(3) In Arabia, Southern or South-Eastern.—Gn 10*-*° appears to imply that Ophir was either between Sheba and Havilah or in proximity to them. The fact that the Joktanites settled in Arabia would seem to require that search be made for Ophir within that territory. It is of course assumed, because it cannot be absolutely proved, that this Ophir is identical with the a from which the Pheenician sailors brought their remark- able wares to enrich the coffers of Solomon. This territory has been the favourite location for Ophir from a very ancient day. Among some of its chief advocates we may mention Michaelis, Bochart, Niebuhr, Gesenius, Vincent, Seetzen, and Rosen- miiller. One of the most enthusiastic and experi- enced advocates of our day is Ed. Glaser (Shizze der Geschichte u. Geographie Arabiens, ii. 1890, pp. 353-387). He arrays evidence at great length, and with commendable skill, to show that all good evidence from ancient times points to south- eastern Arabia, in the region of the Persian Gulf, as the proper location for the Ophir of Solomon's day. Southern and south-eastern Arabia were famed in ancient times for their gold-producing
ualities, according to the testimony of Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and Pliny. The gold of this region was called apyron (dxvpor)-gold, because its
urity was so πότ that it needed no smelting.
t is not improbable that the Greek name for the gold of that region (apyron) was ἘΣΤΕ: to the product, since that name for the land had passed out of use.
628 OPHNI
OPHRAH
The chief gold-producing lands of the OT were found in Arabia, and, for the most part, apparently, in the region of the Persian Gulf. We find be- sides Ophir: (a) Havilah, Gn 2" (and 10); (0) Simba, Ps 72" (cf. 1 K 10"), Ezk 27%; (c) Parvaim (see art. PARVAIM), 2 Ch 85; and also (ὦ) Uphaz, Jer 10%, Dn 10% Of these, Sheba and Havilah at least (and possibly Parvaim) appear to be located, according to Gn 10”, in proximity to Ophir. And again we should note that Ophir was not simply a gold-producing land, but it was so located that ships called at its port or ports (1K 97%). Glaser (p. 368) maintains that the biblical Ophir in the narrow sense is the Arabian coast of the Persian Gulf, extending from the north to Ras Musandum, and that in a wider sense it extends to both sides of the Gulf.
In the cuneiform records of Elam, dating from prior to B.C. 1000, we find that the territory be- tween Susa and the Persian Gulf was called Apirra (Apir), and as late as the 8th cent. B.c. the Elamites make mention of it as Apir(cf. Hommel, Gesch. Bab.- Assyr. p. 720; also Del., Paradies, PP. 131, 231).
i 655 regions of the Persian Gulf did not pro- duce the full list of articles brought back by the Pheenician and Jewish sailors, but the importance of this location both for land and sea trade would account for the presence in the emporia of trade of articles brought from and native in many and far- distant lands.
The trip, too, from Ezion-geber to this region, either in the Persian Gulf or the Gulf of Oman, and return, in view of the periodical monsoons which prevail on the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Indian Ocean, would occupy just about the required three years.
‘Taking into account, then, (1) the location of Ophir as related to the other names mentioned in Gn 10; (2) the gold-producing properties attributed to it in the ὅτ; (3) the testimony of ancient authorities to its richness in the precious metal ; (4) the time required to make the trip in view of the annual monsoons; (5) the testimony of the cuneiform inscriptions as to the name; (6) the cumulative strength of these points,—it seems most- probable that Ophir was a territory situated in south-eastern Arabia, in the region of the Gulfs of Oman and Persia.
Lrtzraturs.—In addition to the many works mentioned in the article, see Ritter, Erdkunde, xiv. 348-431 ; Commentaries of Delitzsch and Dillmann on Gn 109-31, and of Benzinger cx Kurzer Hdcom,) and Kittel (in Nowack’s Hdkom.) on 1 K 926; Zckler, Eden, Ophir, Ephraim, 1893; Sprenger, Die alte Geographie Arabiens, 1874, p. 49ff.; Goergens, SK, 1878, pp. 458-475; Soetbeer, Das Goldland Ophir, 1880; Keil, Heb. Archiologie, pp. 617-620; Nowack, Lehrb. ἃ. Heb. Arch. i. p. 248; Benzinger, Heb. Arch. p. 219; E. Meyer, Ges. ἃ. Alterthums, i. δῇ 185, 187, 804, 307; Herzfeld, Ha eschichte ἃ. Juden ἃ. Alterthums, 1879; Lieblein, Handel τι, Schifffahrt auf dem rothen Meer in alten Zeiten, ES: 142ff.
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OPHNI (%35y3, lit. ‘the Ophnite’; BA om., Lue. ᾿Αφνή).---Α town of Benjamin, Jos 18%. The site is unknown. It may be (but see Dillm. ad loc., and Buhl, GAP 173) the later Gophnah of Josephus (BJ ΠῚ. iii. 5), now Jufnah, 24 miles N.W. of Bethel. See SIP vol. ii. sheet xiv.
OPHRAH (7 5y possibly ‘fawn,’ feminine of 15. —There are both place and personal names in the OT which are derived from names of animals (Journ. Philol. ix. 92 1]. Ὃν ‘dust,’ “ soil,’ suggests a derivation that agrees better with the transliterations of LXX).
1. One of the Benjamite towns enumerated in Jos 18 (A ᾿Ιεφραϑά, B ᾿Αφρά, Luc. ᾿Αφαρά). It is included (18) in what seems to be a north-eastern