Cushi

Biblical Record

Cushi appears only once in the Bible, in Zephaniah 1:1. The verse states that the word of the LORD came to Zephaniah "in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah," and it traces his lineage as "the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah." Zephaniah is thus presented as the great-great-grandson of Hezekiah (Hizkiah). According to this genealogy, Cushi was the son of Gedaliah and a descendant of Amariah and Hezekiah.

Scripture says nothing about Cushi's occupation, deeds, or dates of birth and death. Because his son Zephaniah was active during the reign of King Josiah, however, Cushi is presumed to have lived a generation earlier, in the later period of the kingdom of Judah.

Name and Others of the Same Name

The name Cushi represents the Hebrew Kushi (כּוּשִׁי), commonly interpreted as "Cushite." Cush is the biblical name for the region south of Egypt.

The name "Cushi" also appears in Jeremiah 36:14, where it refers to the great-grandfather of Jehudi, who was sent to Baruch; this Cushi is regarded as a different person from the father of Zephaniah. In addition, the Korean phrase je gusi (제 구시), found in the New Testament of the Korean Revised Version and the New Korean Revised Version (for example, Mark 15:34 and Acts 3:1), is not a personal name. It means "the ninth hour" in the Jewish reckoning of time, roughly 3:00 p.m. by modern reckoning.

Significance Within Scripture

The name Cushi is significant only within the genealogy that establishes Zephaniah's identity. The Old Testament prophetic books usually record no more than the name of a prophet's father. The Book of Zephaniah is notable in that it instead traces the prophet's ancestry back four generations to Hezekiah. Cushi is not mentioned in the New Testament.

Interpretations and Debates

• Hezekiah in the genealogy: Many interpreters identify the Hezekiah at the end of the genealogy with Hezekiah, king of Judah. On that view, Zephaniah and Cushi were of royal descent. Because the text does not call him "king," however, some hold that he was a different person with the same name. Whether the chronology allows enough time for the number of generations listed is also debated.
• The meaning of the name and the length of the genealogy: Some scholars think the name "Cushite" reflects African ancestry or a connection with the region of Cush. Others explain the unusually long, four-generation genealogy as an effort to show that Zephaniah was of genuine Judahite lineage. Still others hold that "Cushi" was simply an ordinary name in use in Israel at the time. All of these interpretations are inferences and are not stated directly in the text.

In the Korean Church

Cushi is not treated as the subject of sermons or Sunday school lessons in his own right. He is generally mentioned only briefly when the Book of Zephaniah is introduced or expounded, in the section explaining the prophet's family line.