The Peopling of the Earth

CUSH

The land of Cush is Ethiopia. Says Josephus: “Of the four sons of Ham, time has not at all hurt the name of Chus; for the Ethiopians, over whom he reigned, are even at this day, both by themselves, and by all men in Asia, called the Chusites.”-Antiquities, book i, chap. vi, par. 2. “The word Cush is in the Authorized Version, for the most part, translated by Ethiopia.” This is also the translation in the Vulgate and the Septuagint, and “by almost all other versions, ancient and modern. The German translation of Luther has Mohrenland, which is equivalent to Negroland or the country of the blacks.” -McClintock and Strong. Ethiopia lay immediately south of Egypt but with no definite limits. Herodotus says of it, “Where the south declines toward the setting sun, lies the country called Ethiopia, the last inhabited land in that direction. There gold is obtained in great plenty, huge elephants abound, with wild trees of all sorts, and ebony; and the men are taller, handsomer, and longer-lived than anywhere else.”-Book iii, 114. And in another place he says of them, “The Ethiopians ... are said to be the tallest and handsomest men in the whole world.”-iii, 20. This would seem to agree with Isaiah 45:14, “The labor of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine.” POTE 274.1

As the children of Ham settled in clusters, it will be most convenient to consider each family in its full connection, before naming the next. Therefore we shall notice here in connection with their father POTE 275.1