Let us go back to the verse from Amos with which this chapter began: “Are not you Israelites the same to me as the Kushites?” declares the Lord. “Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt . . . ?” Does a positive interpretation of Kush in this passage still seem so far-fetched? Far from such a comparison being humiliating to Judah, it is, to say the least, glowingly favorable.
