Genesis 2:13

Gihon This river is not mentioned again by the same name in the Bible, except in Sir 24:27. The student will be careful not to confound it with the Gihon of 1 Kings 1:33, a spring in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. It is here described as encircling "the whole land of Cush." "Cush" in the Bible generally denotes Ethiopia (but cf. Genesis 10:8 note); and by Ethiopia would be signified Nubia, the Soudan, and Upper Egypt, a great tract of country watered by the Nile, cf. Isaiah 18:1. Hence, though the description "that compasseth the whole land of Cush" is fanciful, it seems very probable that the Gihon here means the Nile. The Nile is generally called in the Bible ye"or(cf. Genesis 41:1), and sometimes Shihor(cf. Isaiah 23:3; Jeremiah 2:18). See note Genesis 41:1. For Cushites in David's time, cf. 2 Samuel 18:21.