men; at the north, four; at the south, four; at the storehouses in the vicinity of the south gate, two and two, i.e. four; at Parbar towards the west, six; in all, twenty-four at the different gates (1 Chron. xxvi. 17, 18). 3. Their work. 'ro keep the gates- esteemed an honourable service, and called ministering in the house of the Lord (1 Chron. xxvi. 12; cf. Ps. lxxxiv. 10). LESSONS. 1. The necessity and beauty of order in Divine worship. 2. The diversity of offices and gifts in the Church of God. 8. The dignity of even the humblest service in connection with religion.-W. Vers.17, 18.-Thefirstmerchant-ships. I. To WHOM THEY BELONGED. 1. Bolrmwn- who constructed a. navy of ships (1 Kings ix. 26). The first mention of ship-building by the Israelites. An advance in civilization, it is doubtful whether this was in ba.rmony with the calling of the Israelites a.s a theocra.tic people, whose business it was to keep themselves distinct from other nations. 2. Hiram-who sent the Israelitish monarch ships by the hands of his servants. Either Hiram sent to Eloth ship-carpenters, who built ships for Solomon (Bahr), or he built ships at Tyre, and sent them by the bands of sailors to join in Solomon's expedition (Bertheau). If the latter, they must either have rounded the continent of Africa (Bertheau), or been carried by land transport across the Isthmus of Suez (Keil). 'l'he former would not have been impossible had the circumnavigation of Africa been at that time known. This, however, is doubtful, as Herodotus (iv. 42) mentions Pharaoh Necho of the twenty-sixth dynasty (B.c. 612) as the first to prove that Africa was entirely surrounded by water, with the exception of the small isthmus connecting it with Asia. 'l'his he did by sending Phrenician seamen in ships from the Arabian Gulf to seek their way to Egypt through the Pillars of Hercules and the Mediterranean Sea. Hence the latter method was more probably adopted for conveying Hiram's ships to the Gulf of Arabia-a method of transporting vessels known to the ancients. Herodotus (vii. 24) states that, while Xerxes cut a passage through the Isthmus of Mount Athos, he need not have done so, since without difficulty he might have carried his ships across the land. Thucydides (iv. 8) mentions that in this way the Peloponnesians conveyed eighty ships across the Leucadian isthmus. (For additional examples, see Exposition.) II. THE PORT WHENCE THEY BAILED. 1. Ezion-geber, a camping-station OD the desert march of Israel (Numb. xu:iii. 35; Deut. ii. B); 11fterwards the place where Jehoshaphat's ships were wrecked (1 Kings x.xii. 48). Wben the town was built is unknown. Its name imports "the backbone of a man" (Gesenius); the Greeks called it Berenice (Josephus,' Ant.,' viii. 6. 4). 2. Near Eloth, the Ailane of Josephus, the Ailath of the Greeks, and the Elana of the Romans, the modern .Akaba, on the eastern bay of the Gulf of Akabah. Whether Ezion-geber was also on the east side of the gulf or on the west is uncertain, as no trace of it now exists. 3. On the shore of the Red Sea. 'l'he Yam Su/ was the eastern arm of the Arabian Gulf, or the Gulf of Aka bah. At the present day navigation is perilous in the vicinity ofElath in consequence of the sharp and rocky coast and the easily excited storms. 4. In the land of Edom. Mount Seir, Edom, Idumrea, the Mount of Esau (Deut. ii. 5; Joel iii. 19; Isa. xxiv. 5; Obad. 21); in the Assyrian inscriptions, Udumu or Ddumi (Schrader,• Die Keilinschriften,' p. 149); a desolate region extending from the head of the Elanitic Gulf to the foot of the Dead Sea, described by Robinson as "a rolling desert, the surface [of which] was in general loose gravel and stones, everywhere furrowed and torn with the beds of torrents •.. now and then a lone shrub of the ghu.dah [being] almost the only trace of vegeta- tion" (' Biblical Researches,' ii. 502, 551). III. THE SAILORS BY WHOM THEY WERE MANNED. Servants of Hiram, who had knowledge of the sea. 'l'he Phcenicians the earliest navigators of the ocean. An inscription of Queen Hatasu, of the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty, queen regnant first with Thothmes II. and afterwards with Thothmes III., bas preserved a record of the construction by that royal lady of a navy on the Red Sea, and of a voyage of discovery to the land of Arabia in vessels manned by Phrenician seamen (Brugsch, 'Egypt,' i. 351, etc.; • Records of the Past,' x. 11, etc.). IV. Tm: COUNTRY TO WHICH THEY STEERED. Ophir. By eminent authorities (Lassen, Ritter, Bertheau) located in India, this gold-producin~ region w~s probably in Arabia (Knobel, Keil, Ewald, Bahr)-the land of Pun, to which the ships of Hatusu ■ailed for costly treasures. 106 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [cH. tx. 1-31,
V. THE OARGO WITH WHIOll THEY RETURNED, 1. Gold. Whether the four hundred and fifty talents were the cal'go of one voyage or of all;the voyages cannot be determined. Reckoning a talent at £5475 sterling, the a.mount would be £2,463,760, or nearly two and a half millions. This precious metal was amongst the treasures fetched from the land of Pun by Hatasu's fleet. 2. Precious stones. Learnt from a later statement (eh. ix. 10). These also were obtainable in the land of Pun. 3. Al_qum trees. (Oh. ix. 10). \Vhat these were is unknown; probably they corresponded with the balsam-wood C'? "incense trees" brought from Pun by Hatasu's ships. It was manifestly rare and costly, as Solomon made of it "terraces to the house of the Lord and the king's palace, as well as harps and psalteries for singers ; " " and there were none such seen before in the laoi of Judah." So said Hatasu's scribes of her cargo. "Never has such a convoy [been made] like this one by any king since the creation of the world." Learn : 1. Man's dominion over nature-he can affront the perils of the sea. 2. The advantages (from a secular point of view) of navigation-in increasing the world's wealth and comfort, in extending man's knowledge and power, and in binding the nations into a mutually dependent and helpful brotherhood. 3. The dangers (from a spiritual point of view) of foreign exploration, in fostering the lust of conquest and possession, and in bringing God's people into contact with heathen nations.-W.