O P H I R. 
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xxvii. 12. that Tarfhifh was the merchant with whom Tyre 
traded’for filver, iron, tin, and lead 5 and that this trade 
was carried on in fairs. 
“ From all thefe paifages, it feems to be evident, that 
the defcendants of Tarfhifh fettled on the weftern coafl: 
of Alia Minor ; that thefe people were addicted to navi¬ 
gation and commerce ; that, in the courfe of their traffic, 
they were connected with the Tyrians and Phoenicians ; 
that the commerce they carried on confuted of filver, iron, 
tin, and lead ; that the people of Tarfhifh were connected 
with Chittim and the ifles of the Gentiles, which are con- 
fefledly fituated toward the north and weft of Judea. But 
left, after all, a fa< 5 t fo fully authenticated fhould ftill be 
tailed in queftion, I fhall add one proof more, which will 
place the matter beyond the reach of doubt and contro- 
verfy. When the prophet Jonah intended to flee from 
the prefence of the Lord, in order to avoid preaching at 
Nineveh, let us fee where the peevifh deferter embarked. 
(Jonah i. 3.) And Jonah rofe up to flee vntu Tar/hijh, from 
the prefence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa ; and he 
found a Jh ip going to Tarjhijh, and he paid the fire thereof, 
and went down into it, to go with them into Tarfhijh, from 
the prefence of the Lord. Every body knows that Joppa, 
or Japhah, flood upon thefhoreof the Mediterranean ; of 
courfe, the fugitive prophet had determined to go to fome 
very diftant region weftward, and by that means to get 
as far from Nineveh as poflible.” 
Having thus proved to a demonftration, that the ori¬ 
ginal Tarfhifh was a region on the weftern coafl of Afia 
Minor, wdiere either the patriarch of that name, or fome 
of his immediate defcendants, planted a colony, it re¬ 
mains to determine whether this was actually the country 
from which Solomon imported the vaft quantities of filver 
mentioned by the facred hiftorian. That it was not, our 
author frankly acknowledges ; and therefore, fays he, we 
muft look out for Solomon’s Tarfhifh in fome other quar¬ 
ter of the globe. 
To pave the wwy for this difcovery, he obferves, that it 
has at all times been a common practice to transfer the 
name of one country to another, in confequence of fome 
analogy or refemblance between them. It has likewile 
often happened, that, when a commodity was brought 
from a very diftant country by a very diftant people, the 
people to whom it was imported have taken it for granted, 
that it was produced in the region from which it was im¬ 
mediately brought to them. Of the truth of this pofition 
no man acquainted with the Greek and Roman poets, can 
for a moment entertain a doubt. Hence the Affyrium 
amomian of Virgil, and the Affyrium malabathrum of Ho¬ 
race, though thefe articles were the produCt, not of Af- 
fyria, but of India. The Jews, who were as little ac¬ 
quainted with foreign countries as the Greeks and Ro¬ 
mans, had very probably the fame notions with them re- 
fpeCting articles of commerce ; and if fo, they would un¬ 
doubtedly fuppofe, that the filver fold by the merchants 
of Tarfhifh was the produCt of that country. When this 
miftake came to be difcovered, they very naturally tranf- 
ferred the name Tarjhijh from the country of the merchants 
to that of the articles which they imported. Let us now, 
fays our author, try if we cannot find out where that coun¬ 
try was. 
“ It has been already fhown, by quotations from Ifaiah 
and Ezekiel, that the merchants of Tarfhifh traded in 
the markets of Tyre with filver, iron, lead, and tin. To 
thefe authorities, we fhall add another from Jeremiah : 
Silver (fays that prophet) fpread into plates is brought 
from Tarfhijh. But in Spain (continues our learned dif- 
fertator) all thofe commodities -were found in thegreateft 
abundance. All the ancient authors who defcribe that 
region, dwell with rapture on its filver-mines. This fad 
is too generally known to need to be fupported by autho¬ 
rities. Spain was then the region which furnifhed Solo¬ 
mon’s traders with the immenfe niafs of filver he is faid 
to have imported. This was, one might fay, the modern 
Tarfhifh; and, indeed, both Jofephus and Eufebius are 
pofitive that the pqfterity of Tarfhifh actually peopled 
that country. If this was an early opinion, as it certainly 
was, the Jews would of courfe denominate Spain from 
the patriarch in queftion. 
“ I have fhown above, that the inhabitants of Tarfliifh 
were Acridly conneded with the Chittim, or Grecians : I 
fhall here produce an authority, which will prove to a de- 
monftration that the Chittim had extended their com¬ 
merce into that part of Africa now called Barbary. The 
prophet Ezekiel, (xxvii. 6.) defcribing the fplendour and 
magnificence of Tyre, tells ns, that the company of ike 
Ajhnrites made her benches of ivory, brought from the ifles 
of Chittim. In the firft place, I inuft obferve, that there is 
probably a fmall error in the orthography of the word 
Afhurim. This term is every-where in Scripture tranf- 
lated Aflyrians, which tranflation is certainly juft. But 
how the Aflyrians could export ivory from the ifles of 
Chittim, and fafhion it into benches for the Tyrian ma¬ 
riners, is, in my opinion, a problem of no eafy folution. 
The fad is, Afhurim fhould be AJhcrim, that is, “ the 
company of the men of Aflier.” The tribe of Afher ob¬ 
tained its inheritance in the neighbourhood of Tyre; (fee 
Joih. xix. 28-31.) The companies of the tribe of the 
Afherites then, and not the Allnirim, were the people 
who manufadured the benches in queftion. 
“ Be that as it may, the ivory of which the implements 
were formed was imported from the ifles of Chittim ; that 
is, from Greece and its neighbourhood. Thefe iflands, 
it is certain, never produced ivory. They muft there¬ 
fore have imported it from fome other country 5 but no 
other country, to which the Greeks and their neighbours 
could have extended their commerce, except the north of 
Africa, produced that commodity. The conclufion then 
is, that the maritime ftates of Afia Minor, Greece, and 
probably the Hetrufcans on the weft coafl; of Italy, car¬ 
ried on a gainful commerce with Spain and Barbary at a 
very early period. 
“ We have novvfeen, that the original Tarfhifh, on the 
coaft of Afia Minor, did not produce the metals imported 
by Solomon’s fleet; that no Tarfhifh is to be found in the 
eaftern parts of the globe; that the Tarfliifh we are in 
queftof was undoubtedly fituated fomewhere towards the 
weft of Judea. We have fhown, that the mercantile people 
of Afia Minor, Greece, and probably of Italy, actually 
imported fome of thofe articles from the coaft of Africa ; 
we have hazarded a conjecture, that Spain was the mo¬ 
dern Tarfhifh, and that very country from which Solo¬ 
mon imported his filver, and the Tyrians their filver, iron, 
tin, and lead. Let us now make a trial whether we can¬ 
not exhibit fome internal proofs, in fupport of the hypo- 
thefis we have above adopted. The ancients divided 
Spain into three parts : Baetica, Lufitania, and Tarracc- 
nenfis. Bastica is the modern Andalufia. It ftretched 
along the Fretum Herculeum, or Straits of Gibraltar, to 
the mouth of the Guadalquiver. This region is thought 
by fome to have been the Elyfian Fields of the poets. 
The river Bretis, which divides it, is called Tartefjvs by 
Ariftotle, Stefichorus, Strabo, Paufanias, Steph. Eyzant. 
and Avianus. Here, too, we have a city and a lake of the 
fame name. But Tartefl’us is poiitively the very fame 
with Tarfhifh. The Phoenicians, by changing fchin into 
than, made it Tartijh. The Greeks manufactured the 
reft, by changing Tartifh into Tartis, and, in procefs of 
time, into Taprv<r‘ro$. That the Phoenicians actually 
changed fchin into than, is certain ; for Plutarch tells us, 
in the Life of Sylla, that, in their language, an ox was 
called thor; which is, no doubt, the lame with the He¬ 
brew Jhor. From this deduction, it appears highly proba¬ 
ble at leaft, that the Spanifh liatica was originally called 
Tarfliifh. Indeed, this fimilarity of names has operated 
fo powerfully on the learned Bochart, and on fome other 
moderns of no mean figure, that they have poiitively af¬ 
firmed, as Jofephus had done before them, that the pa¬ 
triarch Tarfliifh actually fettled in that country. This I 
fhould think not altogether probable; but that his de- 
1 fcendants, 
