ABSTRACT
A number of texts describe relations between the Israelites and Cushim. Besides those relating to ‘Cushim’ living in and around the land of Israel, the Bible documents contacts with persons of African origin, mainly through relations with Egypt, the invasion of southern Israel by black tribes and the black soldiers in armies active in Israel, if we so interpret II Chronicles 14: 9-12 and 16: 8. There were also diplomatic contacts, like the account given of the meeting of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (I Kgs. 10) and economic ones (ibid.), as well as black slavery (II Sam. 18; Jer. 38-39). Some intermarriage may also have taken place, if we read the story of Moses and the black woman literally. ‘Cush’ or ‘Cushi’ also appears in the Bible as a given name (Yehudi the son of Cushi, Jer. 36: 14; Zephaniah son of Cushi, Zeph. 1: 1 and Cush the Benjamite, Ps. 7: 1). Possibly the source of the name, albeit a remote one, lay in the offspring of mixed marriages or in the black tribes that joined the Israelites.
