CURTAINS (kilt-Tins). Three Hebrew words arc thus rendered.
1. ;IF77 (yer-ee-aw% tremulous), the ten cur tains which covered the tabernacle of Moses (Exod. xxvi:1-13; xxxvi:8-t7). The word afterwards be came a synonym For the tabernacle.
2. 77'7 (maw-sawk', veil), the hanging for the door of the temple (Exod. xxvi:36, 37; xxxv:15, •tc.', and also the gate of the court about the tab ernacle (Exud. xxvii:16; xxxv:i7).
3. rt (doke, fineness. Is. x1:22), "Ile stretched' out the heavens as a curtain, and spread eth them out as a tent to dwell in." There is a reference to the screen stretched over the summer courts of the rich Orientals.
CUSH (kush), (Heb. kooshl.
1. A son (probably the eldest) of Ham. In the genealogy of Noah's children it is said, "Cush begat Nimrod" (Gen. x :8; t Chron. i :to).
2. Land of Cush. From Cush (Gen. x :6 ; Chron. i :8), seems to have been derived the name of the land of Cush. which is commonly rendered by the Sept. Ethiopia, and by the Vulgate pia ; in which they have been followed by almost all other versions, ancient and modern. The man translation of Luther has Mohrenland, which is equivalent to Negroland, or the Country of the Blacks. A native was called Cushi. A/010,.Ethiofis Jer. xiii :23), the feminine of which was Cushith, -EthioPisso (Num. xii :1), rendered Ethiopian woman, A. V., and Cushite woman, R. V., and the plural Cushiim, AiOlores, zEthiojhes (Amos ix:7).
The locality of the land of Cush is a ques tion upon which eminent authorities have been divided; for while Bochart (Phaleg, iv :2) main tained that it was exclusively in Arabia, Gesenius (Lex. in voce) held with no less pertinacity that it is to be sought for no where but in Africa. In this opinion he is supported by Schulthess of Zu rich, in his 'Parodies' (I). 1 t, tot ). Others again, such as Michaelis and Rosenmidler have supposed that the name Cush was applied to tracts of coun try both in Arabia and Africa—a circumstance which would easily be accounted for, on the very probable supposition, that the descendants Of the primitive Cushite tribes, who had settled in the former country, emigrated across the Red Sea to the latter region of the earth. carrying with them the name of Cush. their remote progenitor. This idea had been developed by Eichhorn, in his dissertation entitled I 'erisimilia de Gus, hires, The existence of an African Cush cannot rea sonably be questioned. though the term is em ployed in scripture with great latitude. some times denoting an extensive lint undefined country (Ethiopia), and at other times one particular kingdom ( Nleroe). It is expressly described by Ezekiel as lying to the south of Egypt beyond Syene xxix :to; comp. :KX X :4-6). II dice sse find Mizraim and Cush (i. e. Egypt and Ethiopia ) so often classed together by the prophets, e. g. Ps. lxviii:3t ; Is. xi :tt ; xx xliii:3; :14 Na hum iii :o. The inhabitants are elsewhere spoken of in connect inn with the Lubin' and Sukkiim (2 Chron. xii :3; xvi :8; Jer. xlvi :7 Dan. xi :43 ). sup posed to be the Libyans and Ethiopic Troglodytes, and certainly nations of Africa, for they belonged to the vast army with which Shishak, king of Egypt, 'came out' of that country, against Reho boam, king of Judah. In these, and indeed in most other passages where 'Cush' occurs, Arabia is not to be thought of ; the Ethiopia of Africa is beyond all doubt exclusively intended, and to the article 'ETHIOPIA' we refer the reader for the scriptural notices regarding it.
Yet, though there is a great lack of evidence to show that the name of Cush was ever applied to any part of Arabia, there seems no reason to doubt that a portion of the Cushite race did early settle there. According to the ethnographic table
in the tenth chapter of Genesis, Cush was the father of Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Raamah (whose sons were Sheba and Dedan). Sabthecah, and also of Nimrod (Gen. x:7, 8; t Chron. :9, io). The last mentioned appears to have moved northward, first into Babylonia, and then into Assyria, but the others seem to have migrated to the south, though it is impossible accurately to trace out their settlements. Yet, even if we give Seba to Africa, and pass over as doubtful the names of Havilah, Sheba, and Dedan (for these were also the names of Shemitic tribes, Gen. x:28, 29; xxv :3), still, in Ezek. XXVii Raamah is plainly classed with the tribes of Arabia, and nowhere are any traces of Sabtah and Sabthecah to be found but in the same country. By referring, however, to the rela tive geographical positions of the south-west coast of Arabia and the east coast of Africa, it will be seen that nothing separates them but the Red Sea, and it is not unlikely that while a part of the Cushite population immigrated to Africa others remained behind, and were occasionally called by the same name. Thus in 2 Chron. xxi:t6, among those who were stirred up against the Hebrews are mentioned the Philistines, and 'the Arabs that were near the Cushites,' and the expression 'near' in this connection, can scarcely apply to any but dwellers in the Arabian peninsula. In the fifth century of our era the Himaryites, in the south of Arabia, were styled by Syrian writers Cushmans and Ethiopians (Assemanni, Bibl. Orient. i:36o; iii :568). The Chaldee Paraphrast Jonathan, at Gen. x :6, and another paraphrast at I Chron. i :8, explain 'Cush' by Arabia. Niebuhr found in Yemen a tribe called Beni Chusi. The book of Job (xxviii:t9) speaks of the topaz (pitdah) of Cush, and there was a Topaz Island in the Red Sea (Diod. Sic. iii :39 ; Pliny, Hist Nat. xxxvii :8; Strabo, xvi :4, 6). Yet most of these are circum stances upon which we can lay but little stress; and the passage in 2 Chron. xxi :16 is the only direct evidence we possess of the name 'Cush' being applied in scripture to any part of Arabia, and even that does not amount to absolute dem onstration.
Some have sought for another Cush in more northerly regions of Asia, as in the Persian prov ince of Chusistan or Susiana, in Cuthan, a dis trict of Babylonia, etc.; and as Nimrod, the young est son of Cush, spread his conquests in that direction, it is, no doubt, possible that his father's name might be preserved in the designation of some part of the territory or people. But here again the data are very unsatisfactory ; and, in deed, the chief thing which led to the supposi tion is the mention in the description of the site of Paradise (Gen. ii :t3), of a land of Cush, com passed by the river Gihon. (See EDEN.) The ancients, with the usual looseness of their geo graphical definitions, understood by Ethiopia the extreme south in all the earth's longitude. it is the mistaken idea of the scriptural term 'Cush' being used in the same vague and indeterminate manner, that has led to so much confusion on this subject. (See ETHIOPIA.) 3. A Benjamite mentioned only in the title to Ps. vii. He was probably a follower of Saul, the head of his tribe (B. C. to61). Some Jewish interpreters take this name, black, as symbolic of the black heart and character of Shimei, who cursed David when he fled from Absalom (2 Sam. xvi :5 ff.) : Others suppose him to be Saul, be cause the Psalm seems to refer to the times of Saul rather than those of Absalom.