The area of N. Africa in the Nile valley, part of the kingdom known in Egyptian as Nubia and in the OT as Cush (Gen. 10: 6). From 715 to 656 BCE Ethiopian kings reigned in Egypt and King Tirhakah persuaded Syria and Phoenicia to make war on Assyria. He was also an ally of Hezekiah of Judah (Isa. 18: 1–2; 20: 1–6) but the Assyrians conquered Egypt in 670 BCE. Nubia remained independent until absorbed into the Persian Empire (6th cent. BCE) under Darius. References in the prophets to the Ethiopians (Jer. 13: 23; Amos 9: 7) show that the people were well known in Israel and Judah. The Jewish settlement at Elephantine was on the border of Ethiopia.

In the NT an Ethiopian eunuch, probably a ‘God‐fearer’, an official in the court of ‘the Candace’, the queen mother, is encountered by Philip (Acts 8: 26–40).