The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 109

ma11eh (ace 1 Kings x. 17), or pound, meant " Tarshish " ( the suhs~quent Tarte,,us) 100 beko.e, i.e. 50 shekels. Thus the targets, covered e. district in South Spain, as well as or shields, ho.d six manehe of gold to their named o. town and river, and stretcherl nppo- plating ecich, o.nd the lesser bucklers (ne we site the coast of Africa. Both cr,nst.~ were mny perhaps ccill them) three manchs each. henea(h Phoonician rule, and a voyage to On the estimate that the shekel weighed Tarsh1sh would most naturally mean calling 9 dwt. 8 gr., since the maneh weighed fifty at many e. port, and many o.n African port, shekels (100 belcas, or half-shekels), the gold from one and another of which all the im- to a shield (target) may be put at something ports here spoken of would be obtainable. over 11 lbs. troy. The house of the forest of The meaning of the Hebrew root of Tarshish Lebanon; i.e. an armoury (see 1 Kings vii. is "to subjugate." The town lay between tbe 2-5; 2 Sam. viii. 7; Cant. iv. 4; Isa. xxii. two mouths of tbe river Bretis, now Guadal- 8). Shisbak took these when he conquered quiver. Geseniue thinks that the writer of Jerusalem (1 Kings xiv. 26). Chronicles says, in ignorance, "lo Tarah ish,'' Vere. 17-19.-lt is not necessary to sup- and that the ships went lo Ophir ! These pose that the throne waa made of solid ivory passages do not say that the voyage, what- (Pa. xlv. 9; Amoe iii. 15; vi. 4), or that the ever it was, took tbree years; much less that overlaying gold concealed the ivory, whether that length of time was necessary. Whether more or less of it. The parallel adds that voyages were in Solomon's time ma.de from "the top of the throne was round behind" the Red Sea, circumnavigating Africa, into (1 Kings x. 19). Comparing also the two the Mediterranean, is not certain. If they accounts, it would appear that there were were such voyages, taken at a sauntering twelve lions on each aide of the throne, i.e. pace, with calls at many ports and easy- two to each step. When it is said that there going delays, they may easily ba,-e consumed were two lions standing by the ste.ys (or, as long a space of time as three years ! The a.rms) on ea.oh side of the sitting-ple.ce, we theory that Tarshish was Tarsus in Cilicia may easily imagine, from ancient modelled is easily and conclusively negatived. The thrones, that of them the arms were them- names in Hebrew of "ivory, apes, and pee.- eel ves "no small part." It is remarkable that cocks" have been so.id to be of Indian origin. the parallel does not take cognizance of the This is far from proved, and, o.s regards the footstool. The lion is, of course, as natural a first two, may be said to be sufficiently dis- symbol as it is an old one of sovereign power proved. But if it all were so, still the fact that and place ; and the use of the lion and the the Hebrew no.mes were of an Indian language number of them, reminding of the tribes derivation would go very short way to prove of Israel, were specifir.ally justified to the that the Hebrew people got the things repre- people, whose oracles contained such words sented by them direct, or at a.II, from India. as those in Gen. xlix. 9; Numb. xxili. 24; Ivory; Hebrew, C'?CI~~- The Authorized xxiv. 9. Josephus tells us that a golden Version rendering "ivory" occnrs ten times bull supported the seat of the throne. If so, in the Old Testament, having for its original it is remarkable that the statement should tha Hebrew Jlt (1 Kings x. 18; xxii. 39; be omitted in both of our Old Testament narrations. The dimensions of the throne eh. ix. 17; Ps. xlv. 8; Cant. v_ 14; vii. 4; we might have looked for, but they are not Ezok. xxvii. 6, 15; A.mos iii. 15; vi. 4). Jn given. That they were well proportioned to all these cases, two of them being in closest the height, marked by six steps, may be juxtaposition with the present o.nd its parallel to.ken for granted. occasion, the word speaks of ivory that is Ver. 20.-The house of the forest of Lebe.- being U8ed, i.e. as though it were manufac- non. The circumstance of the vessels of tured material or ready for manufacture. this house being mentioned in such close But in our passage and its parallel, where connection with the drinking-vessels of Solo- the different word given i.bove is found, it mon, is e.nother indication of the close con- is manifest that it speaks of th':l material, so nection of the buildings themselves (1 Kings to say, in the rough, o.s just" tooth or tusk vii. I, 2-5, 6, etc.); also that these'' vessels of - - ; •• but, further, what the □'?'! is is of the house of the forest of Lebanon" were not yet ascertained. It is not a word known (as may be inferred naturally from the con- in the Hebrew vocabulary. Gesenius finds nection) like "Solomon's" drinking-vessels, the Sanscrit ibhas, wbich signifies o.n "ele- infers the use of the apartments of the house phant;" Canou Rawlinson finds in some for social or, o.t any rate, state occasions. Assyrian inscriptions a word habba, used of Ver. 21.-To Tarshish. 'fhe parallel hus, both elephant nnd camel, but probably having iu both clauses of its verse (1 Kings x. 22), for its generic signification" a great animal;" "ships of Tarshish." The order of the words Keil (ou the parallel) finds a Coptic word. in the former clnuse of our present verso, eboy, the Latin elephus, to which he prefixes that compels us to read, "going to 'fo.rshish," the Hebrew article ,1. The Targuru J onatho.n cerLifies the correct mee.ning. The word shows at once ~~E?~llt• Gesenius, in his  110 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [oR. ix. 1-3L