“Judging from the appearance of this wood, where it could be inspected, and its durability, I consider it to be fit for ship-building purposes, if it can be procured of sufficiently large size for ships of war, of the same quality as the smaller timber used in the construction of the vessel above referred to.
“Two pieces of the wood taken from the inside planking of the ‘Thomas Blyth’ are herewith forwarded as samples.
(Signed) “J. Luke.”
C.
ON THE POSITION OF OPHIR.
1. That Ophir was in India.
On behalf of the conjecture that places Ophir in India, the following arguments are alleged:—
That it is most natural to understand, from the Sacred narrative, that all the articles enumerated as forming the cargoes of the ships belonging to Solomon which visited Ophir were procurable in the country where Ophir was situated; and that all those articles were alone to be found in India.
The Septuagint translators appear to have held this opinion from rendering אוֺפִיר (Ophir) Σωφιρ, Σουφιρ, Σωφιρά, which is the Egyptian name for India.
Josephus also states: “Moreover, the king built many ships in the Egyptian bay of the Red Sea, in a certain place called Ezion-geber; it is now called Berenice, and is not far from the city Eloth. This country belonged formerly to the Jews, and became useful for shipping from the donations of Hiram, king of Tyre; for he sent a sufficient number of men thither for pilots, and such as were skilful in navigation, to whom Solomon gave this command:—That they should go along with his own stewards to the land that was of old called Ophir, but now the Chersonesus Aurea, which belongs to India, to fetch gold. And when they had gathered four hundred talents together they returned to the king again.”—Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, book viii. c. 6, 4.
And again:—“About the same time there were brought to the king from the Chersonesus Aurea, a country so called, precious stones and pine-trees, and these trees he made use of for supporting the temple and the palace, as also for the materials of musical instruments, the harps and the psalteries, that the Levites might make use of them in hymns to God. The wood which was brought to him at this time was larger and finer than any that had ever been brought before; but let no one imagine these pine-trees were like those which are now so named,” &c.—(Ibid, viii. c. 7. 1.) The vulgate renders the words “the gold of Ophir” (Job xxviii. 16), by “tinctis Indiæ coloribus.” See Wahner, De Regione Ophir; Tychsen, “De Commerc. Hebr.” in Commentt. Gott. xvi. 164, &c.; Huetti Commentatio de Navigatione Solomonis; Reland, Dissertt. Miscell., i. 172; or in Ugolini Thesaurus, vii.; Vitringa, and others.