of Cush did of old appertain, shall be fhewn, when we CHAP. I. come to speak of the peopling of the world by the three fons of Noah and their posterity: it will be fufficient to our present purpose, to make out that the country adjoining to the easterly mouth of Euphrates, and which by the Greeks and Latins was called Sufiana, had formerly the name of Cush, and hath it still at prefent. All the journals of travellers do then inform us, that Sufiana is now called Chuzeftan, which carries in it plain footsteps of the original word Cufh, or, as it is wrote by fome, Chus or Chuz. Benjamin of Navarre fays, that the great province of Elam, whereof Sufa is the metropolis, and which the Tigris waters, is called fo. That province of Elam is Elymais, which extends itself as far as the coaft of the Perfian Gulf, at the east of the mouth of the Euphrates. The Nubian geographer and fome other Arabians call it Chureftan: but it is probably an overfight of the copiers, who did not distinguish the letter r from z of the Arabians, which only differ by one point. The inhabitants of the land call it abfolutely or plainly Chus, if we will believe Marius Niger y. The fame region is called Cuthah in the book of Kings, (2 Kings xvii. 24.) according to the variety of dialects; and it was partly from thence, that Salmanaffar transported a colony into Samaria, to fill the room of its inhabitants and of the ten tribes, which he had turned out and fent into other places. This new colony, which was afterwards known under the name of Samaritans, kept also the name of its origin, and was called the Cutheans. The word Cuthah or Cuth undoubtedly came from the word Cush or Cus, the last letter of which is often changed by the Chaldeans into a t or th, as Dion hath obferved. So they faid Theor for Sor, Attyria for Affyria. There are yet many other marks of the word Cush found in the fame province. We find there the Coffeans, neighbours to the Uxians, according y Mar. Nig. Comm. 5. Geograph. Afiæ. z Dion. Xiphil. Traj. p. 347. ex edit. Sylburg. to PART I, to the position of Pliny, Ptolemy, and Arrian a. Some have imagined, that thofe Coffeans had given their name to the province of Chuzestan; but it is more true, that both the name of Chuzeftan, and that of the Coffeans, come from the fame root, to wit, from Cush, and not one from the other. The name of Ciffia and of the Ciffians came alfo from thence; being a little province of Sufiana, and used fometimes to denote all the Sufians. The poet Æfchylus b takes also notice of a city of that name fituated in the fame land; and, what is remarkable, he does distinguish it by its antiquity. He calls alfo Memnon's mother (that is to fay, Aurora) Ciffia; of which more when we come to speak of the city Shufan or Sufa. It fhall only be here observed, that when the Grecians feigned, that Memnon was the son of Aurora, they meant that he came from the Eaft; according to a common expreffion of the Hebrew tongue, and very familiar to the Prophets, who call the people of the East, fons of the East. Not to add, that many interpreters think, that Nebuchadnezzar or Belshazzar is by Ifaiah called, in the fame fenfe, Lucifer, fon of Aurora, or of the morning. 21. Gihon dif Since then the easterly mouth of the Euphrates does The river thus agree to the defcription given by Mofes of the covered by Gihon; fince it lies exactly the second in order, according the marks to the method taken by Mofes for mentioning the four given by Mofes. 22. rivers relating to the Garden of Eden; and fince the province it washes or runs along the fide of, was formerly called Cufh; on these confiderations we may reft very well fatisfied, that the said easterly channel or mouth of the Euphrates (or, which comes to the fame, of the Tigris) is the very Gihon described by Mofes. Go we on then to the third river, of which Mofes writes Mofes's de- thus; And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is scription of the river it which goeth before Affyria. Hiddekel. a Plin. lib. vi. c. 27. Ptol. lib. vi. c. 3. Tab. 5. Afiæ. Arrian. Exped. Alex. lib. vii. Now the Hebrew word b Æfchyl. Perf. et Choeph. 421. et in Strab. lib. xv. p. 728. ex edit. Cafaub. Hiddekel Hiddekel is by the Seventy Interpreters rendered the Ti- CHAP. I. gris; and that the river, called by Mofes Hiddekel, is in truth no other than that river, which by the Greeks and Latins is commonly called Tigris, will appear from the following confiderations, 23. Hiddekel is the river And firft, the name of Hiddekel, which Mofes gives this river, that of Diglath, which they give it in the Levant or The river East, and that of Tigris, which the Europeans give it, are the fame as one and the fame, varied by different nations. This may the furprise those, who are ignorant of the art of etymology, which is which is very useful, if not absolutely neceffary in good from the proved first literature. We fhall not ftand here to produce authorities true etymofrom other inftances, for the change of the feveral letters word Tiof one of these words into those of the other. It will be gris, fufficient to our purpose, to obferve in short, that taking away the aspiration of the word Hiddekel, the word Dekel remained, which the Syrians disguised, and made Diklat out of it: Jofephus and the Chaldæan paraphrafts, the Arabians and the Perfians turned it into Diglath; other modern orientals into Degil and Degola; Pliny, or those who informed him, into Diglito; and the Greeks, who gave to all strange words the turn and genius of their own tongue, inftead of Diglis called it Tigris; induced probably fo to do, by the information they had received of the fwiftnefs of this river, which was aptly denoted by the name Tigris. And this is the more likely, because we meet with other inftances of the fame nature, as not only will appear by and by in reference to the name of the river Euphrates, but has also been formerly observed (in the first part of my Geography of the New Testament) in reference to the name of the holy city Jerufalem, turned by the Greeks into Hierofolyma. But that the Diglito and Tigris is but one and the fame river, is clear from Pliny ; only he is mistaken, when he fays, that the Tigris is called Diglito at the beginning of its stream, when it runs flowly, but is called Tigris, when it be Plin. lib. vi. c. 27. VOL. I, C comes PART 1. comes swifter. For it is called Tigris at the very head, as Strabo affures us; and the names of Tigris and Diglito are in reality but one and the fame name, varied according to the diverfity of dialects or languages, as has been fhewn. 24. The Hidde from the Secondly, the method obferved by Mofes in rekoning up the four rivers further proves, that the Hiddekel is no kel is proved to be the other than the Tigris. For, as in refpect of the place where Tigris, Mofes was writing, the Pison was the nearest to him, and method ob- fo in natural order was to be named first; and then the served by Gihon fecond, as being the channel that prefented itself reckoning next: fo having paffed over this channel or river, and rivers. turning to the left hand, to come back to the place where Mofes was writing, we meet with the Tigris in the third Mofes in up the four 25. place; which therefore it was but natural for Mofes to mention third, and which therefore we need not doubt but is the fame with the Hiddekel mentioned third by the facred historian. Laftly, the mark, whereby Mofes defcribes the fituation Laftly, the of the Hiddekel, does plainly confirm, that it is the fame fame is that the gree to the Tigris. proved with the Tigris. For Mofes describes its fituation thus ; from this, That is it which goes before Affyria. The word Affyria mark given may be taken, either properly to denote only that one proby Mofes to the Hidde- vince, which was first so called, and whereof Nineveh was kel does a- the capital city; or elfe in a larger sense, so as to comprehend many great provinces belonging to the kings of Affyria, and which made up the Affyrian empire. The word was not taken in the latter or larger fenfe, till long after Mofes, who therefore could understand by the name of Affyria, only a fmall province about Nineveh. Now the river Tigris does run along before Affyria fo taken, and confidered in respect of the place where Mofes was writing: infomuch that going from the parts where Mofes was, directly to Affyria, there is no coming into it without croffing first the Tigris, as running along before it, or running along on that fide of Affyria which lay next to the parts where Mofes wrote. Wherefore the peculiar mark, whereby Mofes points out the fituation of the Hid dekel, dekel, thus exactly agreeing to the Tigris, it feems past all CHAP. I. doubt, that the former is the very fame river with the latter. It is true, that the claufe, wherein the fituation of the Hiddekel is described by Mofes, is rendered in our Bible-translation otherwise than I have rendered it, namely thus; That is it which goes toward the east of Affyria, or, as it is in the margin of our Bible, eastward to Affyria. And though even in this fense the description may be capable of being fomewhat tolerably accommodated to the Tigris, yet the other sense is much to be preferred, as being more agreeable to the plain or primary import of the Hebrew word, and fo followed by that great Hebrician, Arias Montanus. And not only fo, but the Seventy Interpreters also, and the authors of the Vulgar Latin and Syriac translation, render the Hebrew word, over against or along the fide of Affyria, not restraining it to the eastern fide. 26. Of the phrates. We are now come to the last of the four rivers, which Mofes only names, without affixing any mark of diftinc- fourth river, tion on it; and that for these two reasons, partly because the Eu the three other being discovered and known, this last could not but be easily known also; partly because its largeness and neighbourhood rendered it fufficiently known in the places and amongst the nations to whom he wrote. On these confiderations, Moses only tells us in fhort, that the fourth river is Perath, or Euphrates. For the Grecians changed Perath into Euphrates, adjusting this word, as well as other strange words, to the genius of their own tongue; and at the fame time probably alluding to the pleasantness, or at least fruitfulness, of the adjacent country, washed by the faid river, and thought to be rendered so pleasant or fruitful by the waters thereof. Or poffibly, not minding any fuch thing, they made Euphrates out of Perath, as out of Tabor they made Ataby The Greek word paive fignifies to rejoice, or to make fruitful; agreeable to the Latin expreffion, lætum facere. Whence Virgil in his first book of Geor- C 2 Quid lætas faciat fegetes rius. |