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(America Is In Prophecy)

Read Isaiah 18 Completely

There Are Four Countries Not One

America Is The Main Country

Messengers Attack America

The Attack Happens In The Future

America Brings A Present To The Lord

Where Is The Land Of Cush?

From Where Do The Messengers Come?

Avoid The Tragedy

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Isaiah 18 and the Future of America

Where is the Land of Cush?

Is Cush Really Ethiopia as most scholars think? I disagree. The "scholars" used to question the existence of the Hittites. The "scholars" also question whether Jesus really did miracles, too. Think twice about what the scholars say and research it for yourself. While scholars think Cush is Ethiopia, the scriptures do not use the word Ethiopia in the Old Testament. The actual boundaries and make up of the land of Cush are not clear. Ethiopia shows up 19 times in translations of the Old Testament and one in the New Testament (Acts 8:27). The Greek is clear in Acts. The reference is to a country called Ethiopia. The word in Greek is Aithiopia. Cush is not the same word as Aithiopia. The occurrences in the Old Testament should not be translated as Ethiopia. The real word used here is "Kuwsh" or "Cush" in English. Cush was the son of Ham the son of Noah. The name "Cush" is found eight times in the Bible. Six places refer to Cush the son of Ham. One reference in Psalm 7:1 refers to Cush the Benjamite. Isaiah 11:11 uses Cush to refer to a land. The land of Cush may have ended up as Ethiopia, but even if it did, it certainly did not always refer to Ethiopia. The Bible suggests the land of Cush isn't Ethiopia but instead an area somewhere in the region of southern Iraq or Saudi Arabia.

Genesis 2:
	10	And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
	11	The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
	12	And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
	13	And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
	14	And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

The translators of the King James Version of the Bible used Ethiopia for the land of Cush. If Cush were Ethiopia then that would mean when Moses wrote this down, the river went from where it met up with the Euphrates in Iraq, crossed the Arabian peninsula, the Sinai, slithered down the side of Egypt skirting the Nile, jumped over the Nile, went through Lake Rudolf, across the Great Rift Valley and went around Ethiopia. It would have to go uphill and downhill. It would have to cross other bodies of water. It would have to flow farther than the Nile which is more than 4,000 miles long.

Map showing an impossible river course if Cush is Ethiopia

Personally, I do not believe this to be a viable option. There is no historical or geological evidence to support this. No scientifically model has been published to show how the earth would have been different to provide the drop in elevation to support this long flow of water and what could have possibly changed the geography to its present impossible route. Water will not flow along this route. Something would have to be drastically different. In fact, because the Jews did not cross the Gihon to get to or from the Red Sea we know that it did not exist in this location.

Notice the word "compasseth" is present tense, not past tense. In the day God had Moses write Genesis, the Gihon River compassed the whole land of Cush. The river was not destroyed by the great flood. It survived it. The Tigris and the Euphrates rivers come together at the Persian Gulf in Iraq. A river did not feed into this system from Ethiopia. Also note that Genesis 10:6 tells us Cush was the grandson of Noah. The nation of Cush did not exist until after the great flood. Cush is the correct translation and refers to land in Asia, not Africa.

The Bible gives us an account of the beginnings of Cush.

Genesis 10:
	6	And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.
	7	And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtechah: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.
	8	And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
	9	He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.
	10	And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
	11	Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,
	12	And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.
	13	And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim,
	14	And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (out of whom came Philistim,) and Caphtorim.
	15	And Canaan begat Sidon his firstborn, and Heth,
	16	And the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite,
	17	And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite,
	18	And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad.
	19	And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha.
	20	These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations.

Notice that Cush's son founded Babylon which is in Iraq, not Ethiopia. The sons settled in Asia, not Ethiopia. The cities, such as Nineveh, were in Asia. Canaan was the Promised Land.

Josephus, in Antiquities Book 1 Chapter 6.2 tells us, "For 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 Chusites." First of all, note that the works of Josephus that we have recorded and available to us today are inaccurate and unreliable. (See www.layittoheart.com) Also, in the previous section, Book 1 Chapter 6.1, Josephus also tried to tell us that the sons of Japheth spread out from Turkey rather than Babylon. Josephus' reference is not valid. Look what the Bible says:

Genesis 11:
	1	And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
	2	And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

Noah and his descendents journeyed from the east to the plain in the land of Shinar. Josephus locates Mount Ararat in Turkey northwest of Babylon. After Babylon began the people of the world spread out and formed the many nations. Josephus has the ark in the wrong country and he has the people of the earth separating before Babylon.

The life of Moses provides us with another clue to the identity of Cush.

Numbers 12:1-3 says:
	1	And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
	2	And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard it .
	3	(Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)

Exodus 2:16-22 says, "Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock. And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon to day? And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock. And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? why is it that ye have left the man? call him, that he may eat bread. And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter. And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land." Reuel was another name Jethro. Cush, not Ethiopia was associated with Midian. Exodus 3:1 says, "Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb." Here Cush is associated with Midian in the northern Arabian Peninsula. Mount Horeb is associated with Midian as well. Moses was married to a woman named Zipporah from this area, not a woman from Africa in Ethiopia. Exodus 4:18-19 says, "And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father in law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace. And the LORD said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt: for all the men are dead which sought thy life." Chapter 4 shows Moses dwelling in Midian where he met his Cushite wife. Exodus chapter 18 also mentions Jethro seven times and shows it in the context of a Midian priest and not a person from Ethiopia.

In another location in the Bible, Judges 3:8 says, "Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel served Chushanrishathaim eight years." Chushanrishathaim means "Chushan of double wickedness". Chushan or "Kuwshan" comes from "Kuwsh" which is translated "Cush". The king was the king of the Cush and he was the king of Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia means the land between the rivers and refers to the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates. It was in Iraq. Now how can Cush be in Ethiopia if Cush is in Mesopotamia?

Through the prophet Ezekiel God said he would destroy Egypt.

Ezekiel 29:
	8	Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will bring a sword upon thee, and cut off man and beast out of thee.
	9	And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste; and they shall know that I am the LORD: because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it .
	10	Behold, therefore I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia.

Aswan is the current name for Syene. It represented the southern end of Egypt. If Cush were Ethiopia it would not make sense to say Egypt would be destroyed from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia or from the southern end of Egypt to a nation even farther south. This would be like saying America will be destroyed from Texas to Guatemala. That would not represent America. For the passage in Ezekiel to make sense Cush would have to meet up with Egypt somewhere in the northern part of the country. Again, Ethiopia cannot be Cush. Cush had to be a country between the Nile and the Euphrates. Iraq and/or Saudi Arabia make up this are now.

The yellow area shown in the picture represents the land between Aswan or Syene and the top of Eritrea that has been associated with Ethiopia in the past. The orange zone shows an area that would extend to the current limits of northern Ethiopia. If you believe that Ethiopia is Cush, Ezekiel would then be saying that Egypt would be destroyed from the top of the yellow area to the top or the bottom of the orange area depending on what border you use for Ethiopia. These areas are approximate and do not include the gratuitous squiggles that most maps have. The actual limits are not important. What is important to note is that Ethiopia cannot be Cush according to Ezekiel 29.

Map showing the land south of Syene and north of Ethiopia which would be called Egypt if Cush were Ethiopia.

Habakkuk 3:7 says, "I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble." Here a derivative name of Cush is associated with Midian in the northern Arabian Peninsula and not Ethiopia.

Today, Ethiopians claim to be Cushites because the Queen of Sheba supposedly had an affair with King Solomon. Their account disagrees with scripture saying Solomon had 400 wives and 600 concubines. 1 Kings 11:3 tells us that Solomon had "seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines:" In the Ethiopian legend Solomon tricked the Queen of Sheba, seduced her, got her pregnant and then let her go. In 1 Kings chapter 10 we have the account of the Queen of Sheba. Following her visit to King Solomon, 1 Kings 10:23 says, "So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom." Wise kings do not have a wild night and then abandon their kids. The Ethiopian story disagrees with the Bible. It is false. Also notice that Cush and Sheba are different nations. If you belong to the nation of Sheba you cannot belong to the nation of Cush. Even in Ezekiel 38 and 39 the nations are mentioned separately. To claim that Ethiopians are the nation of Cush because they are from Sheba, which they are not, is bogus.

The issue of Cush is not just academic. Cush plays a part of Ezekiel 38 and 39. It is also used for a reference in Isaiah 18 which may be more important to us than Ezekiel 38. The Cush empire might have been large and migrated with the residual being left in Ethiopia, but Cush cannot, and should not, be translated exclusively as Ethiopia. The United States, for example, has moved in location. The people came from Europe and started with only 13 colonies. The country spread westward. Finally, in 1959 it came to include Hawaii and Alaska. If the east fell, and we hope not, the United States would still be in the west. The boundaries for countries do change. Given the reliable information we have today, we cannot clearly define or limit Cush. Since we do not have a clear English translation, we should leave the word as "Cush", and avoid the mistake of using "Ethiopia". The best evidence, however, shows it to be in the Iraq and/or Saudi Arabian area.