ethiopia Summary and Overview

country of burnt faces; the Greek word by which the Hebrew Cush is rendered (Gen. 2:13; 2 Kings 19:9; Esther 1:1; Job 28:19; Ps. 68:31; 87:4), a country which lay to the south of Egypt, beginning at Syene on the First Cataract (Ezek. 29:10; 30:6), and extending to beyond the confluence of the White and Blue Nile. It corresponds generally with what is now known as the Soudan (i.e., the land of the blacks). This country was known to the Hebrews, and is described in Isa. 18:1; Zeph. 3:10. They carried on some commercial intercourse with it (Isa. 45:14). Its inhabitants were descendants of Ham (Gen. 10:6; Jer. 13:23; Isa. 18:2, "scattered and peeled," A.V.; but in R.V., "tall and smooth"). Herodotus, the Greek historian, describes them as "the tallest and handsomest of men." They are frequently represented on Egyptian monuments, and they are all of the type of the true negro. As might be expected, the history of this country is interwoven with that of Egypt. Ethiopia is spoken of in prophecy (Ps. 68:31; 87:4; Isa. 45:14; Ezek. 30:4-9; Dan. 11:43; Nah. 3:8-10; Hab. 3:7; Zeph. 2:12).

(burnt faces). The country which the Greeks and Romans described as "AEthiopia" and the Hebrews as "Cush" lay to the south of Egypt, and embraced, in its most extended sense, the modern Nubia, Sennaar, Kordofan and northern Abyssinia, and in its more definite sense the kingdom of Meroe. #Eze 29:10| The Hebrews do not appear to have had much practical acquaintance with Ethiopia itself, though the Ethiopians were well known to them through their intercourse with Egypt. The inhabitants of Ethiopia were a Hamitic race. #Ge 10:6| They were divided into various tribes, of which the Sabeans were the most powerful. The history of Ethiopia is closely interwoven with that of Egypt. The two countries were not unfrequently united under the rule of the same sovereign. Shortly before our Saviour's birth a native dynasty of females, holding the official title of Candace (Plin. vi. 35), held sway in Ethiopia, and even resisted the advance of the Roman arms. One of these is the queen noticed in #Ac 8:27|

ETHIO'PIA (burnt-faces), called CUSH by the Hebrews, a country south of Egypt, Ezr 29:10, which embraced in its more extended sense modern Nubia, Sennaar, Kordofan, and northern Abyssinia. Sometimes it represented the whole of Africa beyond Egypt. In the Scriptures "Ethiopia" usually refers to the region extending from Egypt southward beyond the junction of the White and Blue Nile. This was Seba, Isa 43:3, and known to the Romans as the kingdom of Meroe. The country is rolling and mountainous, the elevation increasing toward the south, until it reaches a height of about 8000 feet in Abyssinia. Scripture History. -- Frequent notices of this country and its people are found in the Bible. It was settled by the children of Ham, Gen 10:6, dark-skinned men of stature. Jer 13:23:Isa 45:14. They were selected as members of royal households. Jer 38:7-13. The treasurer of its queen, Candace, was baptized by Philip. Acts 8:27-38. It is noticed in connection with Egvpt. Isa 20:4; Isa 43:3; Isa 45:14; with Libya (Phut), Jer 46:9; Lydia and Chub (Lub and Lud), Eze 30:5, and the Sukkiim. 2 Chr 12:3. Moses married an Ethiopian, Num 12:1; Ethiopians were in Shishak's army, 2 Chr 12:3; Zerah, an Ethiopian king, had an army of a million soldiers, 2 Chr 14:9-12; Job mentioned the precious stones of Ethiopia, Job 28:19; the Israelites were familiar with the merchandise of that country, Isa 45:14; and Isaiah foretold the subjugation of Ethiopia by the Assyrians. Isa 20:4-5. Among the Assyrian inscriptions of Assurbanipal, now in the British Museum, George Smith deciphered several which especially illustrate and confirm the fulfilment of this prophecy. Among other prophecies in respect to Ethiopia are Ps 68:31; Ps 87:4; Isa 45:14; Eze 30:4-9; Dan 11:43; Hab 3:7; Zeph 2:12; Nah 3:8-10. Secular History. -- Ethiopia became one of the most powerful and civilized nations of the world as early as b.c. 1000. The ruling class was of the priests. In the eighth century b.c. an Ethiopian dynasty reigned in Lower Egypt. Its first king was Sabaco, whose son was So of the Bible, 2 Kgs 17:4, an ally of Hoshea, king of Israel. It is said that in the reign of the Egyptian king Psarametichus, b.c. 630, 240,000 of the military class migrated into Ethiopia. In b.c. 530, Cambyses, king of Persia, invaded Egypt, and, according to Josephus, conquered Meroe or Ethiopia. The Romans, in the reign of Augustus Ctesar, b.c. 22, defeated Candace, queen of Ethiopia, and made the country tributary to Rome.

Hebrew; Cush. (See CUSH; BABYLON.) Isaiah 11:11. S. of Egypt. Now Nubia, Sennaar, Kordofan, and N. Abyssinia. In a stricter sense the kingdom of Meroe from the junction of the Blue and the White Nile to the border of Egypt. Syene on the N. marked the boundary from Egypt (Ezekiel 29:10; Ezekiel 30:6). The Red Sea was on the Ethiopia, the Libyan desert on the W. The native name was Ethaush; the Greek "Ethiopia" means the land of the sunburnt. Compare Jeremiah 13:23, "can the Ethiopian change his skin?" "The rivers of Ethiopia" (Zephaniah 3:10) are the two branches of the Nile and the Astabbras (Tacazze). The Nile forms a series of cataracts here. The dispersed Israelites shall be brought as an offering by the nations to the Lord (Zephaniah 3:8-9; Isaiah 66:20; Isaiah 60:9), from both the African and the Babylonian Cush, where the ten tribes were scattered in Peter's time (1 Peter 1:1; 1 Peter 5:13; Isaiah 11:11, "from Cush and from Shinar".) The Falashas of Abyssinia are probably of the ten tribes. In Isaiah 18:1, "the land shadowing with wings" is Ethiopia shadowing (protecting) with its two wings (Egyptian and Ethiopian forces) the Jews, "a nation scattered and peeled" (loaded with indignity, made bald) though once "terrible" when God put a terror of them into surrounding nations (Exodus 23:27; Joshua 2:9), "a nation meted out and trodden down whose land the (Assyrian) rivers (i.e. armies, Isaiah 8:7-8) have spoiled"; the Jews, not the Ethiopians. Ethiopia had sent her ambassadors to Jerusalem where they now were (Isaiah 18:2), Tirhakah their king shortly afterward being the ally whose diversion in that city's favor saved it from Sennacherib (Isaiah 36:37). Isaiah announces Sennacherib's coming overthrow to the Ethiopian ambassadors and desires them to carry the tidings to their own land (compare Isaiah 17:12-14; not "woe" but "ho," calling attention (Isaiah 18:1-2); go, take back the tidings of what God is about, to do against Assyria, the common foe of both Ethiopia and Judah. Queen Candace reigned in this Nile-formed is land region; the name is the official designation of a female dynasty shortly before our Lord's time (Acts 8:27). The "vessels of bulrushes" or papyrus boats are peculiarly suited to the Upper Nile, as being capable of carriage on the shoulders at the rocks and cataracts. Ethiopia" is often used when Upper Egypt and Ethiopia are meant. It is the Thebaid or Upper Egypt, not Ethiopia by itself, that was peopled and cultivated, when most of Lower Egypt was a marsh. Thus Ethiopia and Egypt are said (Nahum 3:9) to be the "strength" of "populous No" or Thebes. Zerah the Ethiopian who attacked Asa at Mareshah on the S. of Israel, and Tirhakah the Ethiopian who advanced toward Judah against Sennacherib, were doubtless rulers of Upper Egypt and Ethiopia combined. Tirhakah's name is found only on a Theban temple, and his connection with Ethiopia is marked by several monuments there being ascribed to him. An Azerch-Amen reigned in Ethiopia, we know from the monuments; perhaps = Zerah (Rawlinson). Hincks identifies him with Osorkon I, king of Egypt, second of the 22nd dynasty (See ASA) (2 Chronicles 14:9). Tirhakah was third of the 25th dynasty of Egypt, an Ethiopian dynasty. So or Sevechus or Sabacho was another of this dynasty; the ally of Hoshea king of Israel against Shalmaneser (2 Kings 17:3-4). Osirtasin I (Sesostris, Herodotus, 2:110), of the 12th dynasty, was the first Egyptian king who ruled Ethiopia. While the shepherd kings ruled Lower Egypt the 13th native dynasty retired to the Ethiopian capital Napara. Shishak's army was largely composed of Ethiopians (2 Chronicles 12:3). The monuments confirm Isaiah 20:4; Nahum 3:5; Nahum 3:8-9, by representing Sargon as warring with Egypt and making the Pharaoh tributary; they also make Ethiopia closely united to Egypt. Probably he was provoked by the help which So had given to his rebel tributary Hoshea. The inscriptions tell us Sargon destroyed No-Amon or Thebes in part, which was the capital of Upper Egypt, with which Ethiopia was joined. Esarhaddon, according to the monuments, conquered Egypt and Ethiopia Meroe was the emporium where the produce of the distant S. was gathered for transport either by the Nile or by caravans to northern Africa; compare Isaiah 45:14.