thing, I have removed all uncertainty on the phrates and the Nile, whose sources are sever subject, by using the words, on the east side of al thousand miles distant, could both proceed Jordan. from Eden. Yet so ignorant of geography Red Sea. This appellation of the gulf of were the Greeks and Jews, that even Josephns Suez, or Arabian Sea, has been so long and expressly refers the river Gihon, which " en generally used, that it may not be expedient to compassed the whole land of Ethiopia," to the change it. It was first used by the Greeks, Nile. But there is no difficulty in determining and introduced into the Sepluagint, from this to be a great mistake. which our translators have adopted it. It is Cush in Hebrew is in Chaldee Cvlh, and the probable that this gulf was formerly called the word in the passage under consideration is un Sea of Edam, from the Edomites who inhabi doubtedly the Cuthah and Cuth, mentioned in ted the country on the east of it, which the 2 Kings 17. 24. 30, the country from which Greeks called Idumea; and as Edam, in He Salmaneser drew inhabitants to re-people Sa brew, signifies red, the Greeks translated the maria, after the captivity of the ten tribes. It word red, and gave to this gulf the appellation is very probable that the Cossei mentioned by of Red Sea; a name of no appropriate signifi- Pliny, Lib. vi. 27, were the inhabitants of the cancy, as applied to that gulf, for the waters of same country. This author informs us that it are no more red than the water of any other the Cossei inhabited the country eastward of the Susiani in Persia. He also mentions the sea, or of the ocean. Suf. DcnL 1. 1. In this passage, the Eng river Euloeus, the Ulai of Daniel, the prophet; lish translators following the Septuagint, have and says that this river separates the Elymais rendered the Hebrew word Suf, Red Sea from the Susiani. In Isaiah 11. 11, we read that the Israelites (not Zupk, as printed in the margin of our Bi bles.) This word signifies sea-iceed, and this were to be recovered from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Palhros, and from Cush, and sense it retains to this day in some of the Gothic dialects. The same word is used in from Elam, and from Shinar. Cush is here Exodus, with reference to the Red Sea ; but named in connection with Elam and Shinar, always in connection with the Hebrew word as well as with Egypt; and Ethiopia, now so for sea. In the first verse of Deuteronomy, it called, cannot be intended by Cush, as the Is is used without the Hebrew word for sea ; and raelites were never dispersed into that coun of course the use of Ma in our translation is not try ; at least, not to any extent, at that period. authorized by the original. In Isaiah 37. 9, we find mention made of Now in the fifth verse, we are informed that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, or Cush, which the Israelites were then in the land of Moab. must have been the same country, as this king which was on the east side of the Salt- or Dead. was making war upon the king of Assyria. Sea ; two, three, or four hundred miles from Now if Cush here mentioned was the modern the Red Sea, and in a different latitude. The Ethiopia, then the Ethiopians of Abyssinia had Israelites then could not have been over against made war upon Sennacherib, which cannot be tie Red Sea, commonly so called. This would supposed. There was another Cush, which is frequent be like saying Albany is over against Pitts burg. In the loose way in which the Bible is ly mentioned in the scriptures. This was in often read, especially those parts of it which Arabia. Moses, when in Midian, near the do not immediately concern our salvation, this Red Sea, married a woman called an Ethio mistake may have passed unnoticed by most pian, but really a Cushite, one of that nation in readers ; though not by inquisitive commenta Arabia, which invaded Judea in the reign of tors. But our young people now study the Asa, with an immense army. These people or scriptures with maps of Syria and Egypt. Let their country are mentioned by the prophets in any person inspect a good map of those coun connection with Egypt and Midian. Gen. 10.6; tries, and first see the position of the land of Hab. 3.7; Is. 43. 3. With Philistia and Tyre. Moab, and then that of the gulf of Suez, and Ps. 87. 4. With the Lubims and Libyans. 3 he will perceive at once that the Israelites Chr. 16.8; Dan. 11. 43. were not over against the Red Sea ; and of Ezek. 29. 10. "I will make the land of Egypt course he will be embarrassed, or inclined to waste and desolate, from the tower of Syeneto question the trnth of the narrative. the border of Ethjppia." This Ethiopia, Cush, It may' be that the word Suf was intended cannot be the modern Ethiopia, for Syene was for the Dead or Salt Sea. At any rate, by in at the extreme border of Egypt on the south, troducing this Hebrew word into the English nearly contiguous to Ethiopia, and if the word version, we are sure to be right, and not expose Cush had been intended for the modern Ethio the scriptures to the charge of error or appar pia, the district of country here described would not have included Egvpt, the country to which ent contradiction. If the same word in Num. 21. 14, refers to the prophecv was applied. the same place, it ought not to be rendered In 2 Chr.'21. 16, we read of Arabians that were near the Ethiopians. Red Sea. Cusk for Ethiopia. Gen. 2. 13. By follow We have then clear evidence that the word ing the Septnagint, in rendering the Hebrew Cush, in the scriptures, refers to two countries, Cush by Ethiopia, the translators have intro one in Persia, and the Other in Arabia ; neither duced confusion into the geography of the Bi of which was the modern Ethiopia. Whether ble ; and laid the foundation for many mistakes the word, in any passage, refers to the modern and much skepticism. I well remember that Ethiopia, is a question that it is not necessary when I supposed Ethiopia, here mentioned, to to discuss in this note. be the country now called by this name, my The modern Ethiopians are descendants of faith in the authenticity of the scriptures was Arabians. This fact I can affirm from some shaken ; for I could not conceive how the Eu knowledg* of their language, no small part of
