This page was last updated on 29 September, 2021.

Conclusion: Cush was in Arabia.


Psalm 87

Ps 87:2 The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
Ps 87:3 Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Selah.
Ps 87:4 I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Cush; this man was born there.
Ps 87:5 And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the highest himself shall establish her.

This Psalm mentions the neighboring countries of Judea. Wouldn’t it be odd it mentions a far away Southern-African country and omits the Arabian neighbor Cush. The countries aren’t just neighbors, they encircle Judea. Obviously modern day Ethiopia isn’t even close.


Cushites, Kenites and Midian were the same people

Exod 2:16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters…
Exod 2:21 … And he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses.
Exod 3:1 Now Moses was pasturing the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
Num 12:1 … Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married…

Moses married her when he was in Midian, which is in present day Saudi Arabia where mt Sinai is located (Jebel-al-Lawz). That’s a long way from Ethopia.
The above verses link Cush to Arabia.

Hab 3:7 I saw the tents of Cushan under distress, The tent curtains of the land of Midian were trembling.

Again we see Cush being linked to Midian and with that to Arabia. (Cushan is an alternative spelling of Cush)

Judg 1:16 Now the descendants of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law…

That verse states Moses’s father-in-law was a Kenite, earlier we saw he’s Midianite and also a Cushite. So Kenites, Midianites and Cushites are the same people. That means in the same region; but it doesn’t have to mean exactly the same territory (but it’s possible). Think about it this way, all Texans are American but not all Americans are Texans.


Babylon never controlled present day Ethiopia and Sudan

Isa 11:11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.  

That would mean the Babylonians dispersed the Jews to countries quite near of Judea. Those countries were under their control. So it’s very unlikely the Babylonians dispersed the Jews all the way to Sudan, Ethiopia or another place far south of Egypt; simply because Babylon never controlled that region. Maps differ but by the looks of it the southern border of Egypt was also the border of Babylon.

It would also be odd the verse mentions countries surrounding Judea, but omits the largest one, Arabia.


They fled from where?

2Chr 14:13 And Asa and the people that were with him pursued them to Gerar: and the Cushim were overthrown, that they could not recover themselves; for they were destroyed before the LORD, and before his host; and they carried away very much spoil.

Gerar is located in the foothills of Judean mountains in southern Philistia; it was between the Kingdom of Judea and the wilderness of Shur and Paran.

Did they flee all the way from modern Ethiopia or Sudan to the border of Judea?
Or did they flee from an invading army that came from southern Arabia?
By the looks of it they never left their own country Cush, which was in Northern Arabia, but the invading arming cornered them in extreme north-west of Cush/Arabia.


More support for this conclusion comes from the fact that they had to pass through Egypt.
Egypt would never let a whole nation of refugees within its border. And even less the army that pursued the refugees.


The Cushites lived near Arabs

2Chr 21:16 Moreover the LORD stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines, and of the Arabians, that were near the Cushim:

That verse clearly states Cushites lived near Arabs. Arabs live in Arabia, not in Sudan, Ethiopia or any other country in that region.


Between Syene and Cush - Egypt is located between?
The remaining sections on this page are by far the most chaotic bits of proof. For that reason not really suitable to prove any view. I mainly included them because it’s often used as proof that Cush is south of Egypt. But as we will see that’s impossible or at least very doubtful.

Ezek 29:10 Behold, therefore I am against you, and against your rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from the tower of Syene even to the border of Ethiopia.

Syene is present day Aswan, known for the Aswan Dam. The tower stood on the southern border of Egypt and Biblical-Ethiopia. If Cush was Biblical-Ethiopia the verse would read like this:

Ezek 29:10 …from Biblical-Ethiopia even to the border of Biblical-Ethiopia.

That’s very strange, going back to the original text which has Cush instead of Ethiopia (which is commentary instead of translation).

Ezek 29:10 …from Biblical-Ethiopia even to the border of Cush.
Ezek 29:10 …from the tower of Syene even to the border of Cush.

North of Egypt is the Mediterranean Sea not a country or a tower. So ‘between Syene and Cush’ isn’t looking north to south, but looking west to east. The border between Egypt and Arabia is the Red Sea.


Between Syene and Cush - How many rivers in Egypt?
I admit understanding the verse as west-east instead of north-south has its problems because God cursed the rivers. Egypt’s Nile runs south to north. Egypt is very narrow compared to it’s length because the Egyptian civilization was on the banks of the Nile and mostly in the delta which was north.
The translation states rivers, plural, but the Nile is a single river. Only deep into south Africa we find the Blue and White Nile. But you guessed it right that has problems too.
The White and Blue Nile merge into the Nile in Khartoum in the middle of Sudan. Egypt’s southern border was never that much south. And that’s just where the rivers merge. They go much further south. If God bothered to mention the rivers by using a plural form, it must mean a significant part of the rivers were cursed, so even more south into Africa were Egypt never was.

But this problem of rivers in plural may not be a problem at all because if we take a closer look to the original text it reads ‘yeor’ in Hebrew. Often it refers to the Nile; but (especially) when in its plural form it refers to the Nile and the branches and (irrigation) canals (in especially the delta)  of the Nile. So God said He would cause the Nile, it’s delta, canals, just everything containing water to dry up.


Between Syene and Cush - South to North, West to East or both?
The  conclusion of the above section sounds a bit strange because why mention the most narrow southern part with the fewest Egyptians and not the most prestigious and dense populated part of Egypt; its Delta? So in an final attempt to resolve this….


Ezek 29:10 Behold, therefore I am against you, and against your rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from the tower of Syene even to the border of Ethiopia.

What if the verse should be understood as God drying up the Nile starting at the most southern border of Egypt where the tower of Syene stood? From there everything downstream dries up. That means whole Egypt.
Understanding it that way leaves one question, what is the border with Cush referring to?

So the Egypt becomes desolate from south to north and west to east. That’s most certainly what the verse means; but I don’t know if it can be translated as such.

Please note the curse isn’t just drought but also war (the sword). So the curse of drought is defined in a south-north direction, and the curse of the sword by an army (sword) going from west to east.


Conclusion
While the above 3 sections about Ezekiel 29:10 are vague and can cause doubt we must include everything written on this page in our conclusion. A lot of it is very straight forward. A lot is based on locations that are very well known; and all of that seems to rule out a south African Cush. On top of that it’s possible to reconcile the above three sections with that view.