DISCOVEREES OF THE AET OF IEON MANUFACTUEE BELCK. 515 



servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And 

 they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents 

 and brought it to king Solomon. 



This Jewish-Phenician sea voyage is also mentioned in I Kings 



x, 11: 



And the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir 

 great plenty of almug trees, and precious stones. 



Further, ib., verse 22: 



For the King had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram : once in three 

 years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and pea- 

 cocks. 



The same is read in II Chronicles ix, 21: 



For the king's ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Hiram: every three years 

 once came the ships of Tarshish bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks. 



In full agreement with this Josephus relates in his Jewish Antiqui- 

 ties, viii, 6, §4: 



Then the King (Solomon) had built himself many ships in the Egyptian bay, in a 

 place called Gasiongabel, situated on the Red Sea, not far from the city of Aelana, 

 which is now called Berenice. For this entire region at that time belonged to the 

 Jews. For the construction of this navy, too, he received abundant support from the 

 liberality of Hiram, King of the Tyrians. For Hiram sent him a number of steers- 

 mates and experienced seamen. Solomon ordered them, together with his own 

 officials, to sail to Sophira in India, the present so-called gold land, and to bring him 

 gold from there. They gathered about four hundred talents of it and then returned 

 home to the King. 1 



The statement in these accounts that Solomon's people had built 

 the ships at Eziongeber (= Gasiongabel) is improbable, for whence 

 could the inland Jews have acquired the professional knowledge and 

 skill necessary for such work ? Had they really attempted to build 

 ships on their own initiative, they would have had the same experi- 

 ence as that of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, later on, of whom it is 

 related in II Chronicles xx, 35-37: 



And after this did Jehoshaphat king of Judah join himself with Ahaziah king of 

 Israel, who did very wickedly: And he joined himself with him to make ships to go 

 to Tarshish: and they made the ships in Eziongaber. Then Eliezer the son of Doda- 

 vah oil Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because thou hast joined 



1 In connection with this historically so important account I wish to make the following remarks: 



1. Josephus was certainly in position to establish without difficulty or uncertainty where the land of 

 Ophir or Sophira was located. In the face of his clear statement that it was India it remains incompre- 

 hensible that Ophir was ever seriously sought for in Africa on the Zambesi. Ophir is also mentioned in 

 the genealogical table of Genesis (x, 29) as a descendant of the Semite Joktan; and Josephus, Jewish Antiqui- 

 ties, i, 6, §4, makes Opheires, as he calls him, together with other descendants of Joktan, dwell on the Indian 

 River Kophene and in adjacent Ariane. 



2. I can not believe in the supposed "voluntary" aid given by Hiram of Tyre to Solomon (and likewise 

 to David); probably Tyre at the time of David and Solomon stood to the rising and flourishing Jewish 

 state in a relation of suzerainty similar to that of Damascus and Hamath. 



3. The visit of homage paid by the Queen of Sheba to Solomon seems to have been a direct result, not so 

 much of the fact that Jewish rule in David's time extended to the coast of the Red Sea, but rather of the 

 Jewish- Phenician sea voyages on the Red Sea to Ophir along the Arabian coast. 



