CUSHI occurs, in a variety of forms, no less than twenty-seven times in the Hebrew Bible ; in the majority of instances as a Gentile appellative noun.-1. In Num. xii. i it occurs in the feminine form roci.D (Aiobtriocra, ./Elhidissa) twice to designate Moses' wife [concerning her, see PORAH], the first time with the art., the second anarthrous. 2. The plural form, (Aai orEs, zEthides), is found in 2 Chron. xii. 3, de scriptive of a part of Shishak's great army ; and in xiv. 12 (twice), 13, and xvi. 8, designating the Ethiopian army which invaded Judah in the reign of Asa. In xxi. 16, it occurs as a general term of the Ethiopian nation [ ETHioPIA] ; so also in Zeph. ii. 12, and Dan. xi. 43 ; and lastly in Amos ix. 7, where, however, the MSS. present the word in three various shapes, besides the Masoretic reading Five of Kennicott's MSS. read Csriz, eight and no less than twenty-one 0+oz70• 3. The masculine form (as an adjective only) in Jer. xiii. 23 has a general sense, and is without the article. In all other passages, except one, it has the article ; in 2 Chron. xiv. 9 *tilMil rElhielps) describes Zerah, the com mander of the Ethiopian host above mentioned ; in Jer. xxxviii. 7, 10, 12, and xxxix. 16, (AiMot,b, /Elk/op) is applied to Ehedmelech, the prophet's friend. [With which compare the dvlip Aatolb, 66voiixos K.-tit of Acts viii. 27, and the Te ex /Ethiopia ancillulanz' of the Eunuchus of Terence, i. 2. 85.] In the remaining passages the word is treated as a PROPER NAME, in A. V.
Septuagint and Vulgate (` Cushi,' Xovei, Chun). I. In Jer. xxxvi. 14, Cushi is mentioned as the father of Shelemiah and great-grandfather of Jehudi, one of the courtiers of Jehoiakim, king of Judah [JEHUDI]. 2. In Zeph. i. i, Cushi ap pears as the father of the prophet and the son of Gedaliah, who must not be confounded with the governor of that name. 3. In 2 Sam. xviii. 21, (Cushi) occurs once without the article, as the name of one of Joab's messengers, who broke the sad tidings of Absalom's death to David. As, however, the word occurs in seven other places (xviii. 21, 22, 23, 31, twice, 32 twice) with the article ocitcro descriptive of the same man, it is probable that we have here not the messenger's name, but only his nation (So Kimchi) ; as if an ' Ethiopian' foreigner would have more hardihood to make so miserable a communication to the distressed king than a neighbour like Ahimaaz the son of Zadok, who actually faltered and failed in his self-chosen office when the moment came for discharging it. (See Grotius on 2 Sam. xviii. 21.) P. Martyr's conceit, that the swarthiness of the messenger induced Joab to select him because of the dark import of his message, can only be accepted as a pretty fancy. Josephus throughout writes the messenger's name with an article, 6 Xovcri.—P. H.