ETHIOPIA ē’ thĭ ō’ pĭ ə. Nubia, a country in the N Sudan, S of Egypt.

1. Terminology. In the OT, the KJV sometimes transliterates כּ֥וּשׁ as “Cush” (Gen 10:6, 7, 8; 1 Chron 1:8, 9, 10; Isa 11:11). However, the KJV usually trs. by “Ethiopia.” The KJV transliterates כּוּשִׁ֔י as “Cushi” (2 Sam 18:21, 22, 23, 31, 32).

The RSV transliterates the Heb. as “Cush” (Gen 2:13; 10:6-8; 1 Chron 1:8-10; Ezek 38:5) and trs. “Ethiopia” elsewhere. Also the RSV trs. כּוּשִׁ֔י (2 Sam 18:21-23, 31, 32) and כֻּשִׁ֖ית (Num 12:1) as “Cushite,” but elsewhere renders “Ethiopian.”

In the NT, “Ethiopian” trs. Αἰθίοψ, G134, whose etymological meaning is prob. “dark-faced” (Acts 8:27).

2. Location. The Biblical Ethiopia is Nubia, in southernmost Egypt and the N Sudan, not the modern Ethiopia (also called Abyssinia). Ethiopia is often associated with Egypt in the Bible (e.g. Ps 68:31; Isa 20:3-5; Ezek 30:4, 5). More specifically Ethiopia is located S of Egypt (Judg 1:10) and S of Syene (Ezek 29:10), modern Aswan, the southernmost important city of Egypt. This location of Ethiopia agrees with the Egyp. references to K’š (which corresponds to Heb. כּ֥ושׁ) and with Herodotus II. 29.

3. History. The first historical reference to an Ethiopian in the Bible is the incident of the Cushite (i.e. Ethiopian) slave who carried to David the news of Absalom’s death (2 Sam 18:21-23, 31, 32).

There were Ethiopian mercenaries in the army of Shishak, a Libyan king of Egypt, when he invaded Pal. about 918 b.c. (2 Chron 12:3).

An attack on Judah by Ethiopians and Libyans (2 Chron 14:9-15), led by Zerah the Ethiopian, was repulsed by King Asa (913-873 b.c.). These attackers may have been mercenaries in the Egyp. army settled in southern Pal. by Pharaoh Shishak. Possibly these mercenaries are also the Ethiopians near the Arabs (2 Chron 21:16), though some scholars think the reference is to the close contact of the S Arabians with Africans across the Red Sea.

2 Kings 19:9 and Isaiah 37:9 mention Tirhakah’s (the king of Ethiopia) attempt to check Sennacherib’s invasion of Pal. in the time of King Hezekiah. The Assyrians mockingly called Tirhakah “a bruised reed” (2 Kings 18:21 KJV) and defeated him at Eltekeh. In Egypt, Tirhakah was again defeated by the Assyrian king Esar-haddon and retired to Ethiopia. These defeats of Tirhakah may be referred to by Isaiah (Isa 20:3-5). Tirhakah ruled about 689-664 b.c. as the third and last Pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth, or Ethiopian Dynasty of Egypt. The Ethiopian control of Egypt under this dynasty explains why Ethiopia was called the “strength” of Thebes, Egypt’s southern capital (Nah 3:9). This brief Ethiopian empire included Egypt for about fifty years. Tirhakah’s nephew and successor as king of Ethiopia, Tanut-Amon, was defeated by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, who destroyed Thebes in 663 b.c. (Nah 3:8).

The Letter of Aristeas 13 states that Pharaoh Psammetichus II (593-588 b.c.) used Jewish mercenaries in his campaign against Ethiopia, which is also mentioned by Herodotus II. 161. He or a Pharaoh soon after, settled a Jewish garrison on Elephantine Island to guard the border between Egypt and Ethiopia.

Ebed-melech, who secured Jeremiah’s release from the cistern (Jer 38:7-13), was an Ethiopian eunuch who held a high position in the household of King Zedekiah of Judah (597-587 b.c.). He believed in God, and Jeremiah promised that he would be safe in the coming capture of Jerusalem (39:15-17).

King Ahasuerus of Persia (usually identified with Xerxes, 486-465 b.c.) included Ethiopia at one extreme of his empire (Esth 1:1; 8:9 and in the Additions of the Apocrypha, 13:1; 16:1). Darius I of Persia also mentions Ethiopia in his list of provinces.

The Ethiopians who were to follow Antiochus Epiphanes, king of the N, or Syria (175-163 b.c.), after his conquest of Egypt (Dan 11:43) may refer to mercenaries in his army. The exact meaning, however, is uncertain in this context.

Sibylline Oracles V. 194 mentions the capture of Syene by the Ethiopians. This may refer to an expedition into Egypt sent by an Ethiopian queen with the title Candace, in 24 b.c. (Strabo, XVII. i. 54).

Acts 8:27 mentions “Candace the queen of the Ethiopians.” Candace was a Nubian royal title, prob. corresponding to “queen mother.” The queen who ruled at Meroe (then the Ethiopian capital) with this title at that time was Amantitere (a.d. 25-41). See Candace. That her treasurer should visit Jerusalem and should be reading Isaiah is not surprising in the light of Jewish contacts with Nubia. Some have suggested that he was a proselyte or even a Jew. See Ethiopian Eunuch.

4. Features. The Bible several times refers to “the rivers of Ethiopia” (Isa 18:1; Zeph 3:10), presumably the Nile, the Blue and White Niles, and the Atbara. The papyrus boats used on these rivers (Isa 18:2) are pictured in Egyp. reliefs and paintings, and they are still used in modern Ethiopia. The merchandise of Ethiopia (Job 28:19; Isa 45:14) included the topaz as a precious product of that land. Egyptian records list among the imports from Ethiopia: gold, precious stones, incense, ebony, ivory, ostrich feathers and eggs, leopard skins, greyhounds, cattle, gazelles, bows, shields, and slaves. Isaiah (18:2) calls the Ethiopians “tall and smooth.” Not only are some of the Sudanese tribes tall, but they also have little body hair, and very smooth skin. Jeremiah (13:23) implies that the Ethiopian’s skin is black. The prophet also (46:9) lists Ethiopians with shields among the soldiers of the Egyp. army; small wooden models of shield-bearing Nubian soldiers have been found in Egyp. tombs.

5. Prophecies about Ethiopia. Some prophecies predicted that Jewish exiles in Ethiopia would return to Pal. (Isa 11:11; Ps 87:4). Isaiah (43:3) expected that Persia would take Ethiopia as reward, poetically called a ransom, for freeing the Jewish captives. Several passages speak of coming judgment on Ethiopia (Isa 20:3, 4; Ezek 30:4, 5, 9; Zeph 2:12). Ezekiel (38:5) includes Ethiopians among the forces of Gog that will attack Israel in the end times. Sibylline Oracles III. 320 evidently misunderstood the geography of the Ezekiel passage and misplaced Gog in Ethiopia. According to Amos 9:7, God is concerned with the Ethiopians as with Israel. Psalm 68:31, Isaiah 45:14, and Zephaniah 3:10 mention the conversion of the Ethiopians and their inclusion in the kingdom of God.

Bibliography E. A. W. Budge, The Egyptian Sudan (1907); J. W. Crowfoot, The Island of Meroe (1911); F. L. Griffith, Meroitic Inscriptions, I (1911) and Meroitic Inscriptions, II (1912); G. Reisner, “The Meroitic Kingdom of Ethiopia,” JEA, IX, (1923), 34-77; E. A. W. Budge, A History of Ethiopia, Nubia, and Abyssinia (1928); T. Säve-Söderbergh, Ägypten und Nubien (1941); D. Dunham, The Royal Tombs of Kush, I (1950), II (1955), III (1952), IV (1957); A. J. Arkell, A History of the Sudan (1955); E. Ullendorff, Ethiopia and the Bible (1968).