EZION-GEBER GLUECK 461 



Jerusalem, to the north shore of the Gulf of 'Aqabah- It took a 

 great deal of business ability, as well as architectural, engineering, 

 and metallurgical skill, to construct the factory town and seaport of 

 Ezion-geber, and to keep the production line going. 



One can easily visualize the conditions existing about three mil- 

 lennia ago, when the idea of building this place was first conceived 

 and then brilliantly translated into reality. Thousands of laborers 

 had to be assembled, housed, fed, and protected at the chosen build- 

 ing site. As a matter of fact, most of them were probably slaves, 

 who had to be guarded and goaded to work. Skilled technicians 

 of all kinds had to be recruited. Great caravans had to be collected 

 to transport materials and food. An effective business organization 

 had to be called into existence to regulate the profitable flow of raw 

 materials and finished or semifinished products. There was, so far 

 as we know, only one man who possessed the strength, wealth, and 

 wisdom capable of initiating and carrying out such a highly complex 

 and specialized undertaking. He was King Solomon. He alone in 

 his day had the ability, the vision, and the power to establish an 

 important industrial center and seaport such a comparatively long 

 distance from the capital city of Jerusalem. 



The wise ruler of Israel was a copper king, a shipping magnate, 

 a merchant prince, and a great builder. Through his manifold activi- 

 ties, he became at once the blessing and the curse of his country. 

 With increased power and wealth came a centralization of authority 

 and a ruthless dictatorship which ignored the democratic traditions 

 of his own people. There resulted a counterdevelopment of forces 

 of reaction and revolt, which were immediately after Solomon's death 

 to rend his kingdom asunder. During his lifetime, however, Solomon 

 reigned supreme. The evil he did lived after him. His far-flung 

 net of activities extended from Egj'pt to Phoenicia, and from Arabia 

 to Syria. Ezion-geber represents one of his greatest, if indeed up 

 to the present time his least-known accomplishments. In the person 

 of Solomon, more than anyone else before or after him, was fulfilled 

 the promise to Israel, contained in Deuteronomy 8:9, according to 

 which Israel was to inherit a land (the 'Arabah), "whose stones are 

 iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper." 



A long period of mining, smelting, refining, and brickmaking must 

 have preceded the construction of the elaborate refinery, unless one 

 is to assume that experts were imported for the purpose, just as, for 

 instance, Solomon imported Phoenicians to build and man his ships 

 (I Kmgs 9:26-28; 10:11, 22). There is, however, no reason for 

 that assumption. Mining and smelting and refining were known 

 along the length of the 'Arabah at least from the beginning of the 

 Early Iron Age, and quite probably already in the Early Bronze 



