John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: October 16

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John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: October 16

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The Royal Merchant

1Ki_9:26-28

It was probably from the exhaustion of the ample means deft by his father, and the inadequacy of the ordinary sources of revenue, for his vast expenses in sacred and regal building, as well as to sustain the great expense of his magnificent court and vast household, that Solomon was led to turn his attention to commerce. His intimate connection with the Phoenicians could not but indicate to his sagacious mind, that commerce was the sole foundation of the extraordinary prosperity which that small nation had attained, and the great wealth which it possessed. He saw not why similar advantages might not accrue to himself from the like sources. But his people had no knowledge of the sea, or of ship-building; and he perceived that he could not act without the co-operation of Hiram. Now, Hiram was his very good friend; but aware of the commercial jealousy of the Phoenicians, he could not but see that he must not reckon upon their assistance, if his plans or his line of operations interfered with theirs, or unless he could propose to them advantages unattainable to them without his assistance. They monopolized the maritime traffic of the west—the coasts and isles of the Mediterranean—and of the nearer Atlantic shores. With this he had no wish to interfere. But he possessed the ports at the head of the Red Sea, which opened up to maritime enterprise the treasures of the rich south and east, to which they could have no access but by him. He was, therefore, in a condition to make what terms he judged equitable to them; and there can be no doubt that Hiram listened eagerly to proposals, which allowed him to participate in the advantages of this line of traffic—so full of promise—and which in no wise interfered with the commerce of his own people. Perhaps the Phoenician zeal may have been quickened by the knowledge that, although Solomon preferred their assistance as upon the whole the best and the most safe, he was not altogether dependent upon it. The Edomites, at this time subject to his crown, had been accustomed to navigate the Red Sea, and probably to some extent beyond; and although we know not that they ever reached the shores to which, under the experienced guidance of the Phoenician mariners, the fleets of Solomon penetrated, it is very probable that they might, with adequate encouragement, have been the instruments of his designs. Probably it was as much from policy, and from regard to the greater experience of the Phoenicians in long voyages, that the sage king of Israel was induced to prefer the co-operation of a people who had no territorial connection with the shores of the Red Sea. It may be, indeed, that we err in ascribing the credit of the plan to Solomon. It is quite possible that the Phoenicians were themselves the first to perceive how the possession of the Red Sea ports by their powerful ally, might be turned to account, for the benefit of both nations; and it may appear to some, that the idea was more likely to occur to an enterprising commercial people like them, than to a king who had no previous experience of shipping or commerce.

Be this as it may, the co-operation was readily entered upon, and presently the port of Ezion-Geber resounded with the strokes and cries of the multitude of wrights, busy in building such ships as those with which they navigated the length of the Mediterranean to Tarshish, Note: Supposed Tartessus in Spain. and which, although now having a very different destination, were still called “ships of Tarshish”—just as our ships built for the Indian voyage, are called Indiamen. The interest which Solomon felt in the enterprise, may be judged of from the fact, that he went in person to Ezion-Geber to hasten the preparations, and to witness the departure of the fleet—a sight at all times beautiful, and altogether new to the eyes of a Hebrew king.

It was three years, or as we may understand it, the third year, before the ships returned from a most prosperous voyage, laden with costly and rare commodities, and with objects, such as foreign beasts and birds, suited to gratify the philosophic zeal of the king in the study of nature. These were no doubt procured by his order, and it is not too large a stretch of conjecture to suppose, that he had been careful to send some like-minded man with the expedition, to secure such objects as might appear worthy of the king’s attention. The journal of the naturalist of this expedition, would have been a most interesting and useful book to us; and no doubt king Solomon read it eagerly, and found in it rich materials for his own writings on animals and plants. At all events, so wise a king was little likely to leave to the rude appreciation and random judgment of mariners, the selection of the objects worthy of being presented to his notice. The objects named are—gold and silver in vast quantities, various kinds of valuable timbers, notably that of the algum-tree (supposed the white-sandal wood), ivory, and various curious animals, instanced by monkeys and peacocks, probably as being the most remarkable, or as the most different from the forms of animal life with which the Israelites were previously acquainted. There is no mention of plants, and perhaps the skill was not possessed in that age of transporting living plants with safety from a great distance. Yet, considering the king’s love for botany, there can be no doubt that his naturalist had instructions to bring the seeds of any plants that appeared worthy of attention from their use or beauty; and we may probably, therefore, refer to this reign the introduction of various plants into Palestine, which had not been known there in former times. It is a curious fact, that in the grounds hard by “the fountains of Solomon,” near Bethlehem—which exhibit manifest traces of an ancient garden, and where the intimations of Josephus would lead us to expect that Solomon had a rural retreat, are still to be found a number of plants, self-sown from age to age, which do not exist in any other part of the Holy Land. This is indeed, in ecclesiastical tradition, the Hortus Conclusus—the “Enclosed Garden,” to which there is an allusion in the “Song of Songs.”

But whither went this fleet? When or where were these commodities obtained? The answer is, to Ophir—at least this seems to have been the most distant point of the voyage, in the course of which these things were procured. And where was Ophir? That is a question—one of the quœstiones vexatissimœ of sacred geography, respecting which many volumes and treatises have been written. This is scarcely the place for the adequate discussion of such a question; but as the matter is one which often comes under notice in one shape or another, we shall tomorrow endeavor to state some considerations which may assist the reader to some probable, if not certain, conclusions.