![]() Some have suggested that he was a proselyte or even a Jew. That her treasurer should visit Jerusalem and should be reading Isaiah is not surprising in the light of Jewish contacts with Nubia. corresponding to “queen mother.” The queen who ruled at Meroe (then the Ethiopian capital) with this title at that time was Amantitere ( a.d. 54).Īcts 8:27 mentions “Candace the queen of the Ethiopians.” Candace was a Nubian royal title, prob. This may refer to an expedition into Egypt sent by an Ethiopian queen with the title Candace, in 24 b.c. 194 mentions the capture of Syene by the Ethiopians. The exact meaning, however, is uncertain in this context. 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. Darius I of Persia also mentions Ethiopia in his list of provinces. 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). He believed in God, and Jeremiah promised that he would be safe in the coming capture of Jerusalem ( 39:15-17). He or a Pharaoh soon after, settled a Jewish garrison on Elephantine Island to guard the border between Egypt and Ethiopia.Įbed-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.). 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. 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. This brief Ethiopian empire included Egypt for about fifty years. The Ethiopian control of Egypt under this dynasty explains why Ethiopia was called the “strength” of Thebes, Egypt’s southern capital ( Nah 3:9). as the third and last Pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth, or Ethiopian Dynasty of Egypt. These defeats of Tirhakah may be referred to by Isaiah ( Isa 20:3-5). In Egypt, Tirhakah was again defeated by the Assyrian king Esar-haddon and retired to Ethiopia. The Assyrians mockingly called Tirhakah “a bruised reed” ( 2 Kings 18:21 KJV) and defeated him at Eltekeh. 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.Ģ Kings 19:9 and Isaiah 37:9 mention Tirhakah’s (the king of Ethiopia) attempt to check Sennacherib’s invasion of Pal. These attackers may have been mercenaries in the Egyp. ( 2 Chron 12:3).Īn 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.). There were Ethiopian mercenaries in the army of Shishak, a Libyan king of Egypt, when he invaded Pal. Ethiopian) slave who carried to David the news of Absalom’s death ( 2 Sam 18:21-23, 31, 32). The first historical reference to an Ethiopian in the Bible is the incident of the Cushite (i.e. references to K’š (which corresponds to Heb. This location of Ethiopia agrees with the Egyp. 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. ![]() Ethiopia is often associated with Egypt in the Bible (e.g. The Biblical Ethiopia is Nubia, in southernmost Egypt and the N Sudan, not the modern Ethiopia (also called Abyssinia). Αἰθίοψ, G134, whose etymological meaning is prob. Nubia, a country in the N Sudan, S of Egypt.ġ.
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