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The many opinions on the subject of that Ophir, from whence Solomon's ships imported gold, shew the difficulty of determining geographical questions, when only the names of places are recorded. Indeed, in this instance, the other articles brought by the fleet are mentioned in addition, together with the duration of the voyage; nevertheless, the main question is not easily determined. .

The opinion which fixes Ophir on the east coast of Africa, has lately been very ingeniously stated and defended by Mr. Bruce, whose sentiments we shall lay before the reader.

He justly observes that "in order to come to a certainty where this Ophir was, it will be necessary to examine what Scripture says of it, and to keep precisely to every thing like description which we can find there, without indulging our fancy further. 1st, then, the trade to Ophir was carried on from the Elanitic Gulf through the Indian ocean. 2dly, The returns were gold, silver and ivory, but especially silver, 1 Kings, x. 22. Sdly, The time of the going and coming of the fleet was precisely three years, 1 Kings, x. 22; 2 Chron. ix. 21. at no period more nor less.

"Now, if Solomon's fleet sailed from the Elanitic Gulf to the Indian ocean, this voyage of necessity must have been made by monsoons, for no other winds reign in that ocean. And what certainly shews this was the case, is the precise term of three years in which the fleet went and came between Ophir and Ezion-geber.

"These mines of Ophir were probably what furnish. ed the East with gold in the earliest times; great traces of excavation must therefore have appeared. "But John Dos Santos says, 'that he landed at Sofala in the year 1586; that he sailed up the great

river Cuama as far as Tete, where, always desirous to be in the neighbourhood of gold, his order had placed their convent. Thence he penetrated for above 200 leagues into the country, and saw the gold mines then working at a mountain called Afura. At a considerable distance from these are the silver mines of Chicoua; at both places there is a great appearance of ancient excavations; and at both places the houses of the kings are built with mud and straw; whilst there are remains of massy buildings of stone and lime.'

"Every thing then conspires to fix the Ophir of Solomon in the kingdom of Sofala, provided it would necessarily neither take more nor less than three years to make a voyage from Ezion-geber to that place and Tarshish, and return.

"The vessel trading to Sofala sailed from the bottom of the Arabian Gulf in summer, with the monsoon at north, which carried her to Mocha. There the monsoon failed her by the change of the direction of the gulf. The southwest winds, which blow without cape Gardefan in the Indian ocean, forced themselves round the cape so as to be felt in the road of Mocha, making it uneasy riding there. But these soon changed, the weather became moderate, and the vessel we suppose in the month of August was safe at anchor under cape Gardefan, where was the port which, many years afterward, was called Promontorium Aromatum. Here the ship was oblig ed to stay all November, because all these summer months the wind south of the cape was a strong southwester, as has been before said, directly in the teeth of the voyage to Sofala. But this time was not lost; part of the goods bought to be ready for the return was ivory, frankincense, and myrrh; and the ship was then at the principal mart for these. "Our author supposes, that in November the vessel sailed with the wind at northeast, with which she would soon have made her voyage; but off the coast of Melinda, in the beginning of December, she there met an anomalous monsoon at southwest, in our days first observed by Dr. Halley, which cut off her voyage to Sofala, and obliged her to put into the small harbour of Mocha, near Melinda, but nearer still to Tarshish, which we find here by accident, and which we think a strong corroboration that we are right as to the rest of the voyage. In the annals of Abyssinia, it is said that Anda Sion, making war upon that coast in the 14th century, in a list of the rebellious Moorish vassals, mentions the chief of Tarshish as one of them, in the very situation where we have now placed him.

"Solomon's vessel, then, was obliged to stay at Tarshish till the month of April of the second year. In May, the wind set in at northeast, and probably carried her that same month to Sofala. All the time she spent at Tarshish was not lost, for part of her cargo was to be brought from that place; and she

probably bought, bespoke, or left it there. From May of the second year, to the end of that monsoon in October, the vessel could not stir; the wind was northeast. But this time, far from being lost, was necessary to the traders for getting in their cargo, which we shall suppose was ready for them.

"The ship sails; on her return, in the month of November of the second year, with the monsoon southwest, which in a very few weeks would have carried her into the Arabian Gulf. But, off Mocha, Melinda and Tarshish, she met the northeast monsoon, and was obliged to go into that port and stay there till the end of that monsoon; after which a southwester came to her relief in May of the third year. With the May monsoon she ran to Mocha within the Straits, and was there confined by the summer monsoon blowing up the Arabian Gulf from Suez, and meeting her. Here she lay till that monsoon, which in summer blows northerly from Suez, changed to a southeast one in October or November, and that very easily brought her up into the Elanitic Gulf, the middle or end of December of the third year. She had no need of more time to complete her voyage, and it was not possible she could do it in less."

Such is a very short and imperfect abstract of our author's reasons for placing Ophir in Sofala.

Another opinion has fixed Ophir on the western coast of Africa; but this is not so likely to become popular, as that which looks eastward. Indeed, the major part of learned men have rather looked to the East Indies for this land of gold, and many things said in favour of this opinion are exceedingly strong. But, there appear to be some circumstances which have been overlooked in this inquiry: as, 1st, that Solomon did not pretend to any royalty over Ophir, be it where it might; he therefore obtained his gold, &c. in a mercantile manner, by exchange. Now, if Ophir was in an uncivilized country, what commodities had he to give for its natural productions? The probability is, that he exported the oils, wines, &c. of Judea, vide on Gen. xlix. 11, 12. ad fin. together with a number of Tyrian articles, not all the production of that city, or of his own kingdom, but some foreign; as tin, for instance. Of what value were these to a barbarous people? 2dly, That as Hiram's servants were called in to navigate the vessels of Solomon, it is probable they knew the course they were to go. Tyre was no port on the Red Sea; from whom then did they receive their information? 3dly, It is likely that other princes, besides Solomon, traded also to Ophir; for, how came he, if the first, to think of the enterprise? Most likely he only put in for a share of that trade which he already knew to be lucrative. 4thly, In proportion as the seat of Paradise is moved eastward, as by the late discov eries of captain Wilford, vide the map of Paradise, on Gen. ii. 8. it appears to be, so far is the first family

which peopled the land of Ophir moved eastward too; for if Havilah, Gen. x. 29. be the person who gave name to the land of Havilah, Gen. ii. 11. of which it is observed, "there is gold, and the gold of that land is good," then, as his brother Ophir is mentioned with him, and, no doubt, was situated near him, it connects the land of Ophir with the land of Havilah; and the land of Havilah is connected with Paradise, and Paradise is placed further east than before, even in the eastern province, Bactria, which agrees exactly with the remark of Moses, "their dwelling was from Mesha as thou goest to Sephar, a mount of the East," or Bactria.

If the gold of Havilah was famous in the days of Moses, we see how easily Ophir, its neighbour, might afterward rival, or exceed it. Vide our Inquiries respecting the situation of Paradise, with the plate on Gen. ii. 8.

It is not certain that Solomon's fleet cast anchor in Ophir, as in a port, but rather, that the commodities they fetched were brought by them from a public mart, or emporium, where they procured them without trouble; much in the same manner as we send to China for tea; but the tea does not grow near the port from whence it is shipped; it is only brought there for exportation.

If we suppose that the vessels of Solomon coasted along the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, and the Persian Sea, to the western coast of India, we must needs allow a considerable portion of time for that purpose. Moreover, there will still remain the question, whether the three years that the fleet was absent, were full years; or rather, according to the Hebrew mode of reckoning, the end of the first, the whole of the second, and the beginning of the third year.

From these hints we infer, that Solomon, having had communications by land with the East, desired more direct intercourse with it, which he proposed to effect by sea. We know also, that the Egyptian kings maintained an intercourse with India during many ages; and what they did from one side of the Red Sea, Solomon might do from the other. Perhaps their navigation was the subsequence of his.

I consider the notion of Tarshish as denoting a town, or port, as entirely beside the question; being of opinion, that Solomon's navy of Tarshish, verse 22. means ships built after the manner of Tarshish, with iron bolts, and in a capital manner, fitted to stand the ocean, distinct from those lesser vessels used on the Nile, or on the Mediterranean.

We shall extract from CALMET, article OPHIR, a supposition on principles not unlike those stated above; only, instead of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, the reader will substitute the Indus, in consequence of the further easting of Paradise.

"We think that Ophir the son of Joktan, with his brethren, peopled the countries between the mountains Masius, and the mountains of Saphar, which

ses.

are probably those of the Tapires or Saspires, toward Armenia, Media, and the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates; for we do not pretend at this day to assign the limits of those countries. Eustathius of Antioch, in Hexaemer, as well as we, places Ophir in Armenia. The emperor Justinian divided Armenia into four parts, and one of these parts was called Sophara. Strabo, lib. xi. places on the Phasis a people called Sarapenes. Quadratus, apud Stephan. in vn, speaks of the Obarenians on the river Cyrus; and Pliny, of the Suarni, situated between the Caspiæ Portæ, the Gordian mountains, and the Euxine sea. The gold of Pharvaim, or of Sepharvaim, is the same as the gold of Ophir, 1 Kings, ix. 26, 27, 28. compared with 1 Chron. xxix. 4. An S has often been added to the beginning of words to shew their aspiration; and the Septuagint sometimes reads Sophir for Ophir. Sepharvaim has much relation to mount Saphar mentioned by Mo"Perhaps to this will be replied, 1st, that in the country where we place Ophir, all the things are not to be found, that Solomon fetched home by his fleet. 2dly, That this country does not border on the sea, nor could there be any passing thither with a fleet. 3dly, That this could not be a three years voyage. But I answer, that the fleet of Solomon in its voyage stopped at several harbours, in each of which it took in such things as were necessary. It took in apes, ebony and parrots, on the coast of Ethiopia. It took in gold at Ophir, or at the place of traffic, whither the people of Ophir resorted. It might also find ivory there, or if you please, in some of the ports of Arabia, where also it might be supplied with spices this fleet might trade on both sides of the Red Sea; on the coasts of Arabia and Ethiopia; and on parts of Ethiopia beyond the Straits, when it had entered the ocean. Thence it passed up the Persian Gulf, and might visit the places of trade on both its shores, and thence run up the Tigris or Euphrates, as far as these rivers were navigable. "The ancients tell us the names of several places of traffic on the Tigris and Euphrates, which were heretofore famous before they had raised banks on the Tigris, or made outlets in the Euphrates, which afterward interrupted the navigation of those rivers, or made it more difficult. Vide Strabo, in the first book of his Geography. Thus, though the countries were not maritime, yet they might trade with them by going up the Tigris or Euphrates." So far our learned author.

We shall now inquire into the nature of the commodities brought in return by the fleet of Solomon. Gold and silver: there is no difficulty on these words.

Ivory, shenhabim. Bochart thinks this word, being plural, means elephants themselves, rather than their teeth; yet, according to himself, elephants are rather

called shenkahabim. CALMET thinks this word should be divided shen, a tooth, habim, ebony wood. It is, however, certain, that we do not read of elephants in the west of Asia, so early, in any profane author; nor does the prophet Ezekiel, or any other, mention them, or allude to them. Yet Ezekiel mentions ivory, chap. xxvi. 6. under the name of shen, the tooth; or, verse 15. kerenuth shen, horns of teeth; and ebony, under the name of haberim. That India produced ivory is well known; whence Virgil observes, India mittit Ebur. The elephants of Asia have always been supposed to have the advantage over those of Africa in size and strength; and the teeth which they furnish are larger and heavier by far than those brought from Africa.

APES, kophim. The koph of the Hebrews seems to be the same as the ceph of the Ethiopians, of which Pliny speaks, lib. viii. cap. 19. At the games given by Pompey the Great "were shewn cephoses brought from Ethiopia, which had their fore feet made like a human hand, their hind legs and feet also resembled those of a man." Solinus, speaking of Ethiopia, says, "Cæsar the dictator, at the games of the circus, had shewn the monsters of that country, cephs, or, as others, cefs, whose hands and feet resembled those of mankind." The Greeks called them kepos, keipos. We now distinguish the tribe into, 1st, monkeys, those with long tails. 2dly, Apes, those with short tails. 3dly, Baboons, those without tails.

[In our Inquiries concerning the situation of Paradise, in an extract from major Wilford, we read, that the ancient name of LANDI Sindh river was Cophes; may the cophim of our text have been any kind of animal bred on its banks, and named from this river?]

PEACOCKS, tuciim. The question is, whether this word signifies peacocks, or parrots? The peacock is a bird originally of India; thence brought into Persia and Media. Aristophanes mentions "Persian peacocks," and Suidas calls the peacock "the Median bird." From Persia it was gradually dispersed into Judea, Egypt, Greece, and Europe. If the fleet of Solomon visited India, they might easily procure this bird, whether from India itself, or from Persia; and certainly, the bird by its beauty was likely to attract attention, and to be brought away among other rarities of natural history.

Reland, nevertheless, prefers the parrot, observing, that Ovid mentions a parrot sent to him from India.

Psittacus Eois ales mihi missus ab Indis.

This name psittacus seems to be an Indian appellation; for, according to Pliny, lib. x. cap. 42. the Indians called this bird sittac: Elian and Arrian call it bittacos. The Hebrew name tucciim, seems to resemble the tulek, and tutyk of the Persians; and the tutygik of the Turks, which signifies a parrot; meaning, perhaps, the crested parrot, which we call caca

too.

Jacob Hassæus, Bibliot. Brem. class ii. gives a new explication to the word tucciim, supposing it to be the same as succiim, inhabitants of caves or caverns. Observing, 1st, that the LXX express both kophim and tucciim, by one word pithecoi, monkeys; as if they were both of a class, but perhaps one kind having tails, the other not having any. 2dly, Kimchi in his Lexicon assures us, that some of the ancient Jewish doctors explained tucciim by a long tailed animal; maimon, a long tailed monkey; though others thought gato, a cat, which is a long tailed animal. The Turks to this day call a monkey, maimon, Mezink. Lex. p. 921, 3665, 5079.

of which are highly scented. Africa also has its woods, so that this article decides nothing on the track of the voyage.

It is usual to suppose, that this was a class of gummy woods; woods abounding in gum: may a conjecture be tolerated, that, on the contrary, they were gumless woods, wood perfectly free from sap? for, would not woods abounding in gum be much less fit for working into any kind of instruments, furniture, &c. than those which contain no moisture? why else do our cabinet makers, musical instrument makers, &c. before they use them, season their woods for years by exposure to the air, &c. The word may easily express this idea, by a very frequent transposition of AL to LA, LAgumim, gumless; or, Lamuggim, without moisture.

We have supposed that Solomon's people traded with the inhabitants of Ophir: and therefore that, due allowances made, his fleet might go and return in eighteen months. For it seems unlikely, that, as some have supposed, Solomon's people should themselves dig the mines for gold, and hunt elephants, monkeys and peacocks. In this case, three full years might easily be consumed in procuring a cargo.

If it be supposed that these tucciim are now, for the first time, imported into Judea, then it is rather unlikely that the word should mean parrots; because, as several kinds of parrots breed in Africa, and some of them are regularly brought by the caravans from the interior of Africa to Cairo in Egypt, we may naturally suppose, that these birds were occasionally brought a little further, from Egypt to Jerusalem. This might be done by individuals for their own amusement, or, certainly, the agents of Solomon, who brought his horses, knowing his taste for natural history, would bring such rarities in hopes of recom- Having hinted that the Tyrians probably obtained mending themselves to him. This depends on the their nautical knowledge of the seas of Ophir by prequestion, whether, as is usually supposed, these tuc- vious experience, I remark, that we find a second ciim are absolutely new birds, and, if admitted, it Tyre on the eastern coast of the Red Sea. Vide tends to diminish the intercourse of Solomon's fleet the Map of the Travels of Israel to Sinai, Exod. xiii. with Africa. Hasselquist mentions two kinds of par- "From whence they held a regular course with India, rots; 1st, psittacus Alexandri, the size of a pigeon. on the one hand, and with the eastern and southern It is found in Ethiopia, from whence it is brought to coasts of Africa on the other ... They took possesCairo. Its plumage is extremely pretty; it has a sion of Rhinocolura, the nearest port on the Medisharp cry, and easily learns to speak. 2dly, The terranean to the Arabian Gulf. Thither all the comparakeet of Africa, the size of a cuckoo; both seen modities brought from India were conveyed over land in Egypt. by a route much shorter and more practicable than that by which the productions of the East were carried at a subsequent period from the opposite shore of the Arabian Gulf to the Nile, Diod. Sic. lib. i. p. 70; Strabo, lib. xvi. At Rhinocolura they were reshipped and transported by an easy navigation to Tyre," Robertson's Disquisit. on India, p. 7.

The same remark as we have made on the parrots, may be applied to the apes: is it likely that these cophim are now for the first time seen in Judea? if so, then if they were apes, the monkeys and apes brought into Egypt by the African caravans must have singularly escaped the notice of the Jews. It is certain that no former hint respecting them occurs in Scripture; but, that a "wilderness of monkeys" might have been had at any time from Africa without depopulating the forests of that country, admits of no denial. If then apes be really the creatures meant by the word cophim, it probably means a species of a scarcer and more uncommon nature than Africa could furnish by way of Egypt. But this goes on the supposition, that they were now seen in Judea for the first time; which it is beyond our power to affirm or to deny.

The word almugim, or algummim, if it be a particular species of wood, is unknown to us: some suppose it includes the whole class of gummy woods. The article in CALMET may be consulted. We know that India abounds in various kinds of woods, some

VERSE 18.

The king made a throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the best gold.

Ivory is here called shen gedul, great tooth; a very expressive name for it. But Solomon could never be such a fool as to cover his ivory throne with gold; he inlaid, not overlaid it, he ornamented and embossed parts of it with gold, but did not conceal the whole of it; for then, common wood would have answered the purpose as well as ivory.

The gold was of Uphas, o, which seems to be also referred to by the name of Phaz, Cant. v. 2. most fine gold, Eng. Tr. and Uphas, Dan. ix. 5; Jer. x. 9. I suspect that this gold was yielded by the river

Phison, or by a country on its banks: for, it is already observed, that "the gold of that country is good;" if this be fact, it connects Ophir with the Phison pretty strongly; and leads us to look for it in the East, where we have placed it.

VERSE 27.

The king made silver to be as stones, and cedars to be as the sycamores that are in the vale, rather in the plain or open ground. There is no doubt respecting this tree the sycamore: a figure of it is given in FRAGMENT, No. 260.

CHAPTER XII. VERSES 11, 12.

My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with SCORPIONS.

This can never mean the animal called a scorpion; nor the military machine called a scorpion, long after. It is presumed, that we see the application of it, plate of Slaves in the East, Exod. v.

The shuthim are, perhaps, whips of a single cord, the okrabbim, whips of many cords. The Chaldee reads, horsewhip but some interpreters think it should be thorny, like a scorpion's tail; perhaps knotted, as the whip in our plate appears to be, at the end, may answer the idea.

The Latin writers of the later ages use the word scorpion, to express a whip armed with points, says Isidore, Orig. lib. v. cap. 25. "if it be smooth, it is a rod; if it has either knots or points, it is justly called scorpion, because it makes wounds in the form of ed scorpion, because it makes wounds in the form of

a crescent."

CHAPTER XIII. VERSE 4.

The hand of Jeroboam, which he put forth against the prophet, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him. "It seems that we ought not to understand this drying up, of an actual desiccation of the arm, as if all its vital fluids had ceased to circulate in it; as if it retained no vital powers but rather a rheumatic, or paralytic affection, which suspended the powers of motion for a time. The palsy requires a long perseverance in remedies nervous, cephalic, and discussive unctions, lotions, frictions, fomentations, and bathings." The instantaneous cure, therefore, of this rash king is no less wonderful than his instantaneous affliction.

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the more delicate, kinds of plants, could shoot inte herbage, or support that herbage to maturity.

ELIJAH FED BY RAVENS.

"Two sorts of critics are apt to occasion displeasure to the orthodox; those who reduce the miracles of Holy Scripture to a mere nothing, to deny, or to diminish, the power of God over the operations of nature, to vary them at his pleasure; and those who, desirous of discovering truth, and with the utmost veneration for truth when discovered, seek new explications of things, and depart from received interpretations; these often meet with stronger blame than they deserve, a severity even to injustice." Such are the sentiments of pious Scheuzer, when introducing his remarks on the history of Elijah fed by ravens. He proceeds to state, that he does not think the orebim of the Hebrew, rendered ravens, means the inhabitants of a town called Oreb: nor a troop of Arabs, called Orbhim: but the birds, ravens.

Athanasius, in Synopsis, and Theodoret, in loc. pretend, that the ravens brought the bread in the morning, and the flesh in the evening. Augustin, Serm. 146. and Eutychius of Alexandria, p. 197. are of the same opinion, supported by the authority of the LXX. Now, if these writers considered this expression in the text as a current Hebrew phrase, possessing this import, then it may fairly be quoted in corroboration of a hint thrown out on Exod. xvi. 13. p. 40. that when Moses says, "at even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread," he did not mean that particular evening or morning, but generally, the proper kinds of food for every day; as had been their customary enjoyment. This idea supersedes the necessity of bringing quails in order to fulfil his promise of flesh, since he had given no such promise.

To return to Elijah. We have elsewhere observed, that the word rendered raven includes the whole genus, among which we find some less impure than the raven; the rook, for instance; and rooks living in numerous societies, we have thought these were the kind of birds employed on this occasion, rather than ravens, which fly only in pairs.

After the miraculous feeding of the prophet by these birds, the brook drying up, he is obliged to remove; and it should appear principally, if not altogether, because, though the birds could furnish him with bread and flesh, they could not bring him water, the brook being dried up, that supply is exhausted. It is probable that this famine was felt more or less in neighbouring countries. Josephus, lib. viii. cap. 2. says, Menander, a Tyrian historian, mentions a famine of a year's duration, under Ithobal, king of Tyre.

VERSES 8-16.

The miracle of the prolongation of the contents of the cruise of oil, and the barrel of meal, is similar to

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