Cush
Cush is a region mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Arabia in modern-day Sudan. Known today as Meroe. It appears across 19 verses in Scripture.
Biblical History
Cush in this context refers to the vast territory south of Egypt stretching into sub-Saharan Africa, corresponding roughly to modern Sudan and Ethiopia. It appears extensively across the Old Testament. Cush enters biblical history as a son of Ham in the table of nations (Genesis 10:6). Moses married a Cushite woman (Numbers 12:1), a detail that occasioned controversy among his siblings. The Cushite runner delivered news of Absalom's death to David (2 Samuel 18:21-32). Isaiah and the prophets frequently mention Cush as representing the farthest reaches of the known world (Isaiah 11:11; 18:1-7; 45:14). Zephaniah prophesied that from beyond the rivers of Cush, the LORD's worshipers would bring offerings (Zephaniah 3:10). Cush was a significant military power, and the Egyptian pharaoh Tirhakah, who confronted Sennacherib, was himself Cushite (2 Kings 19:9). The Ethiopian eunuch of Acts 8, a high official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, likely came from this region, marking Cush as one of the earliest mission fields of the early church.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Ancient Cush encompassed the Nubian kingdoms of Kerma, Napata, and Meroe, situated along the Nile south of Aswan in modern Sudan. The Meroitic kingdom, centered at the site of Meroe near the sixth Nile cataract, flourished from approximately 300 BC to AD 350, developing distinctive pyramidal royal tombs, temples, and a unique written script still only partially deciphered. Excavations by George Reisner at Kerma and Napata revealed sophisticated Bronze and Iron Age cultures with extensive Egyptian cultural influence. The city of Meroe has been excavated by German and Sudanese teams, uncovering palace complexes, temple ruins, and evidence of ironworking that made Meroitic Cush a significant regional power.
Verse Appearances (19)
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
- Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]