[128] Taking all things into consideration, it looks very much as if the Saphara of Ptolemy (vi. 7, 41), described as a metropolis of Arabia, was the original Ophir.
[129] 1 Sam. xviii.; xix. 8; xxvii. 8; 2 Chron. viii. 17, &c.
[130] 1 Chron. xxii. 8.
[131] 2 Chron. ix. 4.
[132] Stanley Lectures, xxvi. p. 182.
[133] 2 Chron. ix. 21.
[134] Herod. iv. 42. Voyage of Pharaoh Necho.
[135] Rich, “First Memoir,” p. 12.
[136] Chesney, Euphrat Exped. ii. 602-3.
[137] Cf. also Ammianus (“March of Julian,” xxiv. 3) and Zosimus (iii.) with Layard (“Nineveh” ii. 6), and Ker Porter (ii. p. 355), for the luxuriance of the date-bearing districts, and the general sylvan character of many of these plains.