56 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



sea, were even more averse than the Egyptians to intercourse 

 Avith foreigners and to maritime occupations. Joppa was the 

 only seaport of Judea and Jerusalem, and into it many of the 

 articles used by Solomon in the construction of the Temple were 

 imported. During Solomon's reign, he employed the ships of 

 his ally, Hiram, King of Tyre, in commercial avocations, for 

 which his own people were not fitted. It is among the Jews, 

 whose history is given in the Scripture with so much detail, that 

 we should naturally look for the earliest geographical records. 

 The sacred writers, however, seem to have entertained no idea 

 of any system of geography, having been occupied with the 

 affairs of the world to come, to the total exclusion of the concerns 

 of the mundane earth. They do not even allude to any such 

 branch of learning as being then in existence. It is clear that 

 the Hebrews never attempted to form any theory upon the 

 structure and shape of the globe. Their ideas with regard to 

 the boundaries of the known world may be vaguely inferred 

 from the tenth chapter of Genesis, from the chapters treating 

 of the commerce of Tyre, and from various detached allusions 

 in the prophets. 



The idea, common to all uninstructed people, that the earth is 

 a flat surface and the heaven a firmament or curtain spread over 

 it, prevails throughout the Bible. The abode of darkness and 

 of the shadow of death was conceived to be a deep pit beneath 

 it. One sacred writer speaks of the earth as being " hung upon 

 nothing;" another speaks of the "pillars of the earth," and 

 another of the " pillars of heaven." These allusions show suf- 

 ficiently that, though the writers of those days were impressed 

 by the external view of the grand scenes of nature, they did not 

 endeavor to group them into any regular system. 



The localities always alluded to as being at the farthest 

 bounds of their geographical knowledge are Tarshish, Ophir, 

 the Isles, Sheba, Dedan, The River, Gog, Magog, and the North. 

 The first has given rise to infinite discussion. The best theory 



