).
The progenitor
The Old Testament According to all humanity goes after the flood back to the three sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The Ethiopians therefore come from Cush, the eldest son of Ham, from. According to Gen 10.6 to 20 EU, the brothers of Cush were: Mizraim ( " Egypt " ), Put ( "Libya " maybe Punt? ) And Canaan; his sons: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raama and Sabteca ( here one thinks mostly of Arab tribes ). Particular emphasis here is Cush 's son Nimrod. " Efficient hunter before the Lord ", which is declared the empire builders and urban planners in Mesopotamia and Assyria This is typically not a clear distinction between persons and from them descended clans and peoples. Also, cities and countries have an ancestor in the biblical idea.
Ethiopians in the Middle East
From Moses is reported that he took to wife a Kuschitin. In the fourth book of Moses (Num 12:1 EU) make him so his siblings Miriam and Aaron allegations. It is not clear whether it is in this Kuschitin to Zipporah, the daughter of the priest Jethro (or Reuel ), is (Ex 2:16-22 EU), or a concubine. In the former case it would be a Midianite woman (specifically a Keniterin ), members of which, like the Israelites practiced the Yahweh cult of a people, and in Transjordan and the Negev moved.
According to 2 Samuel 18.21-31 EU only a Cushitic servant King David dared to break the news of the death of Absalom.
In the second book of Chronicles ( 2 Chr 14:7-14 EU), the victory King Asa king of Judah is portrayed ( by 900 BC), against a huge superiority of the Ethiopians. The numbers of one million Cushitic warriors with 300 chariots, but are obviously highly exaggerated. The mention of place names Mareshah and Gerar rather indicates that it was a small tribe in the Negev in these Ethiopians. Fittingly, in 2 Chr 21,16 EU Ethiopians are mentioned as neighbors of the Philistines and Arabs.
The vision of the prophet Habakkuk, " The tents Kuschans I see full disaster; also in Midian tremble the tents. " (Hab 3.7 EU) could also indicate Cushitic nomads east of the Jordan.
Ethiopians from Africa
When the prophet Isaiah ( about 740-701 BC), the Ethiopians appear, however, in a different context. King Hezekiah was involved towards the end of his reign in the conflict between Sennacherib of Assyria, and the Egyptians under the Kushite Pharaoh Tirhaka (Isaiah 37.9 EU). Kush is placed next to powerful countries such as Assyria, Egypt, Elam, and the " isles of the sea " (Isaiah 11,11 EU), from which one day the leftover remnant of the people of Israel will be saved. In Isaiah 18.1-7 EU the Prophet announced the judgment of God upon Cush:
"Woe to the land of locusts beyond the rivers of Cush. It sends his messengers on the Nile, in papyrus boats over the water. Go, quick messengers to the people tall and with the shiny skin to the nation, which it is feared far and wide, to the people, the powerful crushes everything, whose country is intersected by the rivers. "
In Jer 13:23 EU Jeremiah the prophet alludes to the skin color of the Ethiopians. When Jerusalem was conquered in 597 BC by the Babylonians, Zedekiah king Nebuchadnezzar is there as a vassal. This, however, forms a coalition with Egypt. The Prophet criticized the king, and shall then be captured under suspicion of treason ( Jer 37 EU). According to Jer 38.7 to 13 EU, it is the Cushitic courtier, Ebed -melech ( lit. " servant of the king " ), which calls attention to the king to be wrong and Jeremiah freed from a cistern. This story of an uprooted to befriend a persecuted, is one of the most beloved stories of the Jews of the different versions were in circulation.
In the New Testament of Luther as " eunuchs from the land of the Moors " designated Africans (Acts 8.27 AU) from the title Candace for his Queen is identified as Kuschite in Acts.
Ethiopians in Israel today
Kushim, ie " Ethiopians " in today's Ivrit is an official designation for Africans.