(2.) After the division into two kingdoms, the curtain falls on any commercial relation between the Israelites and Phoenicians until a relation is brought to notice, by no means brotherly, as in the fleets which navigated the Bed Sea, nor friendly, as between buyers and sellers, but humiliating and exasperating, as between the buy- ers and the bought. The relation is meant which ex- isted between the two nations when Israelites were sold as slaves by Phoenicians. It was a custom in antiquity, when one nation went to war against another, for mer- chants to be present in one or other of the hostile camps, in order to purchase prisoners of war as slaves. Thus at the time of the Maccabees, when a large army was sent by Lysias to invade and subdue the land of Judah, it is related that " the merchants of the country, hear- ing the fame of them, took silver and gold very much with servants, and came into the camp to buy the chil- dren of Israel for slaves" (1 Mace. iii,41); and when it is related that at the capture of Jerusalem by Antiochus Epiphanes, the enormous number of 40,000 men were slain in battle, it is added that there were "no fewer sold than slain" (2 Mace, v, 14; Credner's Joel, p. 240). Now this practice, which is thus illustrated by details at a much later period, undoubtedly prevailed in earlier times {Odyssey, xv, 427; Herod, i, 1), and is alluded to in a threatening manner against the Phoenicians by the prophets (Joel iii, 4, and Amos i, 9, 10), about B.C. 800. The circumstances which led to this state of things may be thus explained. After the division of the two kingdoms there is no trace of any friendly relations be- tween the kingdom of Judah and the Phoenicians: the interest of the latter rather led them to cultivate the
PIKENICIA
15G
PIKENICIA
friendship of the kingdom of Israel ; and the rsraelitisfa king, Ahab, had a Sidonian princess as his wife | 1 Kings xvi, 31 i. Now, uol improbably in consequence of these relations, n hen Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, endeavored to restore the trade of the Jews in the Red Sen. and for this purpose built large ships at Ezion-geber t" go to Ophir for gold, he did nol admil the Phoenicians t<> any participation in the venture, and when kiwj, Ahaziah, Ahab's son, asked to have ;i share in it, his request was distinctly refused (xxii, 48, 49). That attempt to re- new ili" trade of the Jews in the Red Sea failed, and in the reign of Jehpram,Jehoshaphat's son, Edom revolted from Judah and established its independence; so that if the Phoenicians wished to despatch trading-vessels
fr Ezion-geber, Edom was the power which it was
mainly their interest to conciliate, and nol Judah. Un- der these circumstances the Phoenicians seem, nol only in have purchased and to have sold again a- slaves, and probably in some instances to have kidnapped inhabi- tants of Judah, l>ur even to have sold them to their en- emies the Edomites (Joel, Amos, as above). This was regarded with reason as a departure from the old broth- erly covenant, when Hiram was a gVeal lover of David, and subsequently had the must friendly commercial relations h ith l>a\ id's son ; and this may be considered as the original foundation of the hostility of the 1 1 > - brew prophets towards Phoenician Tyre (Isa. xxiii: Ezek. xxviii).
(3. i The only other notice in the < Hd Testament of trade between the Phoenicians and the Israelites is in the accounl given by the prophet Ezekiel of the trade <>f Tyre i xxvii, 1" ). While this account supplies vain- able information respecting t he various commercial deal- in-.- ..I thai most illustrious of Phoenician cities [see Tyre], it likewise makes direct mention of the exports in it from Palestine. The.sc were wheat, honey (i.e. sirup ol grapes), oil, and balm. The export of wheat deserves attention [concerning the other exports, see Balm; Honey; Oil], because it shows how important it must have been to the Phoenicians to maintain friendly relations with their Hebrew neighbors, and especially with the adjoining kingdom of Israel. The wheal is called wheat of Minnith (q. v.), which was a town of the Ammonites, on the other Bide of the Jordan, only once mentioned elsewhere in the Bible: and it is nol certain whether Minnith was a great inland emporium, where large purchases of corn were made, or whether
t he u heat in its neighborl 1 was peculiarly good, and
gave its name to all wheat of a certain fineness in qual- ity. Still, whatever may he the correct explanation ig .Minnith, the only countries specified for ex- ports of wheal arc Judah and Israel. and it was through thcterritorj of Israel that the wheat would be imported into Phoenicia. It is surest cd l>\ lleeren (in his His- torical Researches, ii. 1 17 i that the fad of Palestine be- ing thus, as it were, the granary of Phoenicia, explain- in the clearest manner the lasting peace thai prevailed between the two countries. He observes thai with many of the other adjoining nations the .lews lived in a state oi almost continual warfare: but thai they never 'once engaged in hostilities with t heir nearest neighbors the Phoenicians. The fad itself is certainly worthy of special notice; and is the more remarkable, as there wen- uol wanting tempting occasions lor the interfer- ence of the Phoenicians in Palestine if they desired it. Winn Elijah al the brook Kishon, at the distance of not more than thirty miles in a straight line from Tyre. put h. death 150 prophets of Baal i I Kings xviii, 40), we can well conceive the agitation and anger which such a died must have produced al I > r. . Al Sidon, more especially, which «,> onlj twentj miles farther