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•CURTAIN (1.) Ten curtains, each twenty-eight cubits long and four wide, made of fine linen, also eleven made of goat’s hair, covered the tabernacle (Exodus 26:1-13; 36:8-17).
(2.) The sacred curtain, separating the holy of holies from the sanctuary, is designated by a different Hebrew word (peroketh). It is described as a “veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen of cunning work” (Exodus 26:31; Leviticus 16:2; Numbers 18:7).
(3.) “Stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain” (Isaiah 40:22), is an expression used with reference to the veil or awning which Orientals spread for a screen over their courts in summer. According to the prophet, the heavens are spread over our heads as such an awning. Similar expressions are found in Psalm 104:2l; comp. Isaiah 44:24; Job 9:8.
•CUSH black. (1.) A son, probably the eldest, of Ham, and the father of Nimrod (Genesis 10:8; 1 Chronicles 1:10). From him the land of Cush seems to have derived its name. The question of the precise locality of the land of Cush has given rise to not a little controversy. The second river of Paradise surrounded the whole land of Cush (Genesis 2:13, R.V.). The term Cush is in the Old Testament generally applied to the countries south of the Israelites. It was the southern limit of Egypt (Ezekiel 29:10, A.V. “Ethiopia,” Hebrews Cush), with which it is generally associated (Psalm 68:31; Isaiah 18:1; Jeremiah 46:9, etc.). It stands also associated with Elam (Isaiah 11:11), with Persia (Ezekiel 38:5), and with the Sabeans (Isaiah 45:14). From these facts it has been inferred that Cush included Arabia and the country on the west coast of the Red Sea. Rawlinson takes it to be the country still known as Khuzi-stan, on the east side of the Lower Tigris. But there are intimations which warrant the conclusion that there was also a Cush in Africa, the Ethiopia (so called by the Greeks) of Africa. Ezekiel speaks (29:10; comp. 30:4-6) of it as lying south of Egypt. It was the country now known to us as Nubia and Abyssinia (Isaiah 18:1; Zephaniah 3:10, Hebrews Cush). In ancient Egyptian inscriptions Ethiopia is termed Kesh. The Cushites appear to have spread along extensive tracts, stretching from the Upper Nile to the Euphrates and Tigris. At an early period there was a stream of migration of Cushites “from Ethiopia, properly so called, through Arabia, Babylonia, and Persia, to Western