1 Kings 9:26-28

B. SOLOMON'S NAVY 9:26-28

TRANSLATION

(26) And King Solomon made a fleet of Ezion-geber which is beside Eloth upon the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. (27) And Hiram sent his servants with the fleet, skilled sailors, along with the servants of Solomon. (28) And they went to Ophir, and brought from there four hundred twenty talents of gold, and brought unto King Solomon.

COMMENTS

The allusion to Solomon's navy is probably inserted at this point because it was to the voyage of this fleet that the king was indebted for the gold with which he financed his various building projects. Next to the Temple, the construction of this fleet was probably the greatest accomplishment of Solomon's reign.[265] The king built his ships at Ezion-geber located on the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba (1 Kings 9:26). The earlier subjugation of Edom in the reign of David (2 Samuel 8:14) made this valuable port available to the Israelites. The Chronicler adds a detail to what is recorded in 1 Kings 9:26 when he relates that Solomon himself made a journey or possibly undertook a campaign to Ezion-geber (2 Chronicles 8:17). The Eloth mentioned in 1 Kings 9:26 is probably the new settlement which sprang up in the days of Solomon around the ancient settlement of Ezion-geber.

[265] That Israelite naval enterprises actually began under David is hinted at in the fact that David collected for the Temple three hundred talents of gold of Ophir (1 Chronicles 29:4). Traditions concerning David's maritime activities have survived in the Jewish communities of the Mediterranean. See Stieglitz, MAAI, p. 148.

The importance of the outlet at Ezion-geber to the Israelites can hardly be overestimated. From the time of David unto the reign of Ahaz (735-715 B.C.), the kings of Jerusalem sought to maintain control over this spot and the near-by trade routes.[266]

[266] Stieglitz, MAAI, p. 73.

In this maritime venture, Solomon and Hiram of Tyre were partners. Phoenician sailors, known throughout ancient times for their expertise in seamanship, joined the inexperienced men of Solomon on their voyages (1 Kings 9:27). The Chronicler adds that Hiram also provided the ships (2 Chronicles 8:18). This probably means that the ships were transported overland, in sections, to the port at Ezion-geber and were there reassembled. Hiram would not have encouraged Solomon in a maritime enterprise which would have involved competition with his own interests. He was, however, anxious to open up the Red Sea trade routes to which he otherwise had no access.

The location of Ophir is uncertain. Modern scholarship has attempted to narrow the location to either India or East Africa. A couple of clues bearing on this problem are given in the text. For one thing it would appear that Ophir was accessible only from the Red Sea and therefore, must be located somewhere along the coasts of that body of water which today is called the Indian Ocean. The best clue, however, is the list of products obtained from Ophir: gold, almug trees and precious stones (1 Kings 10 :II).[267] These products suggest that Ophir was located along the coasts of Africa, possibly even the Atlantic coasts of Africa.[268] Without further evidence,[269] however, it is difficult to be more precise as to the whereabouts of Ophir.

[267] Other products, usually assumed by scholars to originate in Ophir (although this is not stated in the Bible), are those which were brought back by Solomon's Tarshish fleet: gold, silver, ivory, apes and baboons. For discussion of Solomon's Tarshish fleet see comments on 1 Kings 10:22.

[268] Stieglitz, MAAI, pp. 60-61.
[269] Attempts have been made to identify Ophir by linguistic analysis of the Biblical product names. The results are inconclusive, some scholars vigorously asserting the Indian and some the Egyptian origin of these names.

Wherever its location, Ophir supplied Solomon with enormous quantities of goldfour hundred twenty talents (about $10,000,000) according to Kings (1 Kings 9:28), four hundred fifty talents according to Chronicles. It is possible that Kings gives the amount of gold that actually entered the coffers of Solomon, while Chronicles includes thirty additional talents which went to Hiram for his services. Whether all this gold, amounting to some thirty tons, was brought back on one voyage, or whether this figure represents the profits from several voyages to Ophir cannot be determined.