Hebrew word · H3570

כּוּשִׁי

kushi

Cushi

A gentilic, a word meaning “one from Cush,” the Nubian kingdom on the upper Nile. It is also used as a personal name: Cushi, the father of the prophet Zephaniah (Zeph 1:1). Compare “the Cushite” messenger of 2 Sam 18:21–32 and Ebed-melech the Cushite (Jer 38:7).

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

A man living at the time of Divided Monarchy, only mentioned at Jer.36.14;

father of: Shelemiah (H8018K)

§ Cushi = "their blackness"

1) an ancestor of Jehudi (Jer. 36.14)

2) the father of the prophet Zephaniah (Zep. 1.1)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Jeremiah 36:14

Range of meaning

A gentilic, a word meaning “one from Cush,” the Nubian kingdom on the upper Nile. It is also used as a personal name: Cushi, the father of the prophet Zephaniah (Zeph 1:1). Compare “the Cushite” messenger of 2 Sam 18:21–32 and Ebed-melech the Cushite (Jer 38:7).

Against the English

All major English versions keep it as the name “Cushi.” Readers are not told that it could also mean “Cushite.”

Used elsewhere in the period

Cushite power was well known in Judah. Egypt's 25th Dynasty (about 744–656 BCE) was a Cushite dynasty, and its king Taharqa (biblical Tirhakah) was Hezekiah's ally (2 Kgs 19:9). Cushites appear at the Judean court in Jeremiah (38:7).

Where it appears

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 36:14 כּוּשִׁי֮ Cushi

    Then all the officials sent word to Baruch through Jehudi son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, saying, “Bring the scroll that you read in the hearing of the people, and come here.” So Baruch son of Neriah took the scroll and went to them.

    Here: Jehudi's great-grandfather. The name also means “Cushite,” someone from the Nile kingdom south of Egypt. It is debated whether the long pedigree is there to underline this ancestry (see debates).

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.