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Psalm 7 · a question people ask

Who was "Cush, the Benjamite" (7:1), and what did he say?

In the text

The title says only this: the psalm is "A meditation by David, which he sang to the LORD, concerning the words of Cush, the Benjamite" (7:1). In the WEB no other verse speaks of a Cush who is a Benjamite. The name Cush comes elsewhere for a son of Ham (Genesis 10:6) and for a land (Genesis 2:13), and Brown-Driver-Briggs gives the Cush of this title an entry of his own: "a Benjamite". The psalm doesn't quote his words. It speaks of "all those who pursue me" (7:1) of an adversary (7:4) and of adversaries (7:6), and the psalmist takes an oath, "if I have done this" (7:3), without saying what this is. These notes don't guess who Cush was, or tie him to anyone else in the Bible.

The verses

“A meditation by David, which he sang to the LORD, concerning the words of Cush, the Benjamite. LORD, my God, I take refuge in you. Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me,”
Psalm 7:1 · World English Bible
“LORD, my God, if I have done this, if there is iniquity in my hands, if I have rewarded evil to him who was at peace with me (yes, I have plundered him who without cause was my adversary),”
Psalm 7:3-4 · World English Bible
“Arise, LORD, in your anger. Lift up yourself against the rage of my adversaries. Awake for me. You have commanded judgment.”
Psalm 7:6 · World English Bible
“The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the same river that flows through the whole land of Cush.”
Genesis 2:13 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 7

Psalm 7: A righteous judge

The psalmist asks to be judged "according to my righteousness" (7:8), and ends giving thanks "according to his righteousness" (7:17): in Hebrew one word, with only its ending changed from my to his. And the mischief the wicked conceives (7:14) is, in Hebrew, the same word as the trouble that comes back on his own head (7:16).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions