CUSHI, CUSHITE

Aram-naharaim, first of the oppressors of Israel, from whom Othniel. son of Kenaz. delivered them after eight years (Jg 3'-^'). It has been conjectured that he was a king of the Mitanni, whose territory once covered the district between the Euphrates and Habor, or that ' Aram ' is a mistake for Edom, ' Rishathaim ' for Resh-hat-lemani, 'chief of the Temanites.' The name has not yet received any monumental explanation, and its nationality is unknown. C. H. W. Johns.

CUSHI, CUSHITE. — The word Cfishl occurs with the article in Nu 12>, 2 S 18''; without the article in Jer 36", Zeph 1'. 1. With the article it is probably merely an expression of nationality, 'the Cushite' (see Cush). It was looked upon as a disgrace that Moses should have married a Cushite. 2. Without the article the word is used merely as a proper name. It is borne by (1) the great-grandfather of Jehudi, the latter one of Jehoiakim's courtiers (Jer 36"); (2) the father of the prophet Zephaniah (Zeph 1').

CUSHION.— See Pillow.

CUSTOM(S) (Mt 17», Ro 13'): 'receipt of custom' (Mt 9', Mk 2", Lk 5"). — This is to be carefully dis-tinguished from 'tribute' (wh. see). The customs were paid on the value of goods, in Galilee and Persea to the Herods, but in the Roman province of Judsea to the procurator as agent of the Roman government. The ' receipt of custom ' was the collector's office.

A. SOUTEB.

CUTH, CUTHAH.— One of the cities from which Sargon brought colonists to take the place of the Israel-ites whom he had deported from Samaria, b.c. 722 (2 K IT^"- '»). These colonists intermingled with the Israelite inhabitants who were left by Sargon; and their descendants, the Samaritans, were in consequence termed by the Jews 'Cuthsans.' According to the old Arabic geographers, Cuthah was situated not far from Babylon. This view is borne out by the Assyrian inscriptions, from which we learn that Kuti (or Kutu) was a city of Middle-Babylonia. It has now been identified with the modern Tell Ibrahim, N.E. of Babylon, where remains of the temple of Nergal (cf. v.") have been discovered.

CUTHA (1 Es 5^).~-ias sons were among the Temple servants who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel.

CUTTING OFF FROM THE PEOPLE.— See Chimes AND Punishments, § 11.

CUTTINGS IN THE FLESH.— This expressionloccurs only in Lv 19^' 21'. The former passage runs thus: ' Ye shall not make any cuttings in your fiesh for the dead. ... I am the Lord.' The same prohibition, otherwise expressed in the original, is found in the earlier Deuteronomic legislation (Dt 14'). The reference is to the practice, not confined to the Hebrews or even to their Semitic kinsfolk, of making incisions in the face, hands (Jer 48"), and other parts of the body to the effusion of blood, as part of the rites of mourning for the dead (see Mahks, § 4), and by a natural transition, to which the wearing of sackcloth forms a parallel, in times of national calamity. The custom is referred to without condemnation by the pre-Deuteronomio prophets, see Hos 7" (corrected text, as RVm), and esp. Jer 16« 41= 47'.

The underlying motive of this practice and the reasons for its legislative prohibition have been variously stated. It may be regarded as certain, however, that the practice had its root in primitive animistic conceptions regarding the spirits of the departed. The object in view may have been either so to disfigure the living that they should be unrecognizable by the maUgnant spirits of the dead, or, more probably, by means of the effusion of blood — which originally, perhaps, was brought into contact with the corpse — to maintain or renew the bond of union between the living and the dead.

CYPRUS

The explanation just given is confirmed by the allied practice, springing from similar motives, of shaving off the whole (Ezk 442", gf. Bar 6=') or part of the head hair or of the beard in token of jmourning (Is 15^ 22'^, Ezk 7", Am 8'° etc.). Both practices, the incisions and the shaving, are named together in the legislative passages above cited. Thus Dt 14' forbids ' baldness between the eyes,' i.e. the shaving of the front of the scalp, ' for the dead'; in Lv 19^' it is forbidden to 'round the corners ' of the head, i.e. to shave the temples (ct. Jer 9" 25^, where certain desert tribes are named ' the corners dipt,' from their habit of shaving the temples, see Hair), and to 'mar the corners of the beard' (ct. Jer 48='). These references recall the wide-spread heathen practice of hair-offerings, which goes back to the antique conception that the hair, like the blood, is the seat of hfe.

The reason of the twofold prohibition now becomes apparent. With the growth of loftier conceptions of J" and His worship, these practices, with their animistic background and heathen associations, were seen to be unworthy of a people who owed exclusive devotion to their covenant God, a thought Implied in the concluding words of Lv 19^' 'I am Jahweh.' The practice of gashing the body till the blood ran, as part of the ritual of Baal worship, is attested by 1 K IS^s.

The further prohibition of Lv 19^8 'nor print any marks upon you,' refers to another widely prevalent custom in antiquity, that of tattooing and even branding (3 Mac 229) the body with the name or symbol of one's special deity, a practice to which there is a reference in Is 44'', to be rendered as in RVm, ' another shall write on his hand. Unto the Lord,' or, better, as one word, 'Jahweh's.' A. R. S. Kennedy.

CYAMON, Jth 73=Jokneam (wh. see).

CYLINDER.— Ca 5" RVm tor EV 'ring.' See Ring.

CYIVIBAL. — See Music and Musical Instruments.

CYPRESS.— (1) itrsa/i (Is 44", RV ' holm oak') stands for some tree with very hard wood, the meaning of the root (in Arabic) being to be hard. ' Holm oak ' is the rendering of the oldest Latin translation. This is the Quercus ilex, a tree now rare W. of the Jordan, but still found in Gilead and Bashan; (2J te'ashshur (Is 41" RVm). Both AV and RV have 'box tree' (wh. see); (3) berSsh (2 S 6» RVm). Both AV and RV have ' fir wood ' (see also Is 55") . In Palestine to-day cypresses are extensively planted, especially in cemeteries.

E. W. G. Masterman.

CYPRUS.— An island in the N.E. corner of the Levant, within sight of the Syrian and Cilician coasts. Its greatest length is 140 miles, breadth 60 miles. In configuration it consists of a long plain shut in on the N. and the S.W. by mountain ranges.

In the OT the name Cyprus does not occur, but un-doubtedly the island is referred to under the name Kittim, which is the same as the name of the Phoenician town Kition, now Larnaka. In Gn 10' Kittim is spoken of as a son of Javan, together with Tarshish and Elishah. This probably implies that the earliest population of Cyprus was akin to the pre-Hellenic population of Greece. In Ezk 27' the isles of Kittim are spoken of as supplying Tyre with boxwood. But the name Kittim is used also of the West generally, as in Dn 1 1'" of the Romans (ct. Nu 24*i).

The early importance of Cyprus was due to its forests and its copper. Its copper has long ago been exhausted, and owing to neglect its forests have perished. But through-out the bronze age,' which for .^gsean countries may roughly be reckoned as B.C. 2000 to B.C. 1000, its copper was exported not only to Syria but to Egypt and to Europe, and, mixed w ith the tin brought by Phoenicians from Cornwall and the West, it provided themetal from which both weapons and ornaments were made. Hence the name copper is derived from Cyprus. When the iron age began, this metal also was obtained from Cyprus.

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