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DIVINITY SCHOOL
TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY

GIFT OF

Prof. George Dahl

THE SHIP "TYRE"

A STUDY IN THE COMMERCE OF THE BIBLE

THE SHIP "TYRE"

A SYMBOL OF THE FATE OF CONQUERORS
AS PROPHESIED BY ISAIAH, EZEKIEL AND JOHN
AND FULFILLED AT NINEVEH, BABYLON AND ROME

A STUDY IN THE COMMERCE OF THE BIBLE

BT
WILFRED H. SCHOFF
Sterttmry of the Commercial Museum, Philadelphia

LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.
FOURTH AVENUE & 30th STREET, NEW YORK
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS
1920

COPYRIGHT 1920
BY
THE COMMERCIAL MUSEUM
PHILADELPHIA

The design on the title-page is from the relief of a Phoenician
ship built at the head of the Persian Gulf for the campaign of
Sennacherib against Elam; excavated by Layard upon the site
of Nineveh.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION  9
THE TABERNACLE  IO
DIVISION OF SPOIL  15
THE TEMPLE AND PALACE  17
OPHIR VOYAGES .  21
PROFANATION AND PILLAGE  39
CAPTIVITY  47
THE SHIP "TYRE"  6 1
THE PRINCE OF TYRE  66
THE KING OF TYRE  68
NOTES TO THE ALLEGORY  71
THE SECOND TEMPLE  94
THE GREAT CITY " BABYLON "  96
THE HOLY CITY  104
THE POMP AND THE TRAPPINGS  IIO
PRECIOUS STONES  Ill
THE SPECIFICATIONS COMPARED  131
DATE OF THE TRADITION  I35
APPENDIX ...  146
ABBREVIATIONS USED  I48
INDEX  149

FOREWORD
The dooms of the ship "Tyre" and of the "king of
Tyre" are pronounced in the twenty-seventh and twenty-
eighth chapters of the book of the prophet Ezekiel.
The cargo of the ship consists of the materials of the
temple and palace at Jerusalem, carried to Babylon, with
a people captive and their ruler blinded, by the soldiers of
king Nebuchadrezzar; the ship herself is a symbol of
Babylon, as repository of the ravished treasure; and the
' ' king of Tyre ' ' is given boundaries that mark him as none
other than the ruthless ruler of Babylon.
By such devices did the prophet of the captivity give heart
to his people, where plain speech must have been disastrous :
Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought, . . .
For a bird of the air shall carry the voice.
Thus interpreted, these chapters become a political docu
ment intensely real in its assertion of civil right against the
oppressor, and in its promise of the fate that awaits the
conqueror, be he Sennacherib or Nebuchadrezzar, Antiochus
or Titus, Attila or Hohenzollern.
" If any man have an ear, let him hear:
He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity. ' '
It is a document to which almost every passage in the Bible,
wherein materials of commerce are mentioned, is directly
related. It was, no doubt, this device of expressing defiance
of unrighteous political power by a Code of Substituted Names
which led also to the elaborate numerical code that is apparent

in the later Jewish and early Christian writings; whereof a
typical instance is the ' ' number of the beast ' ' which signifies
the Emperor Nero in the Apocalypse.
Ship and cargo, king and boundaries were discussed by me
before the American Oriental Society at its meeting of 1919,
and are set forth, with some amplification and the necessary
evidence, in the present volume.
My gratitude for helpful suggestions is expressed to
Dr. James Alan Montgomery, Professor in the University of
Pennsylvania, and to Dr. George William Gilmore, Editor
of the Homiletic Review, New York.

WILFRED H. SCHOFF.

The Commercial Museum
Philadelphia
January 1, 1920

Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.

(From Cargoes; Collected Poems by John Masefield
The Macmillan Co., publishers)

THE SHIP "TYRE"
The position of Palestine at the meeting-
point of two ancient trade-routes, that between
the Nile and the Euphrates, and that between
the Red Sea and the Mediterranean coasts,
enabled its inhabitants always to be familiar
with the facts of international trade, and under
favorable conditions to share in its benefits.
But as the cities of Palestine, were located inland
and its rulers never, except for brief periods,
dominated the shores of the Mediterranean or of
the Red Sea, it was only through commercial
alliances with neighboring peoples that their
commercial strength could be developed. Broken
alliances or internal division meant cessation of
trade and aggression from more powerful neigh
bors. In the records of Palestine we do not
find, therefore, any consecutive series of com
mercial documents, such as those of Egypt and
Babylonia, but only an occasional picture.
It is evident also that some of the most
detailed of these records that appear in the
Old Testament and are summarized in the New,
are strictly speaking, not records of trade at all,
but symbolic geographical pictures of tabernacle,
' temple, and palace, of the institutions of priest
hood and princedom; the symbolism being due
in part to the avoidance of direct mention of
sacred things, and in part to the danger of pre
dicting harm that is to befall a triumphant and
vindictive enemy. These passages form a tradi
tion. They must be considered, not separately,
but together.

10 THE SHIP "TYRE'

The basis of the tradition is found in the
specifications for the tabernacle, "written by
Moses as the words of the Lord",1 according
to which Moses took of the children of Israel
as an offering to the Lord the following items:2
Gold, silver and brass
Blue, purple and scarlet, and fine linen
Goats' hair, rams' skins dyed red, and sealskins
Acacia-wood Oil for the light
Spices for the anointing oil, and for the sweet
incense Shoham stones, and stones to be set, for the
ephod and for the breastplate.
Of these substances the tabernacle and its
equipment were made; and as the specifica
tions were written in the Law, and were gen
erally familiar, it may be assumed that mention
of them implied a suggestion of the tabernacle
itself, and of all that it represented.
The ark was made of acacia-wood and gold,3
with ark-cover and two cherubim of gold.
The table, of acacia-wood and gold. Its
dishes, pans, jars and bowls were of gold. On
the table, the showbread, twelve loaves.4

» Ex. XXIV, 4 « Ex. XXV, 10-16
« Ex. XXV, 3-7 * Ex. XXV, 23-30

 THE TABERNACLE  11
The candlestick, the seven lamps, their tongs
and snuffdishes, were of gold.6
The curtains of the tabernacle were of fine
twined linen, blue, purple and scarlet, and their
clasps of gold.6
The tent over the tabernacle was of goats'
hair, with clasps of brass.7
The covering for the tent was of rams' skins
dyed red, with an outer covering of sealskins.8
The boards for the tabernacle were of acacia-
wood. They were overlaid with gold, and they
had sockets of silver.9
The veil was of blue, purple and scarlet, and
fine twined linen. It was hung on pillars of
acacia, with hooks of gold, and sockets of silver.10
The screen for the door was of blue, purple and
scarlet, and fine twined linen. It was hung on
pillars of acacia, with hooks of gold, and sockets
of brass.11
The altar was of acacia, overlaid with brass.
Its pots, shovels, basins, flesh-hooks and fire
pans, its grating with rings, were of brass.12
K Ex. XXV, 31-40 « Ex. XXVI, 1-6 ' Ex. XXVI, 7-11 : —
Rabbinical interpretation, "badger skins", as to which the
Talmud gives the following rather unconvincing explanation:
The badger, as it existed in the days of Moses, was an animal of
unique type, and the learned are not agreed whether it was a wild
one or a domestic. It had only one horn on its forehead; and was
assigned for the time to Moses, who made a covering of its skin for
the tabernacle; after which it became extinct, having served the
purpose of its existence. Rabbi Yehudah says, The ox, also, which
the first man, Adam, sacrificed had but one horn on its forehead.
(Shabbath, 28, 2)
8 Ex. XXVI, 14 10Ex. XXVI, 31-33 12Ex. XXVII, 1-8 ;
» Ex. XXVI, 15-30 "Ex. XXVI, 36-37 anachronistic?

12  THE SHIP "TYRE" 
The hangings for the court of the tabernacle
were of fine twined linen; they were hung on
pillars of acacia, with hooks of silver, and sockets
of brass.13
The screen for the gate of the court was of
blue, purple and scarlet, and fine twined linen,
hung on pillars of acacia, with hooks of silver,
and sockets of brass.14
A lamp was to burn continually in the tent of
meeting, for which was to be brought "pure
olive oil beaten for the light."15
The garments* for the priest were breastplate,
ephod, robe, tunic, mitre and girdle.16
The ephod was of gold, of blue, purple and
scarlet, and fine twined linen. It was fastened by
shoulder-pieces in which were set two shoham
stones, engraved with the names of the twelve
tribes of Israel, six on each stone. 17
The breastplate was of gold, of blue, purple
and scarlet, and fine twined linen. It was set
with four rows of stones, three stones- in each
row, each stone being engraved with the name of
one of the tribes of Israel. Behind18 the breast
plate were put the Urim and Thummim.19
The robe of the ephod was all of blue. On
the skirts were pomegranates of blue, purple and
scarlet, and bells of gold.20
The tunic was woven of fine linen, in chequer
work.21"Ex. XXVII, 9-10 "Rather than "with- 2°Ex. XXVIII, 31-35
"Ex. XXVII, 16-17 in," as AV, etc. "Ex. XXVIII, 39
"Ex. XXVII, 20-21 Cf. Carus, The Oracle
"Ex. XXVIII, 4-5 of Yahveh, p. 20.)
"Ex. XXVIII, 6-12 "Ex. XXVIII, 15-30

THE TABERNACLE 13

The mitre was of fine linen, and upon it, on a
lacing of blue, was a plate of gold, on which was
engraved: "Holy to the Lord."22
The girdle was woven in colors.23
At the consecration of the priests there were
offerings of bullock and rams, with unleavened
bread, cakes unleavened mingled with oil, and
wafers unleavened spread with oil. These were
made of fine wheaten flour.24
Upon the altar were offered two lambs day by
day, for a burnt-offering. With them were fine
flour mingled with oil for a meal-offering, and
wine for a drink-offering.26
There was an altar to burn incense upon, of
acacia-wood and gold.26
Between the tent of meeting and the altar
was a laver of brass.27
The holy anointing oil was compounded of
"the chief spices", flowing myrrh, sweet cinna
mon, sweet calamus, cassia; and olive oil.28
The incense was compounded of spices — storax,
onycha, galbanum; with pure frankincense.29
Such were the materials used for the con
struction of the tabernacle, and for its adorn
ment, service, and ritual.30 While they entered
into the commerce of the period many other
things entered also into that commerce; and a
list of these materials suggests, not commerce in
itself, but the tabernacle and the institution of
priesthood.22Ex. XXVIII, 36-39 26Ex. XXX, 1-3 *>Ex. XXX, 34-35 :—
28Ex. XXVIII, 39 27Ex. XXX, 17-21 Magil's text
MEx.XXIX, 1-2, 10-27 anachronistic? 3°Ex.XXXV-XXXVIII,
25Ex. XXIX, 38-42 ^Ex. XXX, 23-25 also Num. II, IV.

14 THE SHIP "TYRE"

II

While the tribes of Israel were wandering in
the wilderness, they gained a victory over the
Midianites, and the command was laid upon
Moses that the spoil might be retained if puri
fied. This was done by passing through the
fire, and then sprinkling with water, the gold,
silver, brass, iron, tin, and lead. Whatever
could not endure the fire was passed through
water: garments, and things of skin, goats'
hair, and wood. A definite proportion was then
fixed, of the shares of the spoil to be set aside, to
the warriors; to the rest of the people; as the
Lord's tribute; and for the Levites.1
The spoil included persons (young maidens
only), beeves, asses, and sheep.2
The officers who had taken booty brought, as
an offering to make atonement, jewels of gold,
armlets, bracelets, signet-rings, ear-rings, and
girdles.3 To the priests and the Levites were reserved
tithes of the oil, and the wine, and the wheat,
and the firstfruit^ of cow, sheep, and goat, "and
of whatsoever is first ripe." This was their
reward for service in the tabernacle.4

i Num. XXXI, 21-24 'Num. XVIII, 11-13,
2 Num. XXXI, 28-47 31; Deut. XIV,
s Num. XXXI, 48-54 22-29

 DIVISION OF SPOIL  15
Failure to yield up spoil or tithe due to the
priesthood was a sin against the Lord.6 Among
the spoil of another battle was a "goodly Shinar
mantle", which one Achan coveted, and hid in
the earth under his tent, together with one
hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of' gold of
fifty shekels weight. The anger of the Lord
being kindled, Joshua succeeded in obtaining a
confession, and recovered the spoil. Thereupon
the guilty man, his sons and daughters, oxen
and asses, sheep, tent and all that he had, were
stoned and burned, and the Lord thereby turned
from the fierceness of his anger.6
This tribal division was not observed by the
Israelites only. In the Song of Deborah we
are told how an enemy had expected to deal with
them:
'Are they not finding, are they not dividing the spoil?
A damsel, two damsels to every man;
To Sisera a spoil of dyed garments,
A spoil of dyed garments of embroidery,
Two dyed garments of broidery for the neck of every spoiler.'7
Use of the spoil in irregular ceremonial
was held a sin. Gideon, after his victory over
the Midianite kings, Zebah and Zalmunna,
refused to rule over Israel — "the Lord shall rule
5Cf. the tribute of Ramses III to Amon-Re, (Breasted, Ancient
Records, IV, 126):
"The king himself, presenting the tribute to Amon from the
great chiefs of every country, being: silver, gold, lapis lazuli, mala
chite, all (kinds of) costly stones without limit, from the booty which
his majesty carried off, from that which his valiant sword captured;
placed before (his) august father, Amon-Re, lord of Thebes, accord
ing as he gave to (him) all valor."
6 Josh. VII, 10-26 7 Judg. V, 28-30

16  THE SHIP "TYRE" 
over you" — but requested as spoil the ear-rings
taken. He received in golden ear-rings seven
teen hundred shekels, "beside the crescents,
pendants and purple raiment, and the chains
about the camels' necks." But he made an
ephod thereof, and put it in his city, "which
thing became a snare unto Gideon, and to his
house."8 Through this division of the spoil all Israel
profited by a victory:
Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul,
Who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights,
Who put ornaments of gold upon your apparel.
How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle!9
And the list of the things to be purified and
divided became traditional: "as they gather
silver and brass and iron and lead and tin into
the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon
it, to melt it; so will I gather you in Mine anger
and in My fury, and I will cast you in, and melt
you."10 A list of these materials suggests, not spoil in
itself, but the relation of the people to the priest
hood, and the favor of the Lord thereby promised
them.

« Judg. VIII, 22-27 s 2 Sam. I, 24 uEzek. XXII, 20

THE TEMPLE AND PALACE 17

III
When the Israelites had established a united
kingdom, thus entering into political and com
mercial relations with their larger and wealthier
neighbors, they found their tabernacle unsuited
to the new prosperity. David assembled the
princes and the captains, the rulers and the
mighty men, and said to them that it had been
in his heart to build a house of rest for the ark
of the covenant, but that as a man of war who
had shed blood, God had forbidden him to do so,
and had chosen Solomon his son "to sit upon the
throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel."
Then David gave to Solomon ("in writing, as
the Lord hath made me wise by His hand upon
me") the patterns of everything for the temple;
vessels of gold, vessels of silver, candlesticks and
lamps of gold and silver, golden tables pf show-
bread, tables of silver; flesh-hooks, basins, jars,
and bowls of gold; bowls of silver; golden altar
of incense; golden chariot, the cherubim that
spread out their wings and covered the ark.
David called upon the people willingly to con
secrate themselves to the work, and himself gave
the things which he had prepared.1
David's gifts included gold, silver, brass,_ iron
and wood ; shoham stones ; stones to be set, glister
ing and of divers colors; all manner of precious
stones; marble stones in abundance. He gave
also his personal treasure; gold of Ophir three
' 1 Chron. XXVIII, 1-3, 9-19: XXIX, 1-2

18 THE SHIP "TYRE"
thousand talents, and refined silver seven thou
sand talents.2
Solomon, after he had succeeded to the throne,
sent to Hiram king of Tyre, who was "ever a
lover of David", saying that David could not
build the house "for the wars which were about
him on every side", but that the Lord had now
given him rest on every side, and he purposed to
build the house.3
The resources of Israel being inadequate to
the plan of the building, Solomon .arranged for
the supply of labor and materials from Phoenicia.
For the workmen he gave large allowances of
wheat and barley, wine and oil. From Hiram
he received cedar and cypress from Lebanon,
rafted down by sea; and "great stones, costly
stones, to lay the foundation of the house with
hewn stone."4
The floors were of cypress. The walls were of
cedar, richly carved. The altar was of cedar,
overlaid with gold. The cherubim were of
olive-wood, overlaid with gold. The wall-carv
ings were of cherubim, palm-trees and flowers.
The doors of the sanctuary were of olive-wood,
overlaid with gold. At the entrance of the
temple were door-posts and frame of olive-wood,
with folding doors of cypress. The inner court
was built with hewn stone and cedar beams.
All the foundations were of costly stones, "even
great stones, stones of ten cubits." Above were
costly stones, "after the measure of hewn
2 1 Chron. XXIX, 3-4 3 1 Kings V, 16-19
4 1 Kings V, 21-31; 2 Chron. II, 2-15: the chronicler has evidently
exaggerated the gold.

THE TEMPLE AND PALACE 19

stones," and cedar-wood. The veil was of blue,
purple and crimson, and fine linen. Before the
entrance were two great brazen pillars. The
altar was of brass, also the molten sea, standing
upon twelve figures of oxen; and the smaller
lavers. The pots, shovels, basins and bowls
were of bright brass, cast in Jordan clay. Candle
sticks and lamps, altar of incense, tables for
showbread, tongs, snuffers and pans, were of
gold. The whole house was overlaid with gold,
and "garnished with precious stones for beauty."5
For the service and ritual of the temple, no
less than its adornment, there were required on
an unprecedented scale materials not produced
in Palestine or Syria; gold, incense, spices and
precious stones, and fine fabrics.6
The royal palace was built magnificently, like
the temple. There was a great throne of ivory,
overlaid with gold. Two lions stood beside the
arms. It had six steps, with twelve lions, six on
either side. The drinking-vessels, and all the
other vessels, were of gold ; nothing was of silver,
"it was nothing accounted of." All the other
kings came bearing gifts, vessels of silver and of
gold, raiment, armor, spices, horses and mules,
a rate year by year.7
6 1 Kings VI, 14-36; 2 Chron. Ill, 3-16, IV, 1-22
6 1 Kings X, 18-20, 23-25; 2 Chron. IX, 17-20, 23-24
7 Cf. Inscription of Ramses III in the Medinet Habu temple,
(Breasted, Ancient Records, IV, 190)
"I filled its treasury with the products of the lands of Egypt:
gold, silver, every costly stone by the hundred-thousand. Its
granary was overflowing with barley and wheat; (its) lands, its herds,
their multitudes were like the sand of the shore. I taxed for it the
Southland as well as the Northland. Nubia and Zahi (came) to it,

20 THE SHIP "TYRE"
The royal army was enlarged by the addition
of chariots and cavalry. Solomon had one
thousand four hundred chariots, and twelve
thousand horsemen, bestowed in the chariot
cities and in Jerusalem. Horses were bought in
Egypt and of the men of Keveh, at one hundred
and fifty shekels of silver each. Chariots were
bought in Egypt at six hundred shekels of silver
each. They were received also as gifts from
neighboring kings.8
These lists of the royal equipment became
traditional, and mention of their principal
items suggests, not palace or army in themselves,
but the institution of royalty, the "throne of the
kingdom of the Lord over Israel."

bearing their impost. It was filled with captives, which thou gavest
to me among the Nine Bows, (and with) classes which I trained by
the ten-thousand. I fashioned thy great statue resting in its midst;
"Amon-Endowed-with-Eternity" was its august name; it was
adorned with real costly stone like the horizon. When it appeared,
there was rejoicing to see it. I made for it table-vessels, of fine gold;
others of silver and copper, without number. I multiplied the
divine offerings presented before thee, of bread, wine, beer, and fat
geese; numerous oxen, bullocks, calves, cows, white oryxes, and
gazelles offered in his slaughter yard."
8 1 Kings X, 26-29; 2 Chron. IX, 25-28

OPHIR VOYAGES 21

IV
To the maintenance of the temple and its
services, of the palace and the army, foreign
trade was essential. The things needed were
bought by the king's merchants at a price; they
came as gifts or tribute from other kings; in
larger measure they were brought by the queen
of Sheba; but for an assured supply an organized
traffic was necessary. The problem was solved
by the Ophir voyages. In their day these
voyages played a part similar to that of the
Portuguese voyages to India; but it is unlikely
that their destination lay outside Arabia or the
Horn of Africa, notwithstanding some of the
cargo may have come from more distant lands.
The economic conditions that led to this enter
prise may be sought in Arabia itself.
Gold, spices, incense and precious stones were
chiefly in demand. Gold was produced in
abundance in the mountains and valleys of
central Arabia. Gems came from the same
mountains, and from far-away Media, Badak-
shan, Malabar and Ceylon. Spices were pro
duced on the slopes of the mountains of south
ern Arabia, in Somaliland and Socotra, Malabar
and Ceylon. It is unnecessary here to deter
mine whether Solomon's kingdom drew upon
lands beyond Arabia for its supplies. Whatever
their sources, they were transported over the
Arabian caravan-routes, and monopolistic prac
tice by the tribes of Arabia was the cause of con-

22 THE SHIP "TYRE" 
stant friction and of frequent warfare, wherein
Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Assyria and Babylonia
were all at various times involved.
A photographic glimpse is preserved to us of a
"caravan of Ishmaelites coming down from
Gilead with their camels bearing spicery, balm
and ladanum", to whom Joseph was sold to be
carried as a slave to Egypt.1 Another stage on
the route was the "land of Havilah, where there
is gold; and the gold of that land is good; there
is bdolakh and the shoham stone."2 David gave
gold of Ophir,3 and the ships of Solomon and
Hiram went to Ophir for gold;4 but the gold
they brought back was gold of Parvaim,5 which
is Sak el Farwain, near the Wadi er Rumma and
west of Rass in central Arabia.6 Ophir appears
as a son of Joktan,7 .obviously a coast-land. It
was Glaser's conclusion that Ophir was the coast
of the Persian Gulf, especially the central por
tion where the caravan-route terminated, and
that the gold came from the central mountains.
He gives out of Hamdani's Jezirat a list of ten
gold-fields, all important, and all within reach
of the north-south and the east-west caravan-

1 Gen. XXXVII, 25-28 a 1 Chron. XXIX, 4 6 2 Chron. Ill, 6
2 Gen. II, 11-12 * 2 Chron. VIII, 17-18
6 Glaser, Skizze, 347-350 7 Gen. X, 29
The Talmud notes the following kinds of gold: Rav
Chisda said there are seven kinds of gold: gold, good gold, the
gold of Ophir, purified gold, beaten gold, shut-up gold, and gold of
Parvaim. (Yoma, 44,2) "Shut-up-gold", I Kings VI, 21, was
the rarest, so that when it appeared in market, all shops shut up,
for there could be no sale of other gold before that.

 OPHIR VOYAGES  23
routes. Shoham, and other gems specified for the
priests' adornment, came from the same moun
tains. Pearl, for bdolakh, seems preferable to
the bdellium of the English versions. The mean
ing of the Hebrew word is "precious"; in a
similar passage in Ezekiel a word meaning
"costly" is rendered as coral where the same
substance is implied, and in a parallel passage
in the Apocalypse it appears as pearl.8
There are indications that the South Arabian
combination known as Sheba was on unfriendly
terms with the tribes of the central west, the
Medina region, who had long controlled access
to the mineral wealth of the Yemama ; that they
had established rival outposts in that region;
and that they were endeavoring to develop a
trade independently of the Ishmaelites. Such
trade might go eastward to the gulf of El Katan,
northeastward to the mouth of the Euphrates,
or southwestward to Sheba. To reach Egypt
or Palestine from either Sheba or Havilah it
must go by sea, and timber for shipbuilding was
scarce in Arabia. But ships carried more cargo,
and at less cost, than camel caravans; and they
avoided the exactions of intermediate peoples.
Hence the Egyptian Punt expeditions, the
Phoenician voyaging along the Arabian coasts,
the piratical policy of the Mecca coast-land,9
and the various enmities that culminated in

1 Bdellium is Balsamodendron mukul; myrrh is Balsamodendron
myrrha. Bdellium is inferior to myrrh.
» Cf. Periplus, 20: Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, II, 287:
"incense was brought from one to another, as a return for
many payments."

24 THE SHIP "TYRE"

Trajan's conquest and destruction of the Naba-
taeans, "robber barons" in their day; and in
the forced migration of the Abyssinians from
their home in the South Arabian incense-land to
the table-land of Africa. It is of interest that
the rulers of Abyssinia still claim descent from
the queen of Sheba who visited Solomon.
There is no need to seek for Ophir beyond
Arabia, and we may safely ignore as fanciful, its
identifications with Sofala in Rhodesia, with
Sovira in India, or, as Josephus would have it,
with "the land that of old was called Ophir, but
now the Golden Chersonese."10
The queen of Sheba brought to Solomon "a
hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of
spices very great store, and precious stones;
there came no more such abundance of spices as
these which the queen of Sheba gave to king
Solomon."11 Here we have, clearly, products of
both central and southern Arabia, and indication
of South Arabian power at that time, desirous of
direct relations with peoples dwelling beyond
the rival power in West Arabia.
The accounts of the Ophir voyages are not
entirely consistent, and the text has, perhaps,
gathered in some later, and mistaken, com
mentary. But there is no reason to doubt that
the voyages were made. Egyptian ships went
to the "land of Punt" in the reign of Sahure,
(28th century B. C.) and brought back myrrh.
10 Antiq. Jud. VIII, 2. Glaser (Skizze, 378) suggests affinity be
tween "1B1N and fljrcipos, coast.
u 1 Kings X, 1-13: 2 Chron. IX, 19.

 OPHIR VOYAGES  25
The great expedition of Queen Hatshepsut (15th
century B. C.) brought back "fragrant woods,
myrrh resin, fresh myrrh trees, ebony, ivory,
green gold, cinnamon wood, khesyt wood, ihmut
incense, sonter incense, eye cosmetic, apes,
monkeys, dogs, panther skins, natives and their
children." Incense-trees were planted in the
court of the temple (Karnak), "heaven and earth
were flooded with incense; odors are in the great
house; the heart of Amon was made glad."
In the reign of Ramses III (12th century B. C.)
Amon opened "the ways of Punt; the Sand-
dwellers came bowing down to thy name"; and
that Pharaoh endowed Amon with "gold, silver,
lapis lazuli, malachite, precious stones, copper,
garments of royal linen, jars, fowl, myrrh, white
incense, cinnamon, and incense" (stored, of
necessity, in a special Incense House).12
12 Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, I, 161; II, 246-295; IV, 407.
The fresh trees from Punt, which Breasted renders as myrrh,
appear in the inscriptions at Deir-el-Bahri, and clearly enough, in
the writer's judgment, to be recognized as frankincense trees. In
this opinion he is supported by Dr. B. L. Robinson of the Gray
Herbarium at Harvard. Myrrh, with its rudimentary clover-
shaped leaves, they certainly were not.
Dr. Breasted informs me, however, that the translation rests
chiefly on Greek sources and may be incorrect, and that the
Egyptian word may be no more than a current commercial term
for a group of fragrant gums or resins. The Egyptian word is
nlyu>. Whether the substance translated "cinnamon wood" was the
true cinnamon may be doubted. Dr. Breasted informs me that
the word designates nothing more than a wood or bark of fragrance
or agreeable taste. The Egyptian word is tyspsy which is from the
root spsy meaning to sweeten.

26 THE SHIP "TYRE" 
Solomon and Hiram were associated in the
Ophir voyages. According to the account on
Kings, King Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-Geber, which is
beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.
And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had
knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And they
came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred
and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.13
The account in Chronicles varies only as to the
size of the cargo, which it states as four hundred
and fifty talents. So far there is no occasion for
inquiry. The second section of the story is to the effect
that The navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought
in from Ophir great plenty of almug trees, and precious stones.
And the king made of the almug trees pillars for the house of the
Lord, and for the king's house, harps also and psalteries for the
singers; there came no such almug trees, nor were seen unto this
day.14
The account in Chronicles calls them "algum
trees", and says that they were used for "paths",
not pillars; referring to the inclined ramps by
which the temple was approached.16 But the
LXX knows neither almug nor algum; in Kings
» 1 Kings IX, 26-28: 2 Chron. VIII, 17-18
" 1 Kings X, 11-12: 2 Chron. IX, 10-11. Glaser (Skizze 358-366)
identifies the algum with ushu of the Assyrian inscriptions from
which was made the balm that the Chinese knew as su-ho; but this
was styrax or liquidambar, and grew in Palestine, so that there
would have been no occasion to ship it from the Persian Gulf.
K Almug trees, D'JD^N
Algum trees, tPDl^S
Pillars, iToo-TJiplyiMara ^DD Gesenius gives "support, balustrade"
from "JJ/O . Paths, &vaf3A.o-as pl^DO > Gesenius "stairs" (better,
ramps) from D^D-

OPHIR VOYAGES 27
it says merely "squared timbers",16 and in
Chronicles "pine timbers";17 and elsewhere in
Chronicles algum, cedar and cypress are said to
have been rafted down from Lebanon.18 The
word is of foreign origin, probably Tamil; but it
seems to have crept into the text at a later date,
when the Indian wood had become familiar, and
when its name had been applied to similar
domestic woods. Mookerji suggests the aghil
of Malabar19 (Chickrassia tabularis, Chittagong
wood, or white cedar), a fine wood for furniture,
yielding a transparent gum, and astringent bark,
and flowers from which red and yellow dyes are
made. But there is no evidence of its exporta
tion from India until recent times. It is more
probable that the name was derived from the
wood known in Pali as laghu, Sanskrit agaru,20 v
(Aquilaria agallocha) the aloe (Hebr. ahalim) of
Prov. VII, 17, which in Numbers XXIV, 6, is
associated with cedar.21 The wood of this tree
is of less value than the gum, which was used
medicinally and as a perfume, and is still used
. largely in China for incense and joss-sticks.
The wood to which this passage refers may have
been the sanders or red sandal-wood of South
16 £6Xa treXeiarra: Vulg. ligna thyina: 1 Kings X, 11.
17 {6Xo ireiWa: Vulg. ligna thyina: 2 Chron. IX, 10-11.
18 £6Xa KkSpiva Kal Aputbdiva Kal weliKiva: Vulg. ligna cedrina et arceu-
tina et pinea: 2 Chron. II, 7. Cedar, fir and algum, D'H")
DWD » DiDlJ^N • " Hist, of Indian Shipping, 93.
20 Absent from the LXX: Vulg. aloe. Some such form as lagu-im
might readily become algum.
21 LXX, o-Knval, KtSpoi : Vulg. Tabernacula, cedri.
Aloe, D^nN (Prov. VII, 17) LXX, uwapjjpui.
Lign aloes, cedar, D^ittO > Dn*tttt Num- XXIV, 6.

28 THE SHIP "TYRE'

India (Pterocarpus santalinus), used for dyeing
leather and staining wood, and in India for mark
ing idols and staining the forehead in caste-
markings. The wood is used for house-posts,
plough-poles and implements, and for carved
work, idols, boxes and picture-frames.22 The
JR renders it as "sandal-wood." The true
sandal-wood (Santalum album, Sanskrit chan-
dana) it could not have been; that is a scrub ever
green of South India, too small and too soft
for pillars, walks or musical instruments. In
David's time, we are informed, the musical in
struments wherewith Israel played before the
Lord were made of cypress.23
Indian timber came to the ports of the Persian
Gulf during the Neo-Babylonian period. Nebu
chadrezzar's palace at Birs Nimrud, built be
tween 604 and 562 B. C, had beams of Indian
cedar, one of which is in the British Museum.
The temple of the Moon-god at Mugheir, re
built by Nabonidus between 555 and 538 B. C,
had wood reported as teak, but more probably
Indian cedar. Later, about 80 A. D., the
Periplus tells of imports at Ommana, Obollah
and Charax Spasini of Indian sandal-wood,
timbers of teak and logs of rose-wood and
ebony.24 But for the date of Solomon there is no
confirmation of such trade. Indian literature
is definite as to sea-trade in the Buddhist period.
The Digha Nikaya25 mentions voyages out of
22 Watt, Commercial Products of India, 72-73, 294, 909, 976-977
2S2 Sam. VI, 5. "Periplus, 36.
«1, 222: Rhys Davids, JRAS 1899, p. 432.

 OPHIR VOYAGES 29
sight of land; but it would be unsafe to assume
from its testimony the use of shore-sighting
birds earlier than the 6th or 7th century B. C.
This mention of Indian timber is probably a
post-exilic gloss, possibly dating later than the
LXX, 250 B. C, and added to the confused ac
count of two separate shipments; cedar, cypress
and marble from Lebanon, and incense trees from
the land of Punt.
The third section of the story tells us that26
The king had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram;
once every three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold,
and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.
In Chronicles it is said that "the king had
ships that went to Tarshish." The LXX in
Kings says "hewn stones, and timbers",27 and
in Chronicles "teeth of ivory, and monkeys."28
In neither case does it mention peacocks.
Whether or not the account in Chronicles is
inconsistent with that in Kings depends upon
the original meaning of the words "Ophir" and
"Tarshish." If at the time the texts were
written these words had definite geographical
meanings like those now assigned to them, there
The cedar found at Mugheir could have come from Lebanon,
floated down the Euphrates.
2« 1 Kings X, 22; 2 Chron. IX, 21.
27 \dlwp ropivrav Kal •jreXemjTcac: Vulg. dentes elephantorum, et
simias, et pavos.
28 bbbvToiv cKetpavrlvuv Kal iri8iiKa>v: Vulg. ebur, et simias, et pavos.
Navy of Tarshish, yous Gapo-ls IK. X, 22 tjntjnn ni'JK
Ivory, apes, peacocks, D'Oni D'Bpl nuiUB' IK. X, 22. For
the king's ships went to Tarshish; i»oSs Tcji /JacnXel bropdiero tis
eaP<reis B"Knn ni^n tfa'? m^K-ia 2 Chr. ix, 21.
Ivory, apes, and peacocks, a"3ini D'eipl D'2nj!2> 2 Chr. IX; 21.

30 THE SHIP "TYRE"
would be a manifest inconsistency; for a ship
bound westward to a Tarshish in southern Spain
could not well include in the same voyage an
Ophir in southern or eastern Arabia. But if
Tarshish means no more than "subject peoples",
and Ophir a "coastland", and if the appearance
of Ophir in the tribal genealogy of Genesis is due
to the attempt of some interpreter of later
date to give the name a definite application
which it did not rightly possess, there would be
no reason why either word should not apply to a
distant voyage in any direction; to "colonial
ports" such as Tartessus, or to "foreign coasts"
such as those of the Red Sea or the Persian
Gulf.29 There is a similar appearance of Tarshish in
Isaiah (LXVI, 19) in a combination of peoples,
probably Central Arabian: Tarshish, Pul and
Lud, where Jeremiah (XLVI, 9) has Cush, Put
and Ludim, and Ezekiel (XXX, 5) Ethiopia,
Put and Lud and (XXVII, 10) Persians, Lud
and Put. Cush, and its equivalent Ethiopia,
represent non-Semitic elements in Arabia,
whereof the Persians became increasingly numer
ous toward, and after, their overthrow of Neo-
Babylonia.30
29 Tarshish: [JM^lfi from tj'BH "t0 break down" might mean no more
than "subject peoples"; that is, any colony or foreign land; and its
similarity in sound to Tarsus or Tartessus would readily extend it
to cover them specifically, while it would have applied more cor
rectly to certain parts of Arabia. B"B>in 'JN the "ship of
Tarshish", would be a ship bound for foreign or distant shores.
This rendering would be unaffected by the fact that
Tartessus in southern Spain is the Greek equivalent of the
Aramaic form of Tarshish; for it explains the name as mean-

 OPHIR VOYAGES  31
Silver was no Indian product. It was mined
sparingly in the Yemama, whence the Ophir ships
could have brought it back to Solomon. But
Solomon was not seeking silver; and the Periplus
mentions silver plate and coin among the im
ports at several Arabian, African and Indian
ports.31 Silver came also, and in larger quantity,
from Tartessus, and may have been interpolated
here because of the mention of Tarshish.
Ivory appears in the Hebrew text in a doubt
ful hybrid word, not elsewhere found, and readily
divisible into two words meaning "ivory and
ebony." Both were African products and appear
constantly in the records of Egyptian voyages.
We may assume that both were in the cargo of
Solomon's similar ventures, and restore ebony to
the place it originally held in the text.32
Apes and peacocks are native in South India,
and the text seems to use Indian words; for
apes, qoph, suggesting Sanskrit kapi;33 and for
peacocks, thukki, suggesting tokei, the poetical
Tamil-Malayalam name, "bird with the splendid
ing dependency" or colony" of Tyre, just as the Roman
Colonia Agrippina became known as Colonia merely, or Cologne.
Any other dependency could be referred to by the same word.
30 Periplus, 33. Hamdani mentions a Persian mining community at
El Ausaja in central Arabia, with thousands of "Magi" and two
fire-temples. (Glaser, Skizze, 348).
31 Periplus, 6, 8, 10, 24, 28, 49, 56.
32 The Hebrew form is suspect: D'SPUt? would be an im
probable hybrid with some Indian word such as ibha; but it
divides so readily into D'JDm IC which is exactly the form that
appears in Ezekiel, that ebony, which was associated with ivory
in the returns of the Egyptian Punt expeditions, may be given
a like place in the similar ventures of Solomon.

32 THE SHIP "TYRE"
tail."34 But monkeys are native in Africa, and
appear in the return cargoes of several of the
Egyptian Punt expeditions, distinguished as
anau and kop, making it unnecessary to go to
India for the Hebrew word; the LXX uses the
ordinary word for monkey, and omits the pea
fowl altogether.35 The Baveru Jataka tells of
Indian merchants who shipped peacocks to
Babylon; it dates from about 400 B. C, and its
facts are a century or two earlier.36 The Sup-
paraka Jataka records the perils undergone at
sea for four months by a company of seven
hundred merchants who sailed from the port of
Bharukaccha ("marsh of Bharu",37 on the
Narbada river, the Barygaza of the Periplus).38
But this Buddhistic evidence would support a
post-exilic text only. Aristophanes mentions
peacocks, and his word is derived from the
Persian.39 Like the barnyard fowl, the peacock
reached Mediterranean lands after the Persian
conquest.40 It is probable that these birds were ostriches,
and that the Tamil name influenced the inter
pretation at a much later date. Ostrich plumes
appear with gold dust in the cargo of a 19th
Dynasty Punt expedition.41 They were used in
33 Cf. Kennedy, JRAS, 1898, 248-287.
34 Mookerji, op. cit., 93.
35 Dumichen, Hist. Inschriften, ii, pi. XX
36 Jataka III, 339, Cambridge ed.
37 Jataka IV, 138-142.
38 Periplus, 42-49
39 Birds, 102, 269: raws, Persian tavus
*> Cf. Peters, The Cock, JAOS, XXXIII, pt. 4, 363-396

EGYPTIAN SHIP
from the Punt Reliefs in the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir-el-Bahari
Reproduced from Chatterton, Sailing Ships.
J. B. Lippincott Co., publishers

GREEK GALLEY
from an Athenian Vase

PHOENICIAN GALLEY
A Model Exhibited in the Commercial Museum, Philadelphia
Based on the Sennacherib relief excavated by Layard

 OPHIR VOYAGES  33
some of the royal head-dresses and as decorations
for the royal chariot horses. The ostrich plume
was also a hieroglyphic sign for "the west," from
the abundance of ostriches throughout the Libyan
desert.42 The ostrich was the "crying bird" that dwelt
in the desert;43 "I will make a wailing like the jackals,
And a mourning like the ostriches."44
"The beasts of the field shall honour Me,
The jackals and the ostriches;
Because I give waters in the wilderness,
And rivers in the desert."45
The first station of the Exodus of the Israelites,
in the desert, on the Egyptian side of the Red
Sea, was Succoth,46 which was the Egyptian
nome Thuku,47 the abode of the god Turn, also
called "lord of An," which was a name for the
region at the head of the gulf of Suez, now the
Bitter Lakes.48 Within this nome of Thuku was
the store-city of Pithom, where the Israelites
had dwelt in captivity. These plumes of the
"crying bird," whether they came from Nubia
or the Sudan,49 or from the Libyan desert,
reached the Israelites through Thuku, and could
41 Breasted, Ancient Records, III, 37
42 Griffith, A Collection of Hieroglyphs, 60-61
43 D^jn from ru*1 to make a strident cry.
This is not so unlike Q"3n , which might thus be a copyist's
error.
44 Micah I, 8 46 Isa. XLIII, 20
48 Ex. XII, 37: XIII, 20: Num. XXXIII, 5
47 Brugsch, Aeg. Zeitschr. 1875, p. 7
48 Naville, The Store City of Pithom, 7: Breasted, Ancient Records,
III, 638
n Agatharchides, 57

34  THE SHIP "TYRE" 
thus have been called thukki birds. For Thuku
was Egypt's "eastern gate" through which all
trade must pass. Later, when another "crying
bird," the peacock, had traveled through the
Persian Empire from India to Palestine, its
Tamil name tokei could have been identified
with the Thuku desert-birds of the Red Sea
trade. It seems unnecessary, therefore, to go
to India for the thukki, or to hold the text re
sponsible for this anachronistic rabbinical ren
dering, "peacocks." Instead of our modern
versions, the true meaning of this passage may
be "every third year the king's ships sailed
down the coast, returning with gold, ivory,
ebony, monkeys and ostrich plumes."
With these restorations it becomes probable
that the Ophir voyages were similar in destination
and purpose to the Punt expeditions, that their
return cargoes were practically identical, and
that they did not extend beyond the shores of
the Gulf of Aden.
The largest item in the cargoes brought back
from the Ophir voyages was gold. Central
Arabia and Nubia were the principal sources of
gold at that time. The accounts of the visit of
the Queen of Sheba give the impression of an
effort to open up a sea trade in gold which
should make both parties independent of other,
and perhaps unfriendly, peoples. Voyages to
Sabaean ports would naturally follow a visit
from the Sabaean queen. If caravan routes were
available from the gold-mines to her country,
the operating costs alone would have tended to
prevent a longer sea-journey. Such routes were

 OPHIR VOYAGES  35
available from the Yemama to Sheba, and the
Nubian caravan routes came down to the op
posite shore of the Red Sea, giving the advantage
of a considerable competing supply.
The following table of comparative distances
may be helpful:
Caravan Routes:
Center of Jebel Shammar to Basra  400 miles
" Bay of Bahrein . . 400 "
" Medina  300 "
" Sanaa  800 "
" Muza  950 "
" Jerusalem via
Taima  800 "
" Jerusalem via
Medina  650 "
Water Routes:
Ezion Geber to Muza  1250 miles
Muza to Bay of Bahrein  2350 "
Day's sail 80 to 100 miles
Day's caravan journey 30 to 40 "
Round trip, Ezion Geber to Muza  2500 miles, 31 days
Add caravan journey, Jebel Shammar to
Muza  1900 " 63 "
Total:  4400 miles, 94 days
Round trip, Ezion Geber to Bay of Bahrein 7200 miles, 90 days
Caravan iourney Jebel Shammar to Bay of
Bahrein  800 " 20 "
Total:  8000 miles, 110 days
The duration of favorable trade winds in the
Red Sea was about 60 days per season, in either
direction.50 A vessel sailing from Aden on the
easterly monsoon would meet contrary winds on
60 Periplus 56, 57

36  THE SHIP "TYRE" 
entering the Persian Gulf. From these factors
it can be deduced that a Red Sea voyage would
not have been extended, unless under some
unusual emergency, beyond the coasts of the
Gulf of Aden. While the round trip between
Ezion-Geber and Bahrein could have been made
within the three years stated in the text, we are
informed only that the voyages were made once
every three years, and not that they took the
entire three years to make. The few facts avail
able do not seem to support a different desti
nation for the Ophir voyages than for the Punt
expeditions. The sea trading between Babylon
and western India in the Chaldean period was
an independent enterprise. Because of the
periodicity of the monsoons, a voyage between
India and Egypt, or between India and the
Persian Gulf, involved less difficulty than one
between Egypt and the Euphrates. It seems
improbable that there was any circumnavigation
of Arabia prior to the expedition of Scylax of
Caryanda, which was organized by the Persian
government for purposes of exploration, and
occurred about, or soon after, 500 B. C.61
A later king also essayed the Ophir trade, but
met with disaster, whereof the combined ac
counts in Kings and Chronicles perhaps fail to
give the full details. Jehoshaphat, king of
Judah, "made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir
for gold: but they went not; for the ships were
broken at Ezion-Geber." Ahaziah, king of
Israel, proposed partnership in the venture, say-
« Herodotus IV, 44

OPHIR VOYAGES 37
ing to Jehoshaphat, "Let my servants go with
thy servants in the ships. But Jehoshaphat
would not." Thus far in Kings. In the LXX
the whole passage is lacking. But according to
Chronicles the two kings did go into partnership,
whereupon Eliezer prophesied against Jehosha
phat for being so weak as to join himself with
one so wicked as Ahaziah, observing that the
Lord had destroyed his works. At all events,
"the ships were broken and were not able to go to
Tarshish."62 Here again the apparent inconsistency in the
use of the words "Tarshish" and "Ophir" may
be due only to our literal geographical interpre
tation.63 Whether the disaster occurred upon a
quarrel between the partners, or by a storm that
wrecked the ships while under construction, or
from hostile intervention by some sheikh in the
Medina district who controlled the caravan

» 1 Kings XXII, 49-50; 2 Chron. XX, 35-37
53 That Jewish commentators did not ascribe to Tarshish a definite
location is indicated by the following passage from the Talmud:
"Tradition records that the ladder in Gen. 28, 12 was 8,000 miles
wide, for it is written, 'And behold the angels of God ascending
and descending upon it.' Angels ascending, being in the plural,
cannot be fewer than two at a time, and so likewise must those
descending, so that when they passed they were four abreast at
least. In Dan. 10, 6 it is said of the angel, 'His body was like
Tarshish', and there is a story that Tarshish extended 2,000 miles."
[Chullin, 91, 2). RV and JR say "His body was like a beryl",
but it is rather the golden stone of Tarshish, signifying a golden
glory about the angel. This in turn is curiously suggestive of the
Suvarna bhumi or "golden coast" of the Hindus and may have
been the reason for Josephus's identification of Ophir (or Tarshish)
with the Golden Chersonese.

38 THE SHIP "TYRE"
routes and therefore objected to the "freedom of
the sea", we have no means of determining.
Of Ophir voyages no more appears in the
Hebrew scriptures. Thereafter gold came to
Palestine over the caravan-routes, when it came;
but successive conquests in Arabia by Assyrians,
Chaldeans and Persians drew the output of the
Arabian mines eastward, and the Persians
possessed themselves of much of central Arabia.
They conquered Egypt as the Chaldeans con
quered Palestine and Syria, and their "royal
road" from Sardis to Susa displaced the older
Mesopotamian routes. But a remnant of the
trade survived, for Phoenicians driven by the
Persians from Chaldea settled at Gerrha, on the
shore of the Persian Gulf- at the terminus of a
Yemama caravan-route,54 and Sabaeans in Ye
men waxed rich from their control of another
Yemama route and of the sea-route from India,
which they turned to good account in their deal
ings with Ptolemaic Egypt.55
The Sheba mission brought gold, spices, and
incense, and the Ophir voyages gold, spices, in
cense, ivory, ebony and other incidentals.
These were used in the temple and the palace;
hence their prominence in the priestly tradition.
That Jewish commentators did not consider the text of Chroni
cles to be absolutely reliable is indicated in the following passage
from the Talmud:
Between Azel and Azel (I Chron. VIII, 38 and IX, 44) there
are four hundred camelloads of critical researches due to the
presence of manifold contradictions. (P'sachim 62, 2).
64 Strabo, XVI, 1, 5
M Agatharchides, de mari Erythraeo, 97-102

PROFANATION AND PILLAGE 39

V.
In the days of Israel's adversity the temple
suffered first. Both Nineveh and Babylon
looked upon Jerusalem as a vassal to be taxed
or a rebel to be plundered, according to the
event. The first onset came from Nineveh.
Pul,' a general in the Assyrian army, after over
throwing a decadent dynasty, had assumed the
royal title as Tiglath-pileser III, king of Assyria.
He had conquered Babylon in 729 B. C. and had
forced its priests to crown him there. His armies
had also fought their way to the sacred "moun
tain of the north", Demavend (Bikni, Elburz).
It is to his own account of these triumphs that
we must look for explanation of the scornful
allusions of Isaiah. The caption of his Nimrud
inscription is sufficient:1
The palace of Tiglath-pileser, the great king, the mighty king,
king of the whole world, king of Assyria, King of Sumer and
Akkad, king of the four quarters of the world; the hero, the
warrior, who under the protection of Ashur, his lord, dashed
to pieces like pots all those who were disobedient to him,
swept over them like a cyclone, and gave them to the winds;
the king who at the call of Ashur, Shamash, and Marduk,
the great gods, marched here and there and ruled over lands
from the Salt Sea of Bit-Yakin to Mount Bikni in the east,
and from the Western Sea to Egypt, and from the horizon to
the zenith, and exercised kingship over them.
Babylon revolted in 722 and crowned Merodach-
baladan legitimate king. Sennacherib, who be
gan to reign at Nineveh in 705, invaded Palestine
1 Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Literature, p. 52.

40 THE SHIP "TYRE"
in 701 and took its fortified cities. Hezekiah,
king of Judah, purchased immunity by paying
three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents
of gold, including all the silver that was in the
temple and all the treasure in the palace, while
the gold was cut from the very doors and door
posts of the temple.2 A brief lamentation of
Isaiah is preserved:3
Yea, it is doae; that fortified cities
Should be laid waste into ruinous heaps.
Therefore their inhabitants were of small power,
They were dismayed and confounded;
They were as the grass of the field,
And as the green herb,
As the grass on the housetops,
And as corn blasted before it is grown up.
The vultures were gathering; upon the report
of the sickness of Hezekiah, the king of Babylon,
Merodach-baladan, sent a letter and gifts. Heze
kiah was so imprudent as to show the messenger
all his treasure-house, "the silver, and the gold,
and the spices, and the precious oil, and the
house of his armor," and Isaiah foretold that all
these things would be carried to Babylon, and
that the king's sons would become officers in the
palace of the king of Babylon.4
Instead of sweet spices there shall be rottenness;
Instead of a girdle rags;

Thy men shall fall by the sword,
And thy mighty in the war.
And her gates shall lament and mourn;
And utterly bereft she shall sit upon the ground.'
1 2 Kings XVIII, 13-16 * 2 Kings XX, 12-18
* 2 Kings XIX, 25-26 6 Is. Ill, 24-26

PROFANATION AND PILLAGE 41
Sennacherib, in 694 B. C, directed an expedi
tion against the Elamites on the Persian Gulf.
The land was inaccessible to an army, and he
was obliged to construct a navy at the mouth of
the Euphrates. For this purpose he brought
officers and workmen from Tyre. Sennacherib
conquered Babylon in 691 B. C. and razed it to
the ground. The Phoenicians then acquired a
larger influence in the Persian Gulf and along the
Euphrates, as sea-traders for Assyria; to such an
extent that Tyre seems to have come to repre
sent Babylon in the mind of Judah.6 Isaiah in
his Burden of Babylon remarks of it:7
"Behold, the land of the Chaldeans — this is the people that was
not, when Asshur founded it for shipmen" —
This substitution of Tyre for Babylon was
greatly extended in the prophecies of Ezekiel,
who, being a captive of Babylon, could not
openly foretell her destruction.
The prophets of the adversity, Isaiah, Jere
miah and Ezekiel, all ascribed the sufferings of
Israel to her sins, and viewed her conquerors as
temporary instruments of the Lord's wrath.
They predicted a similar fate for most of Israel's
neighbors, and in turn for the conquerors them
selves. The fall of the oppressor was prophesied
more or less directly, according to circumstances.
Isaiah gives the doom of Philistia,8 the burdens
of Moab9 and Damascus,10 the warning to the
people tall and of a glossy skin11 (who were tribes
8 Somewhat as Sidon was associated with Persia by the Greeks:
Cf. Aeschylus, Persae, 290-471
» Is. XXIII, 13 (JR) 'Is. XIV 'Is. XV
¦» Is. XVII " Is. XVIII

42 THE SHIP "TYRE"
of central and southern Arabia), and the burdens
of Egypt,12 the wilderness of the sea, Dumah,
Arabia,13 the Valley of Vision,14 and Tyre.15 His
longest doom prophecy is of the fate of Asshur,16
into which is interpolated the Burden of Baby
lon17 — which was not in Isaiah's time an oppres
sor of Israel, and in this song seems to stand for
Nineveh, whose king had appropriated the
crown of Babylon. The prophecy begins with
the immediate oppressor18
0 Asshur, the rod of Mine anger,
In whose hand as a staff is Mine indignation!
who, because he believed his conquest to be the
result of his own strength, was to be punished
for his arrogant heart and haughty lips:
Should the ax boast itself against him that heweth therewith ?
Should the saw magnify itself against him that moveth it?
Therefore thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts: O My people
that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of Asshur, though he smite
thee with the rod, and lift up his staff against thee, after the
manner of Egypt. For yet a very little while, and the indigna
tion shall be accomplished, and Mine anger shall be to their
destruction 
Then follows the Burden of Babylon, which
must have been vividly in the mind of Ezekiel
as a Babylonian captive:19
Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them,
Who shall not regard silver,
And as for gold, they shall not delight in it.
And their bows shall dash the young men in pieces;
And they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb;
Their eye shall not spare children.
12 Is. XIX » Is. XXIII » Is. X, 5-6, 15, 24-25,
13 Is. XXI « Is. X-XIV 27
14 Is. XXII » Is. XIII » Is. XIII, 17-22

PROFANATION AND PILLAGE 43
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,,
The beauty of the Chaldeans' pride,
Shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
It shall never be inhabited.
Neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation;
Neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there;
Neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.
But wild-cats shall lie there;
And their houses shall be full of ferrets;
And ostriches shall dwell there,
And satyrs shall dance there.
And jackals shall howl in their castles,
And wild-dogs in the pleasant palaces;
And her time is near to come,
And her days shall not be prolonged.
But unless this passage be understood as a much
later interpolation, it refers to Assyria, for it was
before a combination of Medes and Babylonians
that Nineveh fell; and the conclusion of the
prophecy again points northward :20
How art thou fallen from heaven,
O day-star, son of the morning!
How art thou cut down to the ground,
That didst cast lots over the nations!
And thou saidst in thy heart:
'I will ascend into heaven,
Above the stars of God
Will I exalt my throne;
And I will sit upon the mount of meeting,
In the uttermost parts of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will be like the Most High.'
Yet thou shalt be brought down to the nether-world,
To the uttermost parts of the pit.
Esar-haddon restored and rebuilt Babylon
and other Chaldean cities which Sennacherib
had destroyed.
20 Is. XIV, 12-15

44 THE SHIP "TYRE"
Once again in 647 B. C. was Judah subjected
to oppression from Nineveh when Ashurbanipal,
king of Assyria and Babylonia, captured Manas
seh, king of Judah, obtained his penitence, re
newal of allegiance and tribute.
Nineveh fell about 606 B. C.
Nebuchadrezzar reigned in Babylonia 604-561
B. C. Judah was his tributary but rebelled and
entered into an alliance with Egypt' three years
later. Jerusalem was besieged in 597 and sur
rendered by king Jehoiakim, 8,000 of the best
inhabitants being taken captive to Babylonia,
including the prophet Ezekiel.
Zedekiah was put on the throne in Jerusalem
by Nebuchadrezzar in 597 B. C. He rebelled
in 588; but against the power of Babylon he
was helpless. When Jerusalem fell in 586 to
the army of Nebuchadrezzar, they slew the sons
of king Zedekiah in his presence, and then put
out his eyes and carried him in fetters to Baby
lon. They destroyed with fire the houses of
the best citizens, the royal palace and the sacred
temple. They violated the Holy Place, and
carried away to the treasure-house at Babylon
all the sacred vessels and implements of brass
wherewith the altars of the Lord had been
served. And most of the people they mustered
and carried away as captives to Babylonia.21
"And the pillars of brass that were in the house of the Lord,
and the bases and the brazen sea that were in the house of the
Lord, did the Chaldeans break in pieces, and carried the brass of
them to Babylon. And the pots, and the shovels, and the snuf
fers, and the pans, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they
ministered, took they away."22
21 2 Kings XXV, 1-11 » 2 Kings XXV, 13-14

 PROFANATION AND PILLAGE 45
Nebuchadrezzar's own account of his triumphs
explains the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel;
the earlier portions of the "India House" in
scription are sufficient:
Nebuchadrezzar, King of Babylon, the exalted prince, the
favorite of Marduk, the lofty patesi, the beloved of Nabu,
the arbiter, the possessor of wisdom, who seeks out the path
of their divinity, who reverences their lordship; .... At the
time that Marduk, the great lord, lifted up my royal head
and intrusted me with the rule of all people; and Nabu. the
ruler of the host of heaven and earth, gave into my hands a
righteous sceptre for the governing of the people;. .. .To
Marduk my lord I made supplication; I read his prayers, and
the word of my heart reached up to him .... Under his exalted
protection, far-off lands, distant mountains, from the Upper
Sea to the Lower Sea, steep trails, unopened paths, where
motion was impeded, where there was no foothold, difficult
roads, journeys without water, I traversed, and the unruly I
overthrew; I bound as captives my enemies; the land I set in
order and the people I made to prosper; both bad and good
among the people I took under my care; silver, gold, costly
precious stones, bronze, palm-wood, cedar-wood, all kinds of
precious things, a rich abundance, the product of the moun
tains, the wealth of the seas, a heavy gift, a splendid present,
to my city Babylon I brought into his presence  23
In 586 B. C. Nebuchadrezzar besieged Tyre;
the city held out for thirteen years before its
surrender — if indeed, it surrendered at all; ac
cording to Tyrian records it merely submitted
again to tribute.
These are the events that inspired the proph
ecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, which differed
in method because Jeremiah remained behind in
Jerusalem and finally went to Egypt, while
Ezekiel was carried captive to Babylonia. Jere
miah's doom songs cover Jerusalem and all her
23 Harper, op. cit. 134-136

46 THE SHIP "TYRE"
neighbors, reaching their natural climax with
the immediate oppressor, Babylon. Beginning
with his prophecy against Jerusalem,24 which
was followed by mistreatment and imprisonment,
came those upon Egypt and the army of Pharaoh-
neco at Carchemish which Nebuchadrezzar
smote,26 followed by the Philistines,26 Moab,27
Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Kedar and Hazor,28
ending with Babylon :29
As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall
So at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the land.
Though Babylon should mount up to heaven,
And though she should fortify the height of her strength,
Yet from Me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the Lord.
Thus saith the Lord of hosts:
The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly overthrown,
And her high gates shall be burned with fire;
And the peoples shall labour for vanity,
And the nations for the fire;
And they shall be weary.
And Jeremiah wrote in one book all the evil that should come
upon Babylon, even all those words that are written concerning
Babylon. And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: 'When thou comest to
Babylon, then see that thou read all these words, and say:
0 Lord, Thou hast spoken concerning this place, to cut it off,
that none shall dwell therein, neither man nor beast, but that it
shall be desolate for ever. And it shall be, when thou hast
made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to
it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates; and thou shalt say:
Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise again because of the
evil that I will bring upon her; and they shall be weary.'30

24 Jer. XXII-XXVI " Jer. XLVIII a° Jer. LI, 49, 53, 58,
26 Jer. XLVI 2B Jer. XLIX 60-64
28 Jer. XLVII 29 Jer. L,LI

CAPTIVITY 47

VI.
From the residence of his captivity on the
Chebar in Babylonia Ezekiel was enabled better
than his countrymen who remained in Jerusalem,
to view the growing power and the predatory
purpose of Babylon, and to warn his country
men of the futility of resistance. But although
he was a Babylonian captive, it is not to be sup
posed that he was a lover of Babylon. Hatred,
not admiration, was uppermost in his mind, but
care was necessary, if he would fall afoul of no
law of lese majeste; for Nebuchadrezzar was a
ruthless oppressor, and there was real need for
giving cryptic expression to a prophecy against
him. His doom prophecies cover Ammon, Moab
and Seir, Edom, the Philistines,1 Egypt,2 Ethiopia
and the lands of the South.3 There is a warning
to Egypt of the fate of Assyria,4 and a lamenta
tion for Egypt.6 There is also a doom prophecy
upon Tyre,6 which is expanded, unlike the other
prophecies, into a parable of the ship "Tyre",7
and a lamentation for the - "King of Tyre",8
which are susceptible of interpretation that
would make them substitutes for Babylon, the
great oppressor, for whom no fate is directly
prophesied. In like manner the author of the
book of Daniel writes in detail about the fate of
Babylon, when he means Antioch; and the
1 Ezek. XXV 4 Ezek. XXXI ' Ezek. XXVII
2 Ezek. XXIX, XXX E Ezek. XXXII 8 Ezek. XXVIII
3 Ezek. XXX 6 Ezek. XXVI

48 THE SHIP "TYRE" 
author of the Apocalypse, smarting under the
oppression of Rome, cries out in more than one
passage against specific details of Roman legisla
tion and taxation, prophesying the doom of
Rome under the name of the long dead Babylon,
and in a wealth of imagery taken not so much
from the luxury of Rome herself, as from the
doom song of Ezekiel on Babylon under the name
of Tyre.
The purpose of the prophecies of Ezekiel was
the re-establishment of the temple and city at
Jerusalem after the rival states and the great
oppressor had met the fates predicted for them.
In the utmost detail he gives the measurement
by reed-lengths of the new construction which,
as with Moses and David, he says "was written
down by the hand of the Lord upon him."9
Service in the new temple was to be performed
by the priests of the sons of Zadok,10 of whom
Ezekiel was one, and all the offerings, the tithes
and the reservation of the devoted substances
previously ordered for tabernacle and temple,
were to be renewed.11 Ezekiel did not live to see
the reconstruction undertaken, and Ezra and
Nehemiah, under whom the work was done, do
not give sufficient detail for us to determine how
far they carried out his specifications. For
the reconstruction Ezekiel gives minute meas
urements, but says nothing concerning ma-
• Ezek. XI, 1-4 10 Ezek. XL, 46
11 Ezek. XLII-XLVI: It is, of course, a matter of debate whether
Ezekiel's system was innovation or restoration; concerning
which some considerations are offered in the concluding section
of this book.

A King putting out the Eyes of a Captive
Botta, Le Monument de Ninive
(See p. 44)
Reproduced from Maspero, The Passing of the Empires.
D. Appleton & Co., publishers

Prisoners under Torture having their Tongues torn out: original in the British Museum. (See pp. 39, 44)
Reproduced from Maspero, The Passing of the Empires, D. Appleton & Co., publishers

CAPTIVITY 49

terials.12 We may assume that he had in mind,
so far as possible, the use of those already
sanctified; and it is in his doom songs, especially
those upon Jerusalem, Samaria and Tyre, that
the details are found.13
Ezekiel's visions began, he tells us, in July
593 B. C.14 and lasted for twenty-two years.
His prophetic method was that of the artist,
student and popular orator, and without full
knowledge of local contemporary conditions con
stantly alluded to in his writings, it is sometimes
difficult to grasp his meaning. His speaking
must have been full of dramatic action, highly
picturesque in style, designed to attract the
passersby at the street corners. He said of his
own work that he doubted the efficacy of emblem
atic prophecy:16
"thou art unto them as a love song of one that hath a pleasant
voice, and can play well on an instrument; so they hear thy
words, but they do them not."
12 Whether these minute numerical details may have, by Gematria,
any bearing upon the subject now under consideration, the present
writer can only leave to some student of the Kabbalah to deter
mine. Cf. Abelson, Jewish Mysticism.
13 That the sanctity of the temple and its ritual was considered
essential to the welfare of the people is shown in the following
passages from the Talmud:
There are three things on which the world stands: The law,
the temple service, and benevolence — Avoth, 1.
Seven things were formed before the creation of the world:
The Law, Repentance, Paradise, Gehenna, the Throne of Glory,
the Temple, and the name of the Messiah — P'sachim, 54, 1.
So long as there is a diadem on the head of the priest, there is
a crown on the head of every man. Remove the diadem from the
head of the high priest and you take away the crown from the head
of all the people (Comment, on Ezek. XXI, 26) — Gittin 7, 1.
14 Ezek. I, 1-3 16 Ezek. XXXIII, 32

50 THE SHIP "TYRE"
But from such methods resulted the best
accounts in the Hebrew scriptures of the eco
nomic and commercial conditions, and of the
peoples with whom Israel was in contact. It
was as if the speaker held up to his audience a
painting and pointed out before their eyes every
detail of interest; or as if, in that passage about
the "sword of the Lord" he acted out on the
street corner the fire and fury of the swords
man.16 Equally striking was his mimic siege
of Jerusalem,17 followed by his description of
Jerusalem as a rusty caldron, the sides or walls
whereof the Babylonian forces would readily
breach.18 Were such passages accompanied by
the usual stage directions they might still be
suited to dramatic action. Learned in the Law
he was also, and in the history of his people, so
deeply that his work is sometimes fragrant of the
midnight oil; but his object in the use of details
was to instruct his audience in some specific way,
and not to produce an encyclopedia.19 And in
studying his details it is necessary constantly to
bear in mind the reasons for their appearance.
16 Ezek. XXI, 13-16 « Ezek. IV, V ls Ezek. XXIV, 1-14
19 Benjamin of Tudela describes the Synagogue of Ezekiel, by the
Euphrates: It had sixty turrets; in the court was the ark, and at
the back the sepulchre of Ezekiel. The Chebar was at one side
and the Euphrates at the other. It was held sacred by Israel as a
lesser sanctuary. On the Day of Atonement they brought forth,
and read from, a scroll of the Law written on parchment by
Ezekiel. A lamp burned day and night over the sepulchre, the
light having been kept burning from the day that he lighted it
himself. There was a library filled with books, some from the time
of the first temple and some from the time of the second temple,
and offerings were received from Jews in distant lands, (ed. Adler,
p. 44)

CAPTIVITY 51

The prophecies of Ezekiel most closely related
to the present inquiry are that on Jerusalem as
the foundling and faithless bride,20 that on
Samaria and Jerusalem the wanton sisters,21
and that on the ship "Tyre" as the symbol of
world commerce, material wealth, and the pride
of empire.22
As the chosen of the Lord, Jerusalem was
pictured as owing her comforts and luxuries to
the instruments of the Lord, whether priest or
king, and as being bound thereby to the Lord
by their use and enjoyment. So the daughters
of Israel had been reminded that Saul clothed
them with garments of scarlet and other delights,
and put ornaments of gold upon their apparel.23
In Ezekiel's parable of the foundling, this
idea is much more fully developed; and it is of
interest to find that the luxuries wherewith this
outcast daughter of the Amorite and Hittite24
(pace the compiler of the text of the Law) was
clothed as the bride of the Lord, were, item by
item, substances that went into the construction,
adornment, equipment and service of the taber
nacle of Moses :
I anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee also with richly woven
work, and shod thee with sealskin, and I wound fine linen about
thy head, and covered thee with silk.26
The oil was for the lamp, the offerings and the
anointing oil; the richly woven work was for the
priest's robes; the sealskins for the covering
above the tent; the silk represented the goats'
20 Ezek. XVI 22 Ezek. XXVII 24 Ezek. XVI, 3
21 Ezek. XXIII 23 2 Sam. I, 24 26 Ezek. XVI, 9-10

52 THE SHIP "TYRE'

hair of the tent; and the fine linen was for the
curtains of the tabernacle.26
"Silk" is the rabbinical interpretation of a
Hebrew word meaning "drawn," whereby the
original allusion to the goats' hair covering
of the tabernacle is lost. The LXX has "veil
of hair", agreeing with the Exodus specifica
tions.27 In the echo of this passage in the
Apocalypse it appears as "serie" cloth, which
although it came to mean silk, originally in
cluded also cotton muslin, the classical writers
being confused by the tree origin of both fabrics.28
SEALSKINS: JTnlj; CtSTiri Tahash, from which the rabbis read
badger, dolphin or seal, as if from root HtSTI to rest; but LXX
iadvBiva; Vulg. janthinas, DV violet skins; the outermost of
the four coverings of the tabernacle, Ex. XXV, 5; Num. IV, 6.
The purpose was to shed the rain and ward off the lightning;
whether a natural hide or a specially-prepared leather, depends
upon the religious affiliations of the interpreter! Seals were
plentiful in the Red Sea; Agatharchides (87) mentions the "Island
of Seals" off the headland separating the Gulfs of Suez and Akaba.
&ukwv vfjoos bvop,aiopkvi]. Sails of ships, says Plutarch (Quaest.
conviv. IV, 2, 1) were bound with hide; and the skins of the hyena
and the seal were especially in request for this, because of an
ancient belief that they would keep off the lightning.
This was not the true seal, but rather the Red Sea dugong,
Halicore tabernaculi.
28 Ex. XXV, 4.
27 TpixaitTtb, Vulg. bysso. India is said to have exported silk to
the Persian empire, where it exchanged for its weight in gold
(Mookerji, op. cit. 82-83).
28 Rev. XVIII, 12: Both were known as tree wool. Cf. Strabo
XV, i, 20. "Nearchus says that their fine cloths were made of
this wool, and that the Macedonians used it for mattresses and
the stuffing of saddles. The Serica also are of a similar kind,
and are made of dry byssus, which is obtained from some sort of

CAPTIVITY 53

The apparent inconsistency is due solely to this
late misinterpretation.
The description then turns to the "devoted
substances", whereof a share was to be reserved
for the priests and Levites.
I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy
hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a ring upon thy nose,
and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thy head.28
Once more we return to the tabernacle:
Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment
was of fine linen, and silk, and richly woven work.30
Here again silk is a mistaken rendering, the
LXX having "covering cloth of linen, veil of
goats' hair, and chequered work", agreeing with
the Exodus specifications.31 The substitution
of silk for mohair could have occurred at any
time after the Seleucid empire had made possible
the organization of the overland trade route.
Its presence in the temple may be doubted be
fore a late post-exilic date.
bark of plants." Also Herodotus II, 86; Pliny XIV, 4; XIX, 2;
XII, 21. Ammianus Marcellinus XXIII, vi, 67. Vergil, Georgics
II, 121 : Velleraque ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres.
2»Ezek. XVI, 11-12: cf. Num. XXXI. "God will be a crown
of glory upon the head of each saint": Isa, XXVIII, 5 (Megillah,
15b). Cf. 2 Tim. IV, 8.
3°Ezek. XVI, 13
31 7rept|86Xata fibooaia, Tplxavri. xal iroudka Vulg. bysso et polymito
et multicoloribus.
SILK: so AV, RV, JR, following rabbinical interpretation of i^Q
Ezek. XVI, 10. But the reference is to the goats' hair covering
of the tabernacle, likened to a woman's garment. Cf. Ex. XXVI,
1-14: a framework supporting linen hangings, the tabernacle
proper, J3EH3 , or dwelling; over this were drawn the outer cur
tains, of goats' hair,5flK> or tent; over this, the tent-covering of
rams' skins, with an upper covering of sealskins. The inner hang-

54 THE SHIP "TYRE"
Next come the tabernacle offerings:
Thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil.32

ings were W , the outer curtains t|Do. (shesh, masakh).
Ezekiel, in MT, alters these words to a rhyming sequence of ^2ltt>
and isj>a , (sheshi, meshi), and the rabbis, seeing the root ntJ>£
"to draw" (which could also refer to the curtains drawn over the
hangings), and thinking of a living, rather than a symbolic,
wanton, imagined a "fine-drawn" fabric; drawn-work, as it were.
Transparent gauze was much affected by the haut-monde, and the
demi-monde likewise, after the silk-spinners of Cos learned the
art; but this was well into the Seleucid period. Cf. Pliny, H. N.
xi, 26. These rabbis must have been of the sort described in
Dan. XIII, concerning whom cf. Vulg. or DV.
The LXX holds to the original reading, having pbaaiva Kal
Tpixa-Trra, but the Vulg. partly loses the allusion with its
bysso et polymito, which the DV renders "fine linen and embroid
ered work." The ancient Armenian also uses a word meaning
"embroidery". The covering of the tabernacle was symbolized by Isaiah also as
a woman's garment; cf. XXII, 8, "the covering of Judah was laid
bare", meaning that the city was to be forcibly entered; so Ezekiel,
when he speaks of the foundling removing her garments (made of
the veils and curtains of the tabernacle) to cover her "images of
men", means that the sanctuary was opened to the worship of
other gods. So in Cant. V, 7, the bride who went forth to seek her
husband was taken by the watchmen to be a wanton, and they
"took away her mantle.''
The parallel passage in the Apocalypse (Rev. XVIII, 12)
has ffvaalvov Kal aipiKov, "linen and silk", following the rabbinical
interpretation, with which it was nearly contemporary.
The assonant i&& and ityfi may be a variant in MT,
later than the LXX; but the assonance may also be a trick of
style, as cf. mp and fljp , Ezek. XXVII, 19, where in Ex.
XXX, 23 MT has DtJO-njp and DEO'tDJp.
The same two fabrics appear in the ship's awnings, linen and
hair, TrapapfrbyiaTa \(vk& Kal rplxiva, or fiba<riva Kal rplxwa.
(Corp. Inscr. Attic, ii, 809, 811)
32 Ezek. XVI, 13

CAPTIVITY 55

The showbread, the unleavened cakes, and the
meal offering are suggested.33 But honey was a
substance forbidden as an offering; the text may
be earlier than the present text of Leviticus,
or it may indicate laxity in observance:
for ye shall make no leaven, nor any honey, smoke as an offer
ing made by fire unto the Lord.34
However, flour, honey and oil are all of the
firstfruits of which the tithes were to be paid.36
But, the prophet continues, the faithless
foundling trusted in her own beauty and be
stowed her garments and ornaments upon
others; wherein the mention of the materials of
the tabernacle signifies Israel's service of other
gods: Thou didst also take thy fair jewels of My gold and of My
silver, which I had given thee, and madest for thee images of
men. . . .and thou didst take thy richly woven garments and
cover them, and didst set Mine oil and Mine incense before
them. My bread also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil,
and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou didst even set it before
them for a sweet savor. . . .3a
The foundling's favorites are named as the
Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the "land of
traffic, even Chaldea"; this expression, "land of
traffic", is one that Ezekiel applies alike to Tyre
and Babylon, but it seems to indicate Babylon
33 Ex. XXV, XXIX, XXX 34Lev. II, 11
36 Num. XVIII, Deut. XIV: — According to the Talmud, seven
liquids are comprehended under the generic term, drink (Lev.
XI, 34) : dew, water, wine, oil, blood, milk, and honey. (Mach-
shirin, 6, 6).
» Ezek. XVI, 17-19

56 THE SHIP "TYRE"
all the time.37 Notwithstanding the foundling's
misbehavior, she is promised ultimate forgive
ness with the establishment of a covenant
"for the age."38
In the parable of the wanton sisters, the
details are no longer those of the sacred ritual,
but of the military equipment of kings. Their
favorites are:
the Assyrians, governors and rulers, warriors, clothed most
gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them handsome
young men.... The Chaldeans girded with girdles upon their
loins, pendant turbans upon their heads, all of them captains
to look upon,. . .the sons of Babylon, even Chaldea.39
And it was prophesied that the sisters would
find themselves set upon in hostile array by:
The Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and
Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, handsome young men,
governors and rulers all of them, captains and councillors, all of
them riding upon horses. And they shall come against thee
with hosts, chariots, and wheels, and with an assembly of
peoples; they shall set themselves in array against thee with
buckler and shield and helmet round about;. . .They shall also
strip thee of thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels . . 40
That is to say, that all the military equipment
and power in which Solomon and his successors
"Ezek. XVII, 3-4, 12: the great eagle that came unto Lebanon
and took the top of the cedar, "and carried it to a land of
traffic", and the prophet explains the allegory: "the king of Baby
lon came to Jerusalem, and took the king thereof, and the princes
thereof, and brought them to him to Babylon."
38 Ezek. XVI, 60-63
38 Ezek. XXIII, 5-16: The names of the sisters sufficiently ex
plain the symbolism: Jerusalem is rD'AlK "my tabernacle is
in her", and Samaria is n^HN "she has her own tabernacle"
(Oholibah, Oholah). The foundling also is clothed in stuffs of
the tabernacle.
40 Ezek. XXIII, 22-26: cf. 1 Kings X

CAPTIVITY 57

had prided themselves would be overwhelmed
by the greater power of Chaldea, and the hang
ings and veils of the temple, the robes of the
priests, and the precious vessels for the service,
would be carried off to Babylon.
Having listed in the dooms of Samaria and
Jerusalem, as clothing and equipment, the
items of the service of the temple and of the
spoil of priests and kings, the prophet proceeds
to the doom of Tyre,41 which Nebuchadrezzar
was preparing to conquer. He then takes up
his parable of the good ship "Tyre",42 which
forms one of our most vivid pictures of ancient
commerce, and ranks in that respect with the
Punt inscriptions and the Tel-el-Amarna letters.
_ Whatever the earlier history of the Phoeni
cians, whether or not they came originally from
the Persian Gulf, they had been located for cen
turies on the Mediterranean coast of Syria, and
had thoroughly explored the Mediterranean and
Black Seas and the coasts of the Atlantic; south
ward, perhaps, as far as Sierra Leone, and north
ward as far as Britain.43 After the overthrow
of the older Babylonia by Assyria, its civiliza
tion as well as its public improvements decayed,
and the lower courses of the Euphrates and
Tigris reverted to swampy marsh-lands inhabited
by a poverty-stricken and primitive people;
while the sea-trade of the Persian Gulf decayed
likewise. The Assyrians employed the services
of the Phoenicians in their campaign against
41 Ezek. XXVI 42 Ezek. XXVII
43 The Carthaginians certainly reached Sierra Leone, but a century
later: cf. Periplus of Hanno.

58  THE SHIP "TYRE" 
Elam; and the location of their shipbuilding
enterprises was too obviously a point of vantage
to be overlooked. How great was the assistance
they rendered in enabling the new Babylonia to
gain its independence of Nineveh, and finally,
in alliance with the Medes, utterly to overthrow
Assyria, we need not at present attempt to de
termine; but their influence was doubtless great,
and great likewise within the new Babylonian
kingdom, in which they probably took a leading
part as sea-traders both east and west, as land
carriers and as international bankers.44 The
contemptuous remark of Isaiah may be recalled :
Behold, the land of the Chaldeans — this is the people that was
not, when Asshur founded it for shipmen. .4B
Such dependence of a powerful state upon a mere
city was intolerable to the Babylonians, and is
sufficient explanation of their long and unre
mitting siege of Tyre. Whether or not they took
the city, they inflicted injuries upon its com
merce from which it never fully recovered. In
this respect Tyre held a position somewhat ana
logous to that of the Venetian republic toward
the Holy Roman Empire. Tyre commercially
represented Babylon, but Babylon found herself
without a satisfactory share of the profits, which
she was resolved to possess for herself alone.
This will explain the readiness with which
Ezekiel used the symbol of the good ship "Tyre"
as representing the whole commercial structure
44 But it was at best an indolent commercial system, as compared
with modern standards: cf. Gardner, History of Ancient
Coinage, IV.
46 Is. XXIII, 13 (JR) onilp 13711 'JVK'W "IPX D'pim 1J-W

CAPTIVITY 59

of the Babylonians, and how, in prophesying
from his residence upon the Chebar waterway the
obviously impending doom of the city of Tyre,
he was able at the same time to prophesy the
approaching doom of Babylon herself. The
commerce of the real Tyre is well known from
other sources, and it included many things not
found in Ezekiel's allegory; and if we tabulate
the trade therein, it is clearly no trade of a
busy commercial and industrial metropolis.
There are imports, but no exports; and Tyre
based her commercial strength upon her manu
factures. The imports are such as Tyre dealt
in, but there were many more; and the sources
given are correct so far as they go, but Tyre
dealt with many other places and peoples than
those mentioned by Ezekiel. The ship "Tyre"
is a symbol of Chaldea; her cargo is a symbol
of the institutions of the priesthood and prince
dom of Judah which Babylon had profaned; and
her doom is the doom of Babylon herself.46
For the ship "Tyre", in building, manning,
and lading, was surely one of the strangest
vessels that ever ploughed the seas. The planks
of the tabernacle, but cut from wood of the
temple, made its hull; the timber of the temple,
its mast; the pillars of the tabernacle, but of
wood of the tree under which Joshua set up his
stone, its oars; the veil, its sail; the screen, its
awning; its standard, perhaps that of the tribe
4« In the book of Daniel, Nebuchadrezzar and Babylon do duty for
Antiochus Epiphanes and Antioch. Jeremiah (XXV, 26) uses
Sheshach, which, in cipher, is Babylon. That the royal spies
were a real menace, cf. Eccl. X, 20.

60 THE SHIP "TYRE"
of Levi; the royal throne, its helmsman's seat.
Although officered and manned by the best
men of the chief cities of Phoenicia, and
defended by the sturdiest of the fighters of
Arabia, its cargo was made up of the metals of
tabernacle, temple, and royal guard; the sacred
vessels; the captive maidens and the beasts of
burden set aside for the priests; the cavalry and
commissary equipment of Solomon; the ivory of
the throne; the jewels of the high priest's breast
plate and of his shoulder-buckles; the show-
bread and anointing oil; the drink-offering; the
tent-covering of the tabernacle; the king's
weapons and armor; the sacred incense; the
burnt-offering, the meal-offering, and the sin-
offering; the gold of the breastplate and the
mitre-plate; and the robes of the high priest,
packed in a chest that recalled the ark of the
covenant, which the Babylonians had destroyed,
and the sacred treasure, which they were holding
in their treasure-house ! A strange medley, if read
as a real ship's manifest; but if read as its writer
intended, a memorable record of the desire of a
people for retribution.47
The Lord is of them that uphold my soul,
He shall requite the evil unto mine enemies.48

47 There is some confusion in the text. The LXX is more
consistent than the Hebrew. The present version (in which
due regard is had to the recent commentaries! of Bertholet,
Kraetzschmar and Cheminant) is offered in the hope of in
terpreting the doubtful passages.
48 Ps. LIV, 4-5.

ALLEGORY OF THE SHIP  <5£
VII
THE SHIP "TYRE"
EZEKIEL XXVII

The word of the Lord came again unto me,
saying: And thou, son of man, take up a
lamentation for Tyre; and say unto Tyre, that
dwelleth at the entry of the sea, that is the place
of traffic for the peoples from many isles : Thus
saith the Lord God:
Thou, 0 Tyre, hast said: A ship am I,
Of perfect beauty.
My sides are raised up in the heart of the seas,
The princes of the sea were my builders.
Of cypress-trees from Senir have they fashioned
All thy planks;
They have taken a cedar from Lebanon
To make a mast for thee.
Of the highest of the oaks of Bashan
Have they made thine oars;
Thy seat have they made of ivory, inlaid in
thyine wood
From the groves of the isle of Kittim.
Of fine linen with richly woven work from Egypt
Was thy sail;
Scarlet was thy standard,
To be to thee for an ensign ;

62 THE SHIP "TYRE"
Blue and purple from the isles of Elishah
Was thine awning.
The rulers of Sidon and Arvad
Were thy rowers;
The wise men of Sumur served thee,
They were thy pilots;
The elders of Gebal were in thee,
To be thy calkers ;
The men of Mehalleb served thee,
They exchanged thy merchandise.
The Persians, and they of Lud and Put
Were thy men of war;
They hanged the shield and helmet round about
thee, They set forth thy comeliness.
The men of Arvad and Helech
Were upon thy deck round about;
The Gammadim were in thy turrets;
They perfected thy beauty.
Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the
multitude of all thy riches; with silver, iron, tin,
and lead, they traded for thy wares. Javan,
Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy traffickers;
they traded the persons of men and vessels of
brass for thy merchandise. They of the house of
Togarmah traded for thy wares, with draft-horses
and saddle-horses and mules . The men of Dedan
were thy traffickers; from many isles they
brought thee for thy merchandise horns of ivory,

 ALLEGORY OF THE SHIP  63
and ebony. Edom was thy merchant by reason
of the multitude of thy wealth; with
Nophek, tarshish and bareketh,
Shoham, ramoth and chodecod,
they traded for thy wares. Judah, and the
land of Israel, they were thy traffickers; they
traded for thy merchandise wheat of Minnith,
cakes, and honey, and oil, and balm. Damascus
was thy merchant for the multitude of thy
wealth; they traded for thy wares the wine
of Helbon, and sheepskins of Sahar. Vedan
and Jevan from Uzal brought thee for thy
merchandise massive iron, cassia, and calamus.
Dedan was thy trafficker; the best beasts of
burden he brought thee for thy wares. Arabia,
and all the princes of Kedar, brought thee lambs,
and rams, and goats, for thy merchandise.
Sheba and Raamah, they were thy traffickers;
they traded for thy wares with chief of all
spices, and with all precious stones, and gold.
Haran and Canneh, Eden and Chilmad, they
were thy traffickers; they traded for thy mer
chandise, with gorgeous fabrics, with mantles of
blue and richly woven work, and with chests of
cypress, bound with cords and cedar-lined.
The ships of Tarshish brought thee riches
For thy merchandise.
So wast thou replenished, and made very heavy
In the heart of the seas.
Thy rowers have brought thee
Into great waters;

64 THE SHIP "TYRE"
The east wind hath broken thee
In the heart of the seas.
Thy riches and thy wares and thy merchandise,
Thy mariners, and thy pilots,
Thy calkers, and the exchangers of thy mer
chandise, And all thy men of war,
That are in thee, with all thy company
Which is in the midst of thee,
Shall fall into the heart of the seas
In the day of thy ruin.
At the sound of the cry of thy pilots
The waves shall shake.
And there shall come down from their ships
All that handle the oar,
The mariners, and all the pilots of the sea,
They shall stand upon the land,
And shall cause their voice to be heard over thee
And shall cry bitterly.
They shall cast up dust upon their heads,
And shall roll themselves in the ashes ;
And they shall make themselves utterly bald for
thee, And gird them with sackcloth.
And they shall weep for thee in bitterness of soul
With bitter lamentation.
And in their wailing they shall take up a lamenta
tion for thee, And lament over thee:

ALLEGORY OF THE SHIP 65
Who was there like Tyre, fortified
In the midst of the sea ?
When thy wares came forth out of the seas,
Thou didst fill many peoples;
With the multitude of thy riches and of thy
merchandise Didst thou enrich the kings of the
earth.
Now that thou art broken by the seas
In the depths of the waters,
And thy merchandise and all thy company
Are fallen in the midst of thee,
All the inhabitants of the isles
Are appalled at thee,
And their kings are horribly afraid,
They are troubled in their coun
tenance;
The merchants among the peoples clap their
hands, And hiss at thee;
Thou art come to a terrible end,
And shalt be no more in the age.

66 THE SHIP "TYRE"

THE "PRINCE OF TYRE"
EZEKIEL XXVIII
And the word of the Lord came unto me, say
ing: Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyre:
Thus saith the Lord God:
Because thy heart is lifted up,
And thou hast said:
I am a god, I sit in the seat of God,
In the heart of the seas;
Though thou didst set thy heart as the heart of
God, Yet thou art man, and not God.
There is no secret that they can hide from thee,
Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel!
By thy wisdom and by thy discernment
Thou hast gotten thee riches,
And hast gotten gold and silver
Into thy treasures;
In thy great wisdom by thy traffic
Hast thou increased thy riches,
And thy heart is lifted up because of thy riches —
Therefore thus saith the Lord God :
Because thou hast set thy heart
As the heart of God;
Therefore, behold, I will bring strangers upon
thee, The terrible of the nations;

ALLEGORY OF THE SHIP 67
And they shall draw their swords against the
beauty Of thy wisdom,
And they shall defile thy brightness,
They shall bring thee down to the
pit;
And thou shalt die the deaths of them that are
slain In the heart of the seas.
Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee :
I am God?
But thou art man, and not God,
In the hand of them that defile thee.
Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised
By the hand of strangers;
For I have spoken,
Saith the Lord God.

68 THE SHIP "TYRE"

THE " KING OF TYRE"
Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me,
saying: Son of man, take up a lamentation for
the king of Tyre, and say unto him : Thus saith
the Lord God:
Thou seal most accurate, perfect in beauty,
Thou wast in Eden the garden of
God;
Every precious stone was thy covering;
Odem, pitdah and yahalom,
Tarshish, shoham and yashepheh,
Sappir, nophek and bareketh,
In gold finely wrought were they set.
In the day of thy creation, with the Cherub, I
placed thee Upon the holy mountain of God;
Thou hast walked in the thick clouds and dark
ness, The hailstones and coals of fire.
Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day of
thy creation, Till unrighteousness was found in
thee.
Filled with violence and with sin, thou hast been
cast forth as defiled
Out of the mountain of God;
The Cherub hath driven thee out
From the midst of the stones of fire.

 ALLEGORY OF THE SHIP  69
Thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty,
By thy splendor is thy wisdom cor
rupted.
By reason of the multitude of thine iniquities
I have cast thee to the ground;
I have laid thee before kings,
That they may gaze upon thee.
In the unrighteousness of thy traffic
Thou hast defiled thy sanctuary;
Therefore will I raise up a fire round about thee,
It shall devour thee;
And I will turn thee to ashes upon the earth
In the sight of all them that behold
thee.
All they that know thee among the peoples
Shall be appalled at thee;
Thou art come to a terrible end,
And shalt be no more in the age.
<* • •

Such are the articles of commerce that ap
pear in these "commercial chapters" of Ezekiel.
Clearly they do not make up a total of the items
of trade of Tyre or of the Neo-Babylonian em
pire. This is no list of the articles dutiable at
Tyre, or at Haran or Bozrah, or taxable at
Babylon. They are chosen because of their
previous appearance in the Hebrew scriptures

70 THE SHIP "TYRE"

and their suggestion of tabernacle, temple,
palace, and priestly spoil. They are arranged
by the prophet, true to his emblematic method,
as a symbolic geographical picture. The state
ments made as to their origin are doubtless cor
rect; but the object in making them was to add
vividness to his lesson of the inviolability of
sacred institutions. An economic commentary
on such a symbolic picture must have much the
same standing as a similar commentary on any
other work of art; such, for instance, as Michel
angelo's "Last Judgment," Leonardo da Vinci's
"Last Supper," or a poem such as the following:
Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon,
Down with me from Lebanon to sail upon the sea.
The ship is wrought of ivory, the decks of gold, and thereupon
Are sailors singing bridal songs and waiting to cast free.
Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon,
The rowers there are ready and will welcome thee with shouts.
The sails are silken sails and scarlet, cut and sewn in Babylon,
The scarlet of the painted lips of women thereabouts.
And there for thee is spikenard, calamus and cinnamon,
Pomegranates and frankincense and flagons full of wine,
And cabins carved in cedar wood that came from scented Lebanon,
And all the ship and singing crew and rowers there are thine.
Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon,
They're hauling up the anchor and but tarrying there for thee;
The boatswain's whistling for a wind, a wind to blow from Lebanon,
A wind from scented Lebanon to blow them out to sea.
— I. C. in Mosher's Amphora

ALLEGORY OF THE SHIP 71

NOTES TO THE ALLEGORY
ANCIENT SHIPS were of similar designs; and as the Greeks
followed and developed Phoenician ideas, it is possible from the
fuller accounts that remain of their shipbuilding to state the
principal features of Phoenician vessels. Warships were light and
speedy, long and narrow, and depended for propulsion more on
oars than sails. Cargo ships were heavy and slow, broad of beam,
and depended on sail power with oars as auxiliaries. Hulls were
usually of pine on cargo ships and of fir on warships; but cypress
and cedar were also used. Keels were of selected pine with false-
keels of oak; warships had keels of oak with false-keels of beech.
Pine and plane, elm and ash, mulberry and lime and acacia, were
used in the interior. The masts and yards, also the oars, were of
fir or pine. The timbers were held together by wooden pegs or
metal nails, the former preferred; and they could be taken apart
for overland transit. Oars were of moderate size, for a crew could
make a forced march when each man was carrying his oar and
appurtenances. The Phoenicians built two-banked ships for
Sennacherib, and Herodotus mentions three-banked ships in the
time of Necho. Two-banked ships had 118 rowers, 58 in the lower
and 60 in the upper bank. Three-banked ships had 170, with 30
working from the upper deck. Merchant-ships had about 20 on
the deck only. Warships with their banks of oars were likened to
birds, and cargo-ships to tubs or chests or arks. Phoenician ships
had figureheads of horses; hence the fable of the winged horse,
which was an oared ship, while the wooden horse of Troy may have
been a cargo-ship admitted to the harbor. The outer framework
consisted of keel and ribs; there was no stern post, the planking
being carried upward to meet the deck; there was no stem post,
unless built to carry a ram. The skin was formed of planking laid
upon the ribs, and fastened through them to the beams. It was
strengthened by long timbers fastened outside, known as belts;
warships were further strengthened by cables or girdles. The
Phoenician ships built for Sennacherib had the oars of the first
bank passed over the gunwale, and those of the second bank mid
way between the tholes of the first and somewhat lower down.
They were of no great height; 1 foot of freeboard was calculated
for each bank of oars, and the upper decks of these Phoenician

72 THE SHIP "TYRE"
ships was about 4 feet above the gunwale. This was a heavy
superstructure, and was the post of combatants while in action,
and occupied by dignitaries during voyages. Attached to its
upright timbers and about 1 foot above the gunwale was the gang
way, where combatants were also posted. Ships carried screens
to close the space between upper deck and gangway, and to protect
the rowers from missiles; there were also bulwarks for the water.
Awnings were spread along each side to cover the open space below
the upper deck, to protect the rowers from sun and spray and to
conceal the fighters for a surprise attack; every ship carried 2 pairs,
one of sail cloth, and one of horse-hair or hide. The former were
of the same material as the sails, and were stored in the same
chests. There were little decks at stem and stern, somewhat
above the level of the beams; these supported the deck-structure.
The stern had a seat, or a tier of seats, for the helmsman and
others in command; but this did not necessitate a separate deck
there. Ships generally had a deck-house at the stern for the com
mander and his friends, usually of wicker work or awnings, but
sometimes of solid construction. These might be fitted up with
many luxuries, and with covered walks alongside, with vines and
fruit trees in pots. Ships also carried turrets on the upper deck
ing to enable their crews to shoot down missiles on an enemy. A
merchant-ship might carry as many as 8 turrets of 3 stories. The
rams were of bronze, usually a sheathing over a core of timber, and
often had 3 teeth. Later they were given the shape of a boar's
head. Ships carried statues of gods or goddesses to distinguish
their allegiance, or to obtain a safe voyage. Steering was done
with a pair of large oars at the stern, one on either side, and
fastened by loops of rope to the sides of the ship just below the
gunwale. There was a tiller in the loom or handle of each steering
oar and a piece of gear to join these tillers, so that the helmsman
could turn both oars at once. The Phoenician ships built for
Sennacherib had 1 mast, 1 yard, 1 square sail, 2 fore stays and 1
back stay, 4 other ropes, and sheets, braces and brailing ropes.
These last were passed through rings on the fore side of the sail
(in Egypt on the after side) then through separate pulleys on the
yard; thence to the stern, where they were made fast to pins, so
that the steerer could manage them. When brailed up, the sail
hung in baggy folds, so that in reliefs on coins it looks like separate
sails on the same yard. The sail was generally of linen, but also of
papyrus and other rushes. Sail cloth was of different qualities.

ALLEGORY OF THE SHIP 73
The edges of the sail were bound with hide; that of the hyena or the
seal especially, because of the belief in their special efficacy for
keeping off the lightning. The ropes were sometimes of hides,
but oftener of papyrus, flax or hemp. Sails were often colored;
black was a sign of mourning, and purple or scarlet the badge of an
admiral or monarch. In war time the sails were dyed the color of
sea-water. In Roman times the titles or emblems of the emperor
were displayed on his sail in gold. The admiral's ship was dis
tinguished by some sort of flag in addition to any purple or scarlet
sail that she might carry; after dark a light was shown instead of
the flag. In a Roman fleet the admiral's ship carried 3 lights, each
transport 2, and each warship 1. Enemies were misled by screen
ing lights or setting them adrift. A national flag or emblem was
carried in battle. The admiral's ship carried signal-flags; a purple
signal meant going into action. Signals were also flashed from
shields.
(Torr, Ancient Ships; from which the following references: — Iliad,
i, 434, 480-481; ii, 509-510; vii, 5-6; xvi, 482-484; Odyssey, ii, 46,
426-427; iii, 10-11; iv, 708-709; v, 163-164, 239-260, 316-318; ix,
322-324; xi, 124-125; xii, 170-172, 178-179, 409-412, 422-425;
xiii, 74; xxi, 390-391; Herodotus, i, 24; iii, 36, 86, 96; iii, 37, 136;
vi, 95, 115; vii, 25, 34, 100, 181; viii, 92, 97, 118; Thucydides, i,
10, 49, ii, 56, 93; Xenophon, Anab. v, 8, 1; v, 1, 11-16; Hellen. i,
6, 19, ii, 1, 27; Aeschylus, Sept. con.Theb. 62, 857-858; Persae, 69,
408-409; Prometheus, 468; Euripides, Iph. in Taur. 410, 1043;
Hecuba, 1080-1081; Medea, 278; Troades, 94; Cyclops, 14-15;
Helena, 1590-1591; Iph. in Aul. 239-241; Phaethon, Fr. 2, 42;
Pindar, Isthmia, iii, 89; Sophocles, Andromeda, Fr. 2, ap. Athen.
xi, 64; Aristophanes, Aves, 598; Equites, 756; Acharn. 544-547;
Demosthenes, in Lacrit. 18; Plato, leges, p705C, civitas p616C,
politicus p272E, Protagoras, 338; Aristotle, de animal, incessu, 10;
mechanica, 6,8; Corp. Inscr. Attic, ii, 797-800, 807-808, 789;
Arrian, Anab. v, 8; vi. 13; vii, 16, 19; Fr. 19 ap. Suid.; Strabo, ii,
3, 4; iv, 4, 1; xv, 1, 15; xvi, 1, 11; Epicharmus, ap. Athen. vii, 114;
Antiphanes, ap. Athen. xi, 102; Scylax, peripl. 112; Theophrastus,
hist, plant, iv, 2, 8; iv, 8, 4; v, 1, 6; v, 7, 3; Apollonius Rhodius, i,
369-370; i, 566-567; ii, 79-81; Plutarch, quaest. conviv. iv, 2, 1;
v, 3, 1; Antonius, 26, 64; Themistocles, 14; Demetrius, 43; de
fortuna Rom. 4, 9; praecept. ger. ref publ. 15, 16; Theseus, 17;
Alcibiades, 32; de tranq. anim. 3; Lysander, 11; Lucullus, 7;
Apuleius, Metamorph. xi, 16).

74 THE SHIP "TYRE"
PLACE OF TRAFFIC. LXX, rep ifmopUp tuv "haw, airb vj)awv
ttoWwv. This assumes D^KD instead of MT Qi'K'^N-
A SHIP: Wellhausen's restoration, niJX before <JN , to complete
the line.
MY SIDES, etc. : Cheminant's reading, from LXX /SeeXei/x, ex
tended to complete the verse.
PRINCES, etc.: reading qi 1^j;2-?(3) for TB^ 1^3-
THE MATERIALS of which the ship "Tyre" was built are also ma
terials of which the tabernacle and temple were constructed.
CYPRESS: cf. 1 Kings V, 22; 2 Chron. II, 7 (temple).
SENIR: Deut. Ill, 9, "Mount Hermon which the Amorites call
Shenir"; but 1 Chron. V, 23 and Cant. IV, 8 distinguish it from
Hermon. It is Anti-Libanus, N. of Damascus.
PLANKS: of the hull; but cf. the BOARDS of the tabernacle, Ex.
XXVI, 15, ^p in both.
CEDAR: cf. 1 Kings V, 22; 2 Chron. II, 7 (temple).
LEBANON was famous for its forests; its cedar was sent to many
markets and as tribute to many kings.
MAST: in the singular; Phoenician ships had but one mast; cf.
Layard, Monuments of Nineveh, II pi. 71; Torr, Ancient Ships.
But cf. also, the PILLARS of the veil, Ex. XXVI, 32.
THE HIGHEST OF: to complete the verse; so Bertholet, Kraet-
zschmar, Cheminant.
BASHAN: E. of the Jordan ; as to oaks of B. cf. Is. II, 13. Oak was
not sent for the temple, but Bashan supplied rams, the skins of
which covered the tent of the tabernacle; Ex. XXVI, 14, Deut.
XXXII, 14.
OARS : cf . the PILLARS of the hangings of the court, Ex. XXVI, 10.
And this oak may be an echo of the oak under which the stone was
set up as witness of the Law: Josh. XXIV, 26: cf. Isa. I, 29 for
earlier uses of oaks.
IVORY INLAID: JR, larch; AV and RV, boxwood. But the
reference is to Solomon's throne, 1 Kings X, 18.
SEAT. That this line is confused appears from the diversity of the
translations. The ancient ship had its helmsman's seat at the
highest point above the stern, giving a clear view of everything
in the vessel and of the sea before it. The reference is to this seat,
and to the officer occupying it, rather than to the benches of the
galley-slaves, as AV, RV, DV, or to the deck, as JR, or to the
rudder, as Leeser's version. The seat of the helmsman thus

ALLEGORY OF THE SHIP 75
stands for the royal throne. This was of ivory and gold. "Ash-
urim" of AV, is wrong for "WSXn > which is from "hj»k "to be tall"
and is a species of cedar. It appears also in Isa. XLl, 19 together
with cypress and pine, clearly a group of conifers. "Boxwood" of
RV is wrong, and "larch" of JR is not much better. This word
looks like a continuation of the cedar and cypress of the preceding
couplet, making a triad of woods like that in 2 Chr. II, 7; hence
"thyine" is preferred because of association with that verse and
with Rev. XVIII, 12. The second half of the line is equally uncer
tain. LXX suggests a sacred grove: !{ i\i<pavros oixovs a\tri>Sei.s aird
rqobiv tup Xa-ielpi. Ivory appears as coming from Nubia via Dedan
(15) but W. M. Muller (Asien u. Europa, 336) quotes a record of
shipment of ivory from Cyprus to Egypt, and suggests ivory-
carving industry in Cyprus. The text says only that the wood
came from the forest, or groves, of Cyprus. "Grove" suggests a
sacred enclosure, and the seat itself may suggest the oracle. Hence
the reading of LXX seems worth retaining. The helmsman's
seat symbolizes a throne, royal or oracular, or both. LXX sug
gests nn&yN irD- Targ., pyotsw — antPKna. <=i- isa.
XLl, 19, pjrotyK — "WNn-
An upper-structure, as DV "cabins" from Vulg. praeteriola,
might be either the deck-house at the stern, or the shrine for the
protecting deity.
Cedar, cypress and thyine=cedar, cypress and algum of 2 Chr.
II, 7, algum being a late variant, a Pali word substituted for the
Hebrew original.

Algum Cedar Cypress
DiDia&K DmK D'BTO 2Chr. IX, 11
xiSpiva apKebBwa. rebmva vebKiva
cedrina arceutina pinea thyina

This tUPKn may therefore be a variant of thyine

76

THE SHIP "TYRE'

The following is the classification of conifers given in Gray's
Manual of Botany:

CONIFERAE

1. Pinaceae

1. Abietineae.

1. Pinus

Pine

2. Picea

Spruce

3. Tsuga

Hemlock

4. Abies

Fir

5. Larix

Larch

2. Taxodieae.

6. Taxodium
Bald Cypress
3. Cupressineae.
7. Chamaecyparis
Cypress
8. Thuya
Arbor Vitae, White Cedar, [Thyine]
9. Juniperus
Juniper, Red Cedar
2. Taxaceae
10. Taxus
Yew
The woods mentioned in these Old Testament lists are of the
tribe Cupressineae.
SHORES OF KITTIM. Kition was a Phoenician colony in Cyprus.
The same word Qmj<; means "shore" and "island." Whether
both wood and ivory, or the former only came from Cyprus, does
not definitely appear. Ivory was a product of Nubia, and ap
pears in this same chapter (v. 15) as coming through Dedan; but
W. M. Muller (Asien u. Europa, 336) quotes a record of shipment
of ivory from Cyprus to Egypt, and suggests ivory-carving in
dustry in Cyprus and Cilicia.
FINE LINEN: cf. the VEIL and SCREEN. Ex. XXVI, 31, 36:
2 Chron. Ill, 14.
EGYPT: the linen of that country was largely exported, and while
the industry existed also in Phoenicia, it is probable that many of
the "Sidonian fabrics" mentioned in the Odyssey were Egyptian.
 ALLEGORY OF THE SHIP  77_
SCARLET. The first half of this line is supplied conjecturally from
Numbers II, 2 and IV, 6-8-13. The cloths of the tabernacle
were of three hues, blue, purple and scarlet: —
Blue n?3ri 1J3 Ipanov 6\op vaKlvOivov
Purple ]Qi"IN 1J3 ludrunv bhairbptpvpov
Scarlet ij{j> nielli "133 Ipanov KbKKivov
Sealskins BTin "111? Skppa baxlvBivov
Standard ijy] ray/ia
Ensigns mriS ajip,alas
Embroidered Cloth HDP12 W /Sitro-os pera jrouaXfas
Twined Linen "IT^D tW fibaoov KtKhaoiikvns
The first two were from the murex or purple mussel, the last from
the kermes insect. When the camp was to journey, the ark was
to be covered with cloth of blue and sealskin, the showbread with
cloth of scarlet and sealskin, and the ashes from the altar with
cloth of purple and sealskin. When the camp was pitched, every
man was to encamp by his standard, with ensigns according to his
fathers' houses, round about the tent of meeting. The standard
was the larger banner, serving for three tribes together; the ensigns
were smaller flags for the separate tribes. This tradition is used
also in Cant. II, 4:
He hath brought me to the banqueting-house,
And his banner over me is love.
According to a rabbinical tradition, the ensign of the tribe of Levi
was of three colors, white, black (blue purple) and red. Thus the
ship "Tyre", with white sail, red standard and purple awning,
recalls the Levites who served m the temple, whereof the sacred
substances were all in her hold. This half-line is not to be deleted,
as most commentators would have it, but is to be completed and
retained, as necessary to the legend.
ENSIGN: cf. Is. XIII, 2: "Set ye up an ensign upon the high
mountain."
BLUE AND PURPLE: different shades of the murex dye; "blue
purple" and "scarlet purple" in Cheminant's reading. The refer
ence is to the blue, purple, scarlet and fine linen for the tabernacle :
Ex. XXV, 4. tonKi rtfan cf. Assyr. takiltu argamannu,
Delitzsch AHW 129a.

78 THE SHIP "TYRE"

ELISHAH: perhaps Carthage, whose queen was Elissa, or Dido
(so Movers, Meyer, Delitzsch, Kraetzschmar), The Phoenicians
established island colonies for murex culture as demand outran
supply; cf. Tammuz-mourning on Paxos, misinterpreted as the
death of Pan, (Plutarch, De Defectu Orac. XVII). Schoff,
Tammuz, Pan, and Christ, Open Court, XXVI, 9: XXVII, 8. W. M.
Muller and Gunkel prefer Alashia in Cyprus, of the Tel-el-Amarna
letters.
SIDON had been destroyed by Esarhaddon in B. C. 676, but was
rebuilt; cf. Jer. XXV, 22, XXVII, 3; Ezek. XXVIII, 20; Eiselen,
Sidon, 56-57.
ARVAD, now Ruad, N. Phoenician island and town, mentioned in
the Amarna letters and in the Assyrian annals, from Tiglath-
Pileser I who embarked in "ships of the country of Arvad" to
Ashurbanipal, whose feet a king of Arvad came to Nineveh to kiss.
Strabo, XVI, 2, 14, mentions men of Arvad as able mariners.
SUMUR: reading -)QV. f°r MT lix • so Cheminant, following
Kraetzschmar; Tyre in the text (Sur) being obviously an error.
Sumur, Greek Xipvpos, now Sumra, (Zemar of Gen. X, 18 and
1 Chron. I, 16) S. of Arvad, appears in the Amarna letters; it
revolted against Tiglath-Pileser III and Sargon.
GEBAL: on the coast about half-way between Sidon and Arvad;
often associated with Tyre and Sidon in the Assyrian inscriptions;
its men appear in 1 Kings V, 32 as able builders; the Amarna letters
mention shipping rivalry between Gebal and Arvad. Greek
BfySXos.
MEHALLEB: so Cheminant, from his corrections in the Hebrew;
appears in inscriptions of Sennacherib and Ashur-natsir-pal; cf.
Judges I, 31; on the site of the modern Tripoli. See however
Eiselen, Sidon, 43, u. 3. Assumes t]2 \if] 3^1113 ^JN-^a. 9 is
parallel to 27.
EXCHANGERS: trade was on a basis of barter, manufactures for
natural products, and required a service other than that for operat
ing the vessel; cf. Berard, Les Pheniciens et I'Odyssee, I, 395, 398.
FOUR BRANCHES of service in the ship "Tyre" called for the best
men of the cities of Phoenicia^ the same four appear at the wreck
of the ship, v. 27.
PERSIA, LUD, PUT. £J"1Q1 Tl5l DIB- Phoenicians built and
manned the Assyrian navy; were maritime carriers for Neo-Baby-
lonia; had been familiar for centuries with the voyages in Red
Sea and the Persian Gulf. Hence it is not impossible that

 ALLEGORY OF THE SHIP  79
these three peoples represent extremes in their voyages, and
that Lud is Lydia, and Put, as Muller suggests, (Asien u. Europa,
114), the Land of Punt of the Egyptian inscriptions, the shores of
the Gulf of Aden, especially the Somali coast. It seems more
probable, however, that all three are peoples found in central
Arabia. Tyrian galleys, coasting Arabia, controlled the com
merce of Babylonia on both its seas. Persian activity in E.
Arabia was constant; Persian conquests of its gold fields
probably preceded the Persian conquest of Babylon; the Periplus,
33, has half the S. coast Persian; Hamdani in his Jezirat has a
great Persian mining community in the mountains of Yemama.
Lud appears as a son of Mizraim (Egypt), Gen. X, 13; and a
son of Shem, Gen. X, 22, and if these two passages in the
genealogical tables are of different dates, they may refer to the
same people in Arabia. Glaser (Skizze 333-337) believes Put to
be a W. Arabian people, S. of Jebel Shammar, and N. of the
Minaeans. He identifies them with Budaa or Putaa of the
Esarhaddon inscriptions, in the land of Bazu or Buz (cf. Gen.
XXII, 21-22), and with Puta of the Naqs-i-Rustam inscription of
Darius. Cush, Put and Ludim were auxiliaries of Pharaoh
Necho against Nebuchadrezzar (Jer. XLVI, 9); Glaser suggests the
use of "Cush" in Arabia to denote foreign influence, especially
Persian, which grew notably before the Persian conquest of Baby
lon. In Isaiah (LXVI, 19) Tarshish, Put and Lud appear to
gether as men "that draw the bow". This is a late text in which,
as in 1 Kings X, 21-22 and II Chron. IX, 20-21, Tarshish intrudes
apparently in substitution for some Arabian tribe, or perhaps for
Persians. It seems probable that these three names all refer to
central Arabia; that the Ophir voyages were undertaken to avoid
the unsafe conditions on the caravan routes which they vaguely
suggest, and that they were discontinued after the resumption of
normal conditions in Arabia.
MEN OF WAR: ships had fighting men aboard for defence, and
galleries outside the rowers' benches where they were stationed;
there were deck structures for bowmen and casters of javelins;
hence this section, criticized by some as concerned with land
operations and outside the "ship" allegory, is quite in order.
Cf. Layard, Monuments of Nineveh, II pi. 71, for illustrations.
Cf. also the shields and targets of the house of the forest of
Lebanon, 1 Kings X, 16-17.

80 THE SHIP "TYRE"
HELECH: cf. Jer. XV, 13; Chalkis W. of Damascus (so Winckler);
Halevy suggests a Phoenician colony in Cilicia.
GAMMADIM: cf. Hamath, Gen. X, 18. Babylonian Kumidi,
Egyptian Kamadu, a district in S. Phoenicia (so Kraetzschmar; cf.
Muller, Asien u. Europa, 193, 396).
BDELLIUM, Gen. II, 12: n?13 from root ^3 select, precious;
rabb. int., pearl.
CORAL, Ezek. XXVII, 16: rilafcn from root Q&n costly, rabb.
int. coral, but the same word means coral and pearl, and in the
original the two passages were probably identical.
PEARL, Rev. XVIII, 12, 16: this perhaps gives the correct reading
of the two preceding. Cf. Assyr. inscrr. "product of the sea."
PROSE INTERLUDE: Cheminant would carry 12-24 to the end
of the chapter, separating it from the "ship" allegory; but the
order of the text is more in the Hebrew method.
TARSHISH: here probably Tartessus (Herodotus IV, 152) in
Baetica, S. Spain, near the modern Cadiz. The metals are pro
duced in Spain or could have been brought thither. The coast
from Cadiz to Huelva commands the valleys of the Guadalquivir,
and the Guadiana, one of the richest mineral districts in Europe. A
town named Tharsis, 20 m. N. of Huelva, maintains the tradition.
Benjamin of Tudela, however, identifies Tarshish with the
region of Tarsus; he refers to the port of Malmistras, "which
is Tarshish, situated by the sea; and thus far extends the kingdom
of the Javanim or Greeks" (ed. Adler, p. 15). The products
named for Tarshish are quite possible for Asia Minor, if we read
zinc for tin; both were alloys of copper, the distinction between
them was seldom understood, and the reference is to the vessels of
the temple. There is some reason to prefer this reading, which
would confine Ezekiel's trade-picture to ports within his own range
of acquaintance.
SILVER: the reference is to the sockets and hooks of the tabernacle,
Ex. XXVI, 19, 21, 25,. 32.
IRON: for the temple, 1 Chron. XXIX, 2; for its purification as
spoil, Num. XXXI, 22; armor for Solomon's army, 2 Chron. IX,
24.
TIN: as above, 1 Chron. XXIX, 2; Num. XXXI 22. An ingredient
of bronze, for weapons, and of brass, for vessels, utensils, and
pillars.

Tiglath-Pileser III, in his State Chariot
Layard, Nineveh and Babylon.
(See pp. 20, 56)
Reproduced from Maspero, The Passing of the Empires. D. Appleton & Co., publishers

MOUNT ARARAT

MOUNT DEMAVEND
(See pp. 39, 43, 90, 91)

Reproduced from Maspe o, The Passing of the Empires.
D. Appleton & Co., publishers

ALLEGORY OF THE SHIP 81
LEAD: an item of spoil to be purified, Num. XXXI, 22; perhaps
confused also with zinc, a product of Spain, and an ingredient of
brass.
WARES, not fairs as AV: cf. Toy, and Haupt's note, Sacred Books
of 0. T., 12.
JAVAN.-Ionia, -W. Asia Minor, the Aegean islands, and the Greek
settlements on the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor.
TUBAL: Tabalu of the Assyrian inscriptions, Tibareni of Herodotus
(III, 91; VII, 78) dwelt from the Anti-Taurus to the Black Sea.
Cf. Tubal-Cain of Gen. IV, 22.
MESHECH: Assyr. Musku, Herod. Moschi; northern Asia Minor
to E. of Taurus.
JAVAN, TUBAL AND MESHECH are sons of Japheth in the tribal
lists, Gen. X, 2.
PERSONS OF MEN: DTK PSJ here and Lev. XXIV, 17:
Num. XXV, 40, 46: 1 Chron. V, 21. Tyre had an active slave-
trade (Joel IV, 6; Amos I, 9); Herodotus mentions Greek slaves
in Egypt (II, 135) and slave markets at Samos, Sardis (III, 48)
Ephesus (VIII, 105) Chios; Xenophon (Anab. I, 10) mentions a
market at Miletus. But our reference is rather to the "persons"
who were set apart as priestly spoil, Num. XXXI, 28. And may
we not infer that "persons" suggest also the captives by Chebar?
VESSELS OF BRASS: from the Chalybean copper field above men
tioned. Brass was used in the tabernacle, especially for the altar
and its utensils; (Ex. XXVII, 2-6) in the temple (1 Chron. XXIX,
2; 2 Chron. II, 13) especially for the entrance pillars (1 Kings VII,
15-22); and when Ezekiel wrote, Nebuchadrezzar's pillage of
pillars, altar and utensils, and brazen sea from the temple, was
clearly remembered (2 Kings XXV, 13-17). They were stored in
the treasure-house at Babylon.
TOGARMAH: in Gen. X, 3, a son of Gomer, son of Japheth.
Armenia or a portion of it: Delitzsch quotes an Assyrian inscrip
tion concerning a town Tilgarimmu, on the borders of Tubal. Its
horses are described by Herodotus (I, 194, VII, 40) Xenophon
(Anab. IV, 5, 34) Strabo (XI, 13, 9).
DRAFT-HORSES, SADDLE-HORSES AND MULES: Cf. 1
Kings V, 2 for the chariots and cavalry of Solomon, and 2 Chron.
IX, 24, for his mules. D'BHB cannot mean "horsemen", as AV.
from LXX ixir«s. The distinction is between saddle and
vehicle.

82 THE SHIP "TYRE"
DEDAN: perhaps a town connected with Edom (Jer. XLIX, 8;
Ezek. XXV, 13) through which passed caravans from S. Arabia.
"From" many isles, so LXX, airb vrtauv. Ivory and ebony
were products of Nubia; the Periplus, 34, mentions them, with
rhinoceros horn, as exported from Ptolemais Theron and Adulis
on the W. shore of the Red Sea. "Tusks" of ivory would be more
correct than "horns".
IVORY AND EBONY: Cf. Solomon's throne (1 Kings X, 18-20)
and his Ophir voyages, which coasted Arabia; (2 Chron. IX, 21).
EDOM: Idumea; cf. Num. XX, 18, where Edom forbade Moses
passage. 2 Sam. VIII, 14; 2 Kings VIII, 20; 2 Chron. XXI, 8.
NOPHEK, ETC. The present version is that of Cheminant, fol
lowing the LXX. These precious stones are a part of the
priest's breast-plate, Ex. XXVIII, 17-20. MT has a confusion
of fabrics and gems, the verse beginning with Q-]N whence AV
Syria. But the fabrics have been listed in 7, the sail and
awning; and Damascus follows in 18; so that q-|,n seems prefer
able. LXX is corrupt, having avSpwrovs. But it has only one
fabric, irot,d\p.aTa, qualified by ix Oapaels, which is also the
name of a stone. Following Cornill, MT ;DJ"ltf and 5/13 are
omitted; flOPIl , read by LXX niopll . altered to np"131,
and twim inserted from LXX, giving the line a consistent
sequence.
RAMOTH, AV and RV coral. niDXI, pa-lM literally "high-priced"
things; the interpretation is rabbinical. In the Apocalypse
this becomes "pearl"; papyaplra applies to both.
CHODECOD MT -73-,;,, AV agate, RV rubies. LXX Xopx&P,
which may be the correct transliteration of the original Hebrew.
This may have some connection with root "113, to pierce,
and (like the Babylonian hulalu also from a root meaning to
pierce) may mean coral or pearl.
MINNITH: Ammonite town mentioned in Judges XI, 33. Am
mon was a source of supply of wheat; a large tribute to Jotham, of
wheat and barley, is described in 2 Chron. XXVII, 5; Solomon
gave Hiram wheat and barley, wine and oil, in return for cedar,
cypress and marble from Lebanon, 2 Chron. II, 9. Here again
Judah appears as a dealer in Ammonite grain.

 ALLEGORY OF THE SHIP  83
CAKES, HONEY. jJBl ; Targ. Ni<>lp — ^p. Clearly a food-
offering, possibly for n^3T "fig-cake" or D'3jy "raisin-cake".
That the meaning is cake of some sort appears from LXX, pbpwp.
So Cant. II, 5 has h> pbpois for nWSJ'fcG. and in Hos. Ill, 1
^'B'S a'SJl? is raisin-cake, offered to Q'n^N'^N'
Cf. IK. XIX, 6: B'BXI DJ5? > cakes baked on hot
stones. The reference is probably to the shewbread, Ex.
XXV, 30; it was baked in twelve cakes, Lev. XXIV, 5.
WHEAT was specified for the flour for the tabernacle offering,
Ex. XXIX, 2, also cakes unleavened mingled with oil. "Cakes"
is the LXX, pSipuv, rendered in Cant. II, 5 as "dainties" and
in Hosea III, 1 as "cakes". The Targum has "parched corn",
which was the meal offering of firstfruits, Lev. II, 14. HONEY
was forbidden for the burnt offering, Lev. II, 11; but not for the
shewbread; and it had an important part in the tradition; balm and
honey, spices and myrrh, nuts and almonds, made up the present
for the ransom of Benjamin, Gen. XLIII, 11; and it was by
Jonathan's eating wild honey, in disobedience of his father Saul's
command, that a victory was gained over the Philistines. 1 Sam.
XIV, 24-31. Honey was the first ingredient of the Egyptian
kyphi: Plutarch, de Is. et Osir. 81.
OIL, olive oil, an important product of Palestine. It was burned in
the lamp before the veil, Ex. XXVII, 20-21. The cakes and wafers
of the offering were anointed with it, Ex. XXIX 2; it was the
basis of the anointing oil, Ex. XXX, 24.
BALM; a concoction of the juices of several trees and shrubs native
in Palestine: perhaps Liquidambar, Balsamodendron, and Pistacia.
As ushu it appears in Babylonian inscriptions, and as su-ho it was
carried even to China (Glaser, Skizze, 359-366; Hirth, China and
the Roman Orient, 263). Cf. Gen. XXXVII, 25, XLIII, 11. It
may have been the same as the stacte of the incense, Ex. XXX, 34.
DAMASCUS: situated at the meeting-point of the caravan routes
between the Euphrates, the Mediterranean and the Nile, this was
an ancient center of trade. Strabo says that during the Persian
period it was one of the best cities in Syria (XV, 2, 20).
WINE OF HELBON: Assyrian Hilbunu, N. W. of Damascus. Men
tioned in Assyrian wine-lists (I Rawl. 65, 1, 24) also of Nebuchad
rezzar. The Persian kings had it (Strabo, XV, 3, 22); but the
reference is to the drink-offering, Ex. XXIX 40; and to the law
of tithes, Deut. XIV, 26.

84 THE SHIP "TYRE"
SHEEPSKINS: "in* 10V Targum, rather than "wool" of the
Hebrew. Sahar may be the same as Sicharia between Palestine
and the Euphrates. The reference is to the rams' skins for the
tent-covering, Ex. XXVI, 14. LXX has ipia ix MeXiJi-ou, but
pti\oitti is to be assumed; Targ. ri^'D- The same word is used
by LXX for Elijah's mantle, IK. XIX, 13: imiK3 from lix
"large"; it, too, was probably of sheepskin.
VEDAN, JEVAN, UZAL: MT 5riX0 tn HI . which readily
admits of this version. Cf. Glaser, (Skizze, 327-437) who locates
all three in a line through Medina to Jebel Shammar. Vedan is
Waddan between Mecca and Medina; Jevan (cf. the Jevanim of
Joel IV, 6, who were associated with Sheba) is Jaun or Jajn, about
24 Arabic miles from Medina; Uzal he would identify with Azalla
of the Ashurbanipal inscriptions, 10 miles E. of Medina, by the
Wadi el Hams. But the southern Uzal, the modern Sanaa,
150 m. NNE. of Mocha, is a possibility, as is the port of Ocelis at
the straits) cf. Periplus, 25). "Javan" is less probable. Pliny
(VI, 159) mentions a Milesian colony Ampelone, identified by
Sprenger with Wadi El Amud; but whether it existed in Ezekiel's
day is uncertain.
MASSIVE IRON: MT nWl? 5?13- AV "bright iron";
Kraetzschmar suggests "finely worked", and Cheminant "well
polished". But we may have here a correct description of the
crucible iron of central and southern India, which the Periplus
(6) mentions as coming to the port of Adulis. Cf. Schoff, The
Eastern Iron Trade of the Roman Empire, JAOS 35, iii, 224, 239.
This iron came to the market in round cakes, and was then fash
ioned into weapons. Whether this sea-trade had begun in
Ezekiel's time is uncertain. Iron was produced in Yemen, and
more plentifully in Nubia, whence it could have reached
Arabia across the Red Sea as ivory did. The text may mean no
more than "pig iron". Ezekiel's reference is to iron as a material
for the temple, 1 Chron. XXIX, 2; if for weapons, cf. the puri
fication list in Num. XXXI, 21-24.
CASSIA: an element in the anointing oil, Ex. XXX, 24. The
Babylonian kasu was apparently senna, (a leguminous shrub,
Cassia angustifolia) , for it was a purge (Jastrow, Medicine .of the
Babylonians and Assyrians, Trans. Roy. Soc. Med. 7, 2, 133).
The Roman cassia was cinnamon, from S. India and E. Himal
ayas. The cassia of Exodus and Ezekiel may have been the
bark of some variety of laurel, related to the cinnamon, produced

ALLEGORY OF THE SHIP 85
in the Horn of Africa, "from the eastern termination of the
Singali Mts. to Hafun (below C. Guardafui), on the southern slope
of the hills facing the humid SW. monsoons, and probably standing
on a silicious rock succeeding to the limestone" (Cooley, JRAS
1849, 19, 166-191); but inquiries recently made in this region, the
Mijertain, now mainly Italian Somaliland, by Drake-Brockman,
failed to produce any evidence of its existence. Italian explora
tions to date indicate the total absence of laurel varieties in the
Horn of Africa, because of the limestone and calcareous clay
everywhere found in that region. Lauraceae will not grow
where lime is present in the soil. For earlier references see
note on p. 25. There is some reason to think that Indian
steel and cinnamon both reached the ports of S. Arabia in
Ezekiel's time. But Indian evidence is lacking; the Baveru
Jataka, which describes a sea-voyage to Babylon, is dated about a
century later (B. C. 480) Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, 104.
Cf. a passage indicating more primitive sea-trade, quoted by
Rhys Davids from the Kevaddhu Sutta (Digha Nikaya) JRAS
1899, p. 432. Glaser (Skizze 40, 41) preferred to identify Ezekiel's
cassia as kadi, an aromatic palm of Yemen, Pandanus odora-
tissimus. The Hebrew word translated cassia means things
cut," and cinnamon means things bundled". These words
could be applied to many things. For senna; they could dis
tinguish between leaf and pod; and for the tree laurel, between
the coarse outer bark and the tender rolled-up inner bark. Her
odotus (2, 86; 3, 111) mentions Kaala as a spice brought from
Arabia, and remarks that the Greeks had the word Kwvap.up.or
from the Phoenicians as an equivalent to an Arabian word
Kaptpka meaning "cut sticks." Ben Sira (Ecclus. XXIV, 15)
connects cinnamon with aspalathus (Genisia acanthoclada) a
thorny shrub of Palestine, yielding a fragrant oil.
mp things cut; JiQJp bundled; nilMVp stripped.
CALAMUS: an element in the anointing oil, Ex. XXX, 24. Jeremiah
(VI, 20) mentions "incense from Sheba, and sweet cane from a far
country", conceivably India. It may have been the lemon-grass,
Andropogon schoenanthus ; but Acorus calamus is also to be con
sidered. Pliny (HN 13, 2) distinguishes between "Syrian calamus"
and "Syrian sweet-rush", both components of the Parthian regal
ointment. He says (21, 70) that the best came from near the
temple of Jupiter Ammon in Egypt. All of which is more con
fusing than helpful. These three items from Uzal suggest the

86  THE SHIP "TYRE" 
port of Ocelis, below Muza (Periplus, 25) which was directly at the
straits of Bab-el-mandeb, and which Pliny (6, 104) says was the
port for Indian shipping.
DEDAN: this is not the same as the Dedan of v. 15. It was in
relations with Kedar and Teima, Is. XXI, 13, Jer. XXV, 23-24.
Minaean inscriptions enable us to locate it at or near El-Ela.
(Jaussen and Savignac, Revue Biblique, 1910, 531; cf. Glaser,
Skizze, 392).
BEASTS: tf'Bn "l~W not saddle-cloths, as AV, RV, JR. Syriac and
LXX agree in the present reading: Krqviiv hiKacruiv. So
Gen. XLV, 17, "lade your beasts, and go". Cf. the mules of
Solomon's gifts, 2 Chron. IX, 24, and the priestly spoil of asses,
Num. XXXI, 28. [j>Bn is "loose"; instead of a "spread-out"
cloth, it might be a led, rather than a harnessed, beast. LXX
assumes ytjn "l,Jc,3» an<^ I'lH means beasts of burden: Gen.
XLV, 17.
ARABIA AND KEDAR: an inscription of Ashurbanipal also men
tions Kiidri and Aribi together. These Arabs were a tribe east of
Edom. Kedar is an Ishmaelite tribe of the desert, the Cedrei of
Pliny, H. N. 5, 12. "Their territory may correspond more or less
to that of the great tribe of the Shararat of our time, camped
ordinarily between Wadi Sirhan and el-Fedjer to the NW. of
Teima" (Jaussen and Savignac, Revue Biblique, 1910, 530; cf.
Gen. XXV, 13.)
LAMBS, RAMS AND GOATS: the LXX has camels in place of
lambs; but these are beasts of the priestly tradition, and the lambs
are for the sacrifice, Ex. XXIX, 38; the rams likewise, Ex. XXIX,
1; the goats were the sin offering (Lev. IX, 3) and they furnished
the hair from which were made the curtains for the tent over the
tabernacle, Ex. XXVI, 7.
SHEBA AND RAAMAH: two widely-separated places, one in SW,
the other in SE. Arabia. But caravan-routes from both met in the
Hedjaz and proceeded toward Edom. Sheba is the Sabaean
kingdom, Arabia Felix: Herodotus, III, 107-112; Strabo, XVI, 4,
19; Pliny, H. N. VI, 32. For the caravans bringing gold and
incense, cf. Is. LX, 6; and for the visit of the queen of Sheba, 1
Kings X, 1-13. The tribal tables throw light on conditions at
about this time: (Gen. X, 7) "And the sons of Cush: Seba, and
Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabteca; and the sons of
Raamah, Sheba, and Dedan." (Cf. Ps. LXXII, 10). The Sabaeans
had possessions as far north as Jebel Shammar; in Job 1, 15 and VI,

ALLEGORY OF THE SHIP 87
19 Sheba is a northern people. In Sargon's inscription Sheba
appears next to Medina, and in Joel IV, 8 it is linked with Jevan,
also near Medina. Cf. Glaser on the "Cushites", Skizze, 387-403.
SPICES: from the S. Arabian caravan-routes; these included myrrh
and frankincense, and possibly aloes and cinnamon. The Egyp
tian Punt expeditions brought back "myrrh, ebony and ivory, gold,
cinnamon, incense, eye-paint, apes, monkeys, dogs, panther-skins,
natives and their children". Incense-trees were planted in the
court of the temple; "heaven and earth are flooded with incense;
odors are in the Great House" (Breasted, Ancient Records of
Egypt, II, 288). The Papyrus Harris shows that frankincense
was by far the most treasured of the aromatics. There were
special rooms in the temple at Jerusalemfor storing it under priestly
guard (1 Chron. IX, 26-30) and a specified manner of preparing
the incense for the ritual (Ex. XXX, 34-35). When one of these
rooms was occupied as a dwelling, it was considered a sacrilege
(Nehemiah XIII, 4-9). Cf. Cant. Ill, 6; Is. LX, 6. The Nimrud
inscription of Tiglath-pileser III records tribute from Merodach-
baladan; gold, precious stones, product of the sea (coral? pearls?),
ushu wood, ellutu wood, party-colored clothing, all kinds of spices.
Herodotus (III, 97) says that the Arabs brought to Darius annual
tribute of 1,000 talents' weight of frankincense, and that a similar
quantity was burnt yearly by the Chaldeans on the altar of Bel at
Babylon (I, 183). Alexander counselled economy at the Mace
donian altars until he had conquered the incense lands (Pliny,
H. N. XII, 32). For the customs and restrictions as to gathering
and transporting frankincense, cf. Pliny, XII, 30; Periplus, 24,
29, 32.
PRECIOUS STONES: from the Yemama and the Persian Gulf,
from Nubia and India and Ceylon; the reference is to the priest's
breastplate, for which stones came also through Edom.
GOLD: the principal Arabian goldfields were in the central moun
tains; cf. Glaser's list from Hamdani's Jezirat (Skizze, 347-350).
The Wadi er Rumma and the Wadi ed Dawasir were worked from
ancient times, and caravan routes led N. E. to the Euphrates, E.
to the coast of the Persian Gulf, W. to the great N.-S. Arabian
route, S.W. to Sheba. The gold that came from Ophir (2 Chron.
VIII, 18) was "gold of Parvaim" (2 Chron. Ill, 6), that is, Sak
el Farwain, near the Wadi er Rumma and W. of Rass. Gold was
received also from Nubia, via Sheba. The reference is to the
gold of the tabernacle, Ex. XXV, 3 etc.

88 THE SHIP "TYRE"
HARAN: Assyrian, Harranu, Greek Xafipa, was in N. W.
Mesopotamia, on the Balikh, an affluent of the Euphrates, S. E.
of Edessa; it was a meeting-point of Syrian and Mesopotamian
caravan routes.
CANNEH: Kullani of the inscriptions, against which Tiglath-
pileser III led an expedition; in the district of Iadi; Calno, Is. X, 9;
Calneh, Amos VI, 2. Greek Xavaa.
SHEBA in 23, not in LXX.
EDEN: the Bit-Adini of the inscriptions, Beth-Eden of Amos I,
5; cf. Is. XXXVII, 12, "children of Eden in Telassar", whence,
perhaps, the "Asshur" in the Hebrew text. Middle Euphrates W.
of the Balikh. Here the Hebrew again inserts "Sheba"; but it is
apparently an interpolation, and is now omitted. Glaser makes
its appearance the basis of arguing that Haran, Canneh and
Eden are in S. Arabia; but the items of trade do not support
him; fine textiles were not S. Arabian products, but were imported
there (Periplus, 24).
CHILMAD: Kuulmadara of Tiglath-Pileser III, in the country of
Unki, — El Amk N. of Antioch; identified by Winckler with the
town of Gindaros mentioned by Strabo (XVI, 2, 8) in the same
region (so Cheminant, following Sarskowsky).
GORGEOUS FABRICS, MANTLES OF BLUE, CHESTS OF
CYPRESS: a vivid picture, suggesting the passage of a
laden caravan as the prophet spoke. Textile art and camel
caravans were familiar things in Babylonia. But the reference
is, first, to the priest's robe (Ex. XXVIII, 31-35) which was of
blue, embroidered with blue, purple, scarlet and gold; second, to
the king's garments (1 KingsX, 5, 25) ; third, perhaps, to the "goodly
Shinar mantle" which was among the spoil devoted to- the taber
nacle that Achan of the tribe of Judah hid in the earth under his
tent in the days of Joshua (Jos. VII, 10-26), and for that sin was
stoned to death. The chest itself may symbolize the ark of the
covenant. 1JJJ, from t33- to hoard or store. The temple treasury
wastjfJJ. MT has ijjj 0^0113 : LXX ftjtraupois feXocrods.
This d'0113 i* a word not elsewhere found, and variously
rendered: RV rich apparel. Cheminant connects it with
Assyr. burrumu, woven in colors; but the reference being to the
ark, and D'TIN > cedar, appearing in this same phrase, the
reading Qi'tP'113 cypress, is preferred. The chest, or ark, was

ALLEGORY OF THE SHIP 89
thus made of the two woods specified for the temple, cypress and
cedar. The cords may stand for the lacing of the mitre-plate.
There is a dual reference here, to the treasure-house at
Babylon, in which the sacred vessels from the temple at Jeru
salem were stored; and to the ark of the covenant, nni/n I11K
(Ex. XXV, 22). The root HlSt has the same meaning as f jj.
CLAP THEIR HANDS. The line is short. Kr. inserts ipst?
before lp1B>, easily omitted in copying, and appearing together
in Job XXVII, 23.
IN THE AGE. Whether ttfiy means "without end" as when
applied to 5k (Gen. XXI, 23) or "a long time" as Isa. XLII,
14, or "a span of life" Q^liny (1 Sam. I, 22), depends upon
circumstances. Here we may follow the LXX, tis rbv aUbva.
POLITICAL BACKGROUND: To interpret the succeeding oracle
and lamentation upon the "prince of Tyre", recent historical
events must be recalled. In B. C. 729, the great Assyrian king
Tiglath-pileser III, after gaining control of the Phoenician seaports
and of all Babylonia, put an end to the weak Babylonian dynasty,
and had himself invested with the sovereignty of Asia in the holy
city of Babylon, forcing the priestly hierarchy to do his will.
Divinity had been attributed to the Babylonian kings, but it was
conferred upon them by the priests, and the Assyrian king took it
upon himself by compulsion. In 722 the Babylonians revolted and
crowned Merodach-baladan their legitimate king. He reigned 12
years, when he was compelled to flee to the southern marshes, and
the Assyrian Sargon was received by the priests of Babylon. His
son Sennacherib, who succeeded to the throne in 705, and who
invaded Judaea in 701 and exacted a staggering tribute from
Hezekiah king of Judah, razed the holy city of Babylon to the
ground, in 691, and carried the image of Bel-Marduk to Nineveh.
(Jastrow, in Encycl. Brit., .art. "Babylonia"). Isaiah, who is of
this time, inserts in his prophecy against Asshur the "parable
against the king of Babylon", who is the king of Nineveh; and who
has angered the Almighty by saying in his heart, "I will ascend
into heaven, above the stars of God will I exalt my throne; and I
will sit upon the mount of meeting, in the uttermost parts of the
north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like
the Most High." Thus began the tradition of a "king of Babylon"
who was really a king of Assyria, puffed up with pride and clothed
with a divinity to which he had no right.

90 THE SHIP "TYRE"
I AM A GOD: this expression of pride of empire is the same as that
of the "king of Babylon" of Is. XIV, 12-15, the "day-star, son of
the morning." The parable of the king of Babylon was spoken against the
king of Assyria who had pillaged the temple. It expressed
political facts, and it gave a measure of safety to them that cir
culated this prophecy against the oppressor. Similar circum
stances influenced the prophecies of Ezekiel. Nebuchadrezzar of
Babylon was a worse oppressor, a more ruthless pillager of the
temple, and Judah was captive in his domain. Thus there was
greater need for giving cryptic expression to a prophecy against
him. His words of pride, his assumption of divinity, are the same
as those recounted by Isaiah of the Assyrian, and a like fate is
prophesied for him; but it is spoken of one against whom Judah
had no immediate quarrel, while the oppressor had, and therefore
would not punish a cryptic utterance against him. As Babylon for
Isaiah represented Nineveh, so Tyre for Ezekiel represented
Babylon. Jeremiah, who was Ezekiel's contemporary, could
write plainly about Babylon from his refuge in Egypt, and did so:
Cf. Jer. LI, 49-58, 63-64.
SEAL, i.e., he was the impression or copy of God; cf. the signet
ni.1'5 BHP in Ex. XXVII, 36. Cf. Cant. VIII, 6, also the signet
on the mitre-plate, Ex. XXVIII, 36.
Cf. Zohar, III, 107: At the moment when the earthly union
takes place, the Holy One (blessed be He !) sends to earth a
form resembling a man, and bearing upon itself the divine
seal  It is this image which receives us first on our arrival
into this world. It grows in us as we grow, and leaves us
when we leave the world. This image is from above. When
the souls are about to quit their heavenly abode each soul
appears before the Holy One (blessed be He!) clothed with an
exalted form on which are engraven the features which it will
bear here below." — Abelson, Jewish Mysticism, 165-166.
EDEN, THE GARDEN OF GOD: )
THE HOLY MOUNTAIN OF GOD: j these are symbols of the
divinity with which the rulers of the dual kingdom were clothed: —
the garden of Eden for the king of Babylon, and for the Assyrian
the holy mountain of the north. Tiglath-pileser in his time, and
now Nebuchadrezzar, "walked with the gods" in both Valhallas.

ALLEGORY OF THE SHIP 91
Politically it suggests that the king governed from the Persian
Gulf to Ararat, or Demavend. Of no real king of Tyre could this
have been said; Ezekiel is prophesying for Nebuchadrezzar the
fate that the Babylonian was planning for his proud vassal.
EDEN AND THE MOUNTAIN OF THE NORTH: extreme limits
of Semitic empire-building, and more specifically, of Assyrian con
quest. Shalmaneser II had conquered Urartu; its name meant
"sacred ground" (Sans. Aryavarta); its great peak, Mt. Ararat,
was held to be a divine abode; Mt. Nizir, one of the "mountains of
Ararat" commanding the Assyrian plain, was the reputed resting-
place of the ark of the Chaldean Noah (Sayce, in Maspero, Passing
of the Empires, vii); Tiglath-pileser III had penetrated to the
heart of Media and his army had trodden the slopes of the sacred
Demavend, the utmost boundary mark of the known world, and
he had made the most of the exploit (Maspero, ibid. 142); he
had also "taken the hand of Bel" at Babylon. Ezekiel uses the
• same expression for Nebuchadrezzar. The "Mountain of God"
is the "mountain of dwelling", linD'TH. which corresponds to
the "tabernacle of dwelling" of the Hebrews, 1J?1D ^ITN. the
abode of nilT1- Ezek. XXVIII, 1 and 14 jointly are an echo of
Isa. XIV, 13; which is an allusion to the boasting of Tiglath-
pileser III over the exploit of his army that set foot upon
Demavend. "Eden and the Mountain", as a political expression, parallels
"Sumer and Akkad" or "Kengi and Uri."
But this passage is symbolic also of the cosmos. The Moun
tain is the dwelling-place of the Most High, source and goal of
all souls; Eden is the resting-place through which souls pass on
their journey to, and from, the earth, and from which they are
driven by the guardian Cherub upon their exchanging the
garments of light for those of the flesh. This way the "King
of Tyre" had come; but for him there was no return, for he
had exalted his earthly throne "above the stars of God".
EVERY PRECIOUS STONE: a talismanic arrangement, similar
to the high priest's breastplate, suggesting that divinity spoke
through the breast of the king. The Hebrew text gives a nine-
stone talisman; and notwithstanding the LXX gives the twelve-
stone arrangement of Ex. XXVIII, 17-20 and the nine stones are
rows 1, 4 and 2 of the breastplate, the nine-stone arrangement is
probably correct for this passage. Nine-stone talismans appear in

92 THE SHIP "TYRE"
the Babylonian inscriptions, and the Hindu naoratna was also of
nine. But if the nine are correct for Babylon, we have an eight-
stone talisman in an Assyrian inscription, and the Syriac at this
verse gives eight stones. If Ezekiel wrote correctly, his trans
lators may also be right within their lights, — the LXX for Jeru
salem, and the Syriac, through some local tradition, for Nineveh.
CHERUB: cf. the ark-cover with the cherubim, Ex. XXV, 17-18,
and the "chariot" of the cherubim, 1 Chron. XXIX, 18.
HAILSTONES: the versions follow MT. "stones of fire", a con
densed expression clearly parallel to Ps. XVIII, 13 or Isa.
XXX, 30, "hailstones and coals of fire"; tfR-i^rUI 113 (t3«)
shortened to K>K-iJ3,K.
The line being short, it has been completed from Ps. above.
STONES OF FIRE: perhaps a suggestion of the lightning, as a
manifestation of divine power, and conceived as encircling the
divine abode. Cf. the Cherubim with their flaming swords,
stationed at the garden of Eden to shut out the man and the woman
who, said the Lord God, are "become as one of us, to know good and
evil." (Gen. Ill, 22-24). The Cherub remains in this lamentation,
but he is placed, not at the garden, but at the holy mountain, and
casts out Nebuchadrezzar like another Adam. (So Cheminant,
following Loisy). Cf. also, the hailstones and coals of fire sur
rounding the Lord in Psalm XVIII, 13; the brightness and coals of
fire of 2 Sam. XXII, 13; and the thunders and lightnings of Ex.
XIX, 16-18, XX, 18, XXIV, 18. Later, in Enoch LXXI, 5, the
abode of the Lord is surrounded with tongues of fire. "Stones of
fire" suggest also meteorites, as another heavenly manifestation.
SANCTUARY: Vulg. following LXX, has sanctificationem; but the
reference is rather to the divine abode in which the king had been
placed and from which the Cherub had driven him forth. But
the plural is not required.
WILL I RAISE: AV, RV, JR, have these in the past tense, but
the future of the Vulg. is needed to complete the prophecy.
SHALT BE NO MORE: so the prophecy runs its course. In
Ezek. XXVI the doom of the real city Tyre was foretold; in XXVII
that of the Tyre that carried the traffic of Babylon, and in minute
detail brought from their sources all the materials of the Jewish
sanctuary and ritual, palace and power, which Babylon had so
recently stolen, and nothing beside; in XXVIII that of the

 ALLEGORY OF THE SHIP  9£
monarch whom vassal Tyre had enriched, who was about to crush
his vassal, and whose kingdom ran throughout the valleys of Eu
phrates and Tigris from mouth to source, from the garden of Eden
to Ararat or Demavend. Of Nebuchadrezzar and no other was
this doom foretold.
SUBSTITUTION OF NAME: That such cryptic utterances were
not unusual, and especially assumed of Ezekiel's writings, is shown
in two passages from the Talmud:
Whosoever prieth into the four things in the matter of the
chariot in Ezekiel's vision — what is above, what is beneath,
what is before, or what is behind — it were better for him if he had
never been born. (Chaggigah, 11, 2).
When Nero came to the Holy Land, he tried his fortune by
belemnomancy thus: — He shot an arrow eastward, and it fell
upon Jerusalem; he discharged his shafts towards the four points
of the compass, and every time they fell upon Jerusalem. After
this he met a Jewish boy, and said unto him, "Repeat to me the
text thou hast learned today." The boy repeated, "I will lay
my vengeance upon Edom (i.e., Rome) by the hand of my
people Israel." (Ezek. XXV, 14). Then said Nero, "The Holy
One — blessed be He! — has determined to destroy His Temple
and then avenge Himself on the agent by whom its ruin is
wrought." Thereupon Nero fled and became a Jewish proselyte
and Rabbi Meir is of his race. (Gittin, 56, 1).
DOUBLE MEANINGS: Cf. Koran, IV, 48: "There are those of
the Jews who twist words from their meaning, and say, We have
heard and have resisted; but hear thou without understanding."
PRIESTLY LISTS: The compilation and interpretation of lists of
stones, plants and, presumably, other substances, was a special
function of the Semitic priesthood. To Dr. H. F. Lutz, of the
University of Pennsylvania, I am indebted for the following
translation, from an Assyrian tablet reproduced in Ebeling,
Keilschrift Texte Religiosen Inhalts aus Assur, No. 44: "The
Essentials of the series of the Incantation Priesthood, which are
laid down for learning and inspection: — the total of their names."
Amongst the enumeration of "their names" is "the preparing of
stones: the preparing of plants; to compose and  lists of
stones [and] lists of plants." This tablet is thought to refer to
the priests' school at the Esagila temple in Babylon.

94 THE SHIP "TYRE"

VIII
Babylon was taken in 538 B.C. by Cyrus king
of Persia, who promptly released the Israelites
from captivity. He ordered that they be as
sisted in rebuilding the temple, and he returned
the sacred vessels taken by Nebuchadrezzar:
five thousand four hundred vessels of gold and
silver in all.1 A decree of Cyrus quoted by
Ezra directed the building to be on strong
foundations, three rows of great stones and a
row of new timber, and that the builders be
given what they needed for the daily offerings;
bullocks, rams, lambs, wheat, salt, wine, and oil.
The temple was finished in the reign of Darius.
At its dedication were offered a hundred bullocks,
two hundred rams, four hundred lambs; and for
a sin-offering twelve he-goats, one for each
tribe.2 For the maintenance of the temple service
taxes were levied by ordinance; the third of a
shekel for the showbread, meal-offering and
burnt-offering, the sabbaths, new moons, ap
pointed seasons, and holy things, and for the sin-
offerings to make atonement. To the priests
were ordered the firstfruits of the land and the
trees, of the sons and the cattle, the herds and
the flocks, the wine and the oil. To the Levites,
the tithes.
iEzra I, 1-11 2Ezra VI, 1-18

 THE SECOND TEMPLE  95
For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the
heave-offering of the corn, of the wine, and of the oil, unto the
chambers, where are the vessels of the sanctuary, and the priests
that minister, and the porters, and the singers; and we will not
forsake the house of our God.8
At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem
there were thanksgivings, with singing, with
cymbals, psalteries, and with harps, and "with
the musical instruments of David the man of
God." And "the joy of Jerusalem was heard
even afar off."4
Thus far the accounts of Ezra and Nehemiah.
For the second temple no specifications of build
ing or equipment, and no details of service,
except that it was as B "appointed by the law,"
or "written in the book of Moses." The single
measurement of ninety cubits length in the de
cree of Cyrus differs from the hundred cubits of
Ezekiel's specifications.6 But for the first
temple and the tabernacle minute details remain.
It is, perhaps, not unreasonable to assume that
when the "heads of fathers' houses were written
in the book of the chronicles," 7some portions
of this priestly tradition were included also.8
3 Neh. X, 33-40 4 Neh. XII, 27-43 6 Neh. XII, 44; Ezra VI, 18
» Ezra VI, 3; Ezek. XLl, 13-15 » Neh. XII, 23
8 According to another account, the second temple was more mag
nificent than the first: (Hag II, 9) "The glory of this latter
house shall be greater than that of the former." The Talmud,
however, notes five things which were in the first temple which
were not in the second: the ark and its cover, with the cherubim;
the fire; the Shechinah or visible presence; the Holy Spirit of
prophecy; and the Urim and Thummim; and a commentator sug
gests that they were absent because they tended to usurp the
place of the spiritual, of which they were but the assurance and
symbol. (Yoma, 21,2)

96 THE SHIP "TYRE"

IX
Ezekiel greatly developed the apocalyptic ele
ment in the priestly tradition. As the tribula
tions of the Israelites continued and the proph
ecies of their re-establishment, prosperity and
world leadership were postponed from century
to century and seemed ever less likely of accom
plishment, there grew up a large following that
would translate these promises into another
world.1 In the Apocalypse of John, the method of
Ezekiel is closely followed.2 The very words
are echoes or quotations from Ezekiel, Isaiah
and Jeremiah. The material substances men
tioned are those already quoted from Exodus,
Numbers, Judges, Chronicles and Ezekiel, yet so
employed as to present the same vivid sketch of
the activities of a new, rich and ruthless world
power — Imperial Rome. We have sufficient
ground for dating the Apocalypse3 about 93 A.D.
from its mention not only of the persecutions
under the emperor Domitian, but of two of his
decrees affecting agriculture and viticulture.
This was but a few years subsequent to the cam
paign of Titus against Jerusalem, 70 A.D.,
1 Cf. Charles, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testa
ment: also, Religious Development between the Old and New
Testaments (Home University Library).
' Rev. XVII, 3-5, 18.
• S. Reinach, Cultes, Mythes et Religions, II, 356-380, from Rev.
VI, 6; but the author was familiar with the temple at Jerusalem
before Titus destroyed it: (XI, 1-2).

.mi
A People earried away with their Household Goods and Cattle. Layard, Monuments of Nineveh. (See pp. 40, 44)
Reproduced from Maspero; The Passing of the Empires. D. Appleton & Co., publishers

mff%

:-1l.%i.W%i $. -. '4-i'Ski ?yitllluV

THE GREAT CITY "BABYLON" 97
which ended with the capture and destruction of
the city and the dispersion of its survivors.
The Israelites at that time were smarting at the
hand of Rome, just as in Ezekiel's time they were
at the hand of Babylon. The prophecies of
destruction, although made by the author of the
Apocalypse in the name of Babylon, which had
been dead for so many centuries that its very
site was almost forgotten, referred surely to the
immediate oppressor, who was conceived as
gathering within herself all the sins and crimes
of which all the earlier oppressors of Israel had
been accused.4
The curses of the centuries are gathered to
gether, concentrated and focused upon the im
mediate object of the writer's wrath — the city of
Imperial Rome. We are introduced to her as a
"woman sitting upon a scarlet beast, arrayed
in purple and scarlet, decked with precious stones
and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full
of abominations." That her real name is not
the one written we are advised in the statement,
"upon her forehead the name written, Mystery,
Babylon The Great." The writer further ex
plains, "the woman which thou sawest is the
great city which reigneth over the kings of the
earth."6 In this description there are echoes not only

'It is evident that the priestly tradition is followed: the Exodus
passages are from the P document: Ezekiel himself a Zadokite and
priest: and the writer of the Apocalypse had both at his finger
tips.
'Rev. XVII, 3-5, 18

98  THE SHIP "TYRE" 
of the faithless foundling6 and the wanton
sisters of Ezekiel,7 but of the daughters of Israel
weeping over Saul,8 who clothed them with
scarlet and other delights, and put ornaments of
gold upon their apparel. The items singled out
for descriptions of the adornment are merely the
high lights of the adornment of the tabernacle,
the golden vessels of which had been dishonored.
This description of Rome at the height of her
prosperity is wonderfully vivid. We seem even
to smell the smoke of the great fire of Rome in
the time of Nero.9
MYSTERY OF THE GREAT CITY "BABYLON"
After these things I saw another angel coming down out of
heaven, having great authority; and the earth was lightened
with his glory.
And he cried with a mighty voice, saying, Fallen, fallen is
Babylon the great, and is become a habitation of devils, and a
hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and
hateful bird.
And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come forth,
my people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins,
and that ye receive not of her plagues:
For her sins have reached even unto heaven, and God hath
remembered her iniquities.
And the kings of the earth  shall weep and wail over
her, when they look upon the smoke of her burning 
And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her,
for no man buyeth their merchandise any more;
Merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stone, and
pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet; and all
thyine wood, and every vessel of ivory, and every vessel made of
most precious wood, and of brass and iron, and marble:
• Ezek. XVI, 10-19
7 Ezek. XXIII, 5-24
8 II Sam. I, 24
a Rev. XVIII, 1-2, 4-5, 9, 11-12, 13, 15-21

THE GREAT CITY "BABYLON" 99
And cinnamon, and spice, and incense, and ointment, and
frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and
cattle, and sheep; and merchandise of horses and chariots and
slaves; and souls of men.
The merchants of these things, who were made rich by her,
shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and
mourning; Saying, Woe, woe, the great city, she that was arrayed in
fine linen and purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and pre
cious stone and pearl!
For in one hour so great riches is made desolate. And every
shipmaster, and every one that saileth any whither, and mari
ners, and as many as gain their living by sea, stood afar off,
And cried out as they looked upon the smoke of her burn
ing, saying, What city is like unto the great city?
And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and
mourning, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, wherein were made
rich all that had their ships in the se'a by reason of her costliness!
for in one hour is she made desolate.
Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye saints, and ye
apostles, and ye prophets; for God hath judged your judgment on
her. And a strong angel took up a stone as it were a great mill
stone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with a mighty fall
shall Babylon, the great city, be cast down, and shall be found
no more at all.
This list of articles of trade might stand for a
sketch of the commerce of Rome, but when
examined in detail it is evidently no more than a
selection from the tabernacle and temple speci
fications,10 with a few changes, due to the rab
binical interpretations of Ezekiel. There are the
familiar gold and silver, linen, and silk (or, more
correctly, covering of goats' hair), purple and
scarlet of the tabernacle, and the precious stones
of the breastplate. Pearls appear in place of
1° Ex. XXV-XXX: 1 Chron. XXIX.

100 THE SHIP "TYRE"
Ezekiel's "costly substance" rendered as coral,
which replaced the "precious substance" ren
dered as bdellium, which accompanied the onyx
of the priests' shoulder buckles.11
"All thyine wood" harks back to the coni
ferous timbers of the temple. Thyine wood,
Thuya, is the arbor vitae, a variety of cypress,
which was one of the timbers commanded by
both David and Solomon for the temple con
struction, and for musical instruments. In the
Vulgate the doubtful algum of Chronicles is
rendered as thyine.12
Ivory recalls the palace; for Solomon's throne
was a "great throne of ivory, overlaid with
finest gold."13
"Precious wood" may include many things,
the sacred acacia wood14 of the tabernacle, the
olive of the temple interior,16 the ebony of
Ezekiel,16 or the foreign woods brought back
from Solomon's voyages.17
The brass and iron were military equipment,

11 Benjamin of Tudela has the pearls yielded by the bdellium (ed.
Adler, p. 63), in which he follows Saadia Gaon in his Arabic
translation of the Bible. Jewish authorities are divided as to
whether bdolakh was a jewel or a gum. To this may be due the
confusion in the legend, as between bdellium, coral and pearl
(including nacre or mother-of-pearl). Gen. II, 11-12: Ex. XXVIII,
6-12: Ezek. XXVII, 16: Rev. XVIII, 12.
12 1 Kings X, 11: 2 Chron. IX, 10-11
13 1 Kings X, 18-20: 2 Chron. IX, 17-19
" Ex. XXV, 10
16 1 Kings VI, 31-35
18 Ezek. XXVII, 15
"1 Kings X, 11

THE GREAT CITY "BABYLON" 101

whereof, after purification, the priests had their
lawful share.18
Marble was the stone quarried for Solomon's
temple.19 Cinnamon, spices, incense, oint
ment, and frankincense20 are an echo of the in
cense and anointing oil for the tabernacle.
Wine, cattle, and sheep were specified for the
various tabernacle offerings;21 and they^were
among the items subject to tithe; the cattle and
sheep tithe might be converted into wine at the
convenience of the owner.22
In the "oil and fine flour" we have an echo of
the lamp of the tabernacle, and of the meal
offering.23 The "wheat" refers to the shew
bread.24 It was also a crop subject to tithe.
Horses and chariots are an echo of the splen
dors of the army of king Solomon, considered so
remarkable that the annalist in Kings gives us
the price at which they were purchased.25
Slaves were an item of the spoil of victory,
whereof the priests and Levites had their lawful
share.26 "Souls of men" is the single contribution of
the author of the Apocalypse to these traditional
lists. In a sense this distinction between a man's
body and his soul may reflect the progress of
18 Num. XXXI, 21-23 '
" 1 Chron. XXIX, 2
M Ex. XXX, 23-25
81 Ex. XXIX
* Deut. XIV, 22-29
23 Ex. XXVII, 20: XXIX, 40-41
M Ex. XXV, 30
M 1 Kings X, 26-29
* Num. XXXI, 25-30

102 THE SHIP "TYRE"
human thought and belief between the periods
of the Law and of the New Testament. On the
other hand, this passage affords an interesting
instance of the change in the meaning of the
word psyche, which, in the LXX, both in the
instruction for division of the spoil between
people and priests, Numbers 31,27 and Eze
kiel's list,28 means the "persons of men". The
author of the Apocalypse makes a distinction,
and writes for slave the word soma meaning
"body," while he reserves his psyche for the
soul.29 In this we may have a reflection of the
worship of the emperor imposed upon her subjects

27 Num. XXXI, 35 ^vxriv avOpinrav. Q-jx (JJQJl
28 Ezek. XXVII, 13 tf/uxais avBpinrw. Qi(( tJ>BJ3
28 Rev. XVIII, 13 ausparoiv Kal if/vxas avBpinrusv
Cf. Burton, Spirit, Soul, and Flesh: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1918
Cf. Zohar, II, 142: The soul is a trinity of three elements,
flDEO Neshamah, the highest phase of existence; nil Ruah,
the moral element, the seat of good and evil; t!>Q,y Nephesh,
the gross side of spirit, the vital element which is en rapport
with the body. In these three we find an exact image of
what is above in the celestial world. For all three form only
one soul  The Nephesh does not in itself possess any light...
Above the Nephesh is the Ruah, which dominates the Nephesh,
imposes laws upon it, and enlightens it as much as its nature
requires. And then high above the Ruah is the Neshamah,
which in turn rules the Ruah and sheds upon it the light of
life. The Ruah is lit up by this light, and depends entirely
upon it. After death, the Ruah has no rest. The gates of
Paradise (Eden) are not opened to it until the time when the
Neshamah has reascended to its source, to the Ancient of the
ancients, in order to become filled with Him throughout
eternity. For the Neshamah is always climbing back again
towards its source." — Abelson, Jewish Mysticism, 160-161.

THE GREAT CITY "BABYLON" 103
by Imperial Rome, wherein the city is conceived
as being the mistress not only of the bodies,
but of the souls of her subjects.
The "casting of the great millstone into the
sea by a strong angel" to picture the fall of
Babylon is an echo of the doom prophecy of
Jeremiah, which was to have been sent to Baby
lon and publicly read, wrapped about a stone and
cast into the Euphrates to justify the prophecy.30
Such are the articles included in this list of the
commerce of Rome. We cannot assume them to
have been intended as a matter-of-fact list of the
commerce of the Roman Empire, then the great
est power in the world with wealth greater, and
communications more distant and varied than
any of the world's empires before her. These
substances are merely a condensed selection from
the items that figure in the Hebrew annals in
connection with tabernacle, temple, palace, or
priestly spoil. Whoever desires an actual list of
the commerce of Rome need only consult such
works as the Periplus, or the Natural History
of Pliny, to see the contrast.

38 Jer. LI, 63-64

104 THE SHIP "TYRE'

X
There remains in this excursion into the sym
bolism of commerce only to consider the descrip
tion of the New Jerusalem which, in the same
way, is based upon material from Exodus and
Ezekiel. We may first recall the significance of the
color blue, whether in stone or in fabric, as stand
ing for something more than the ordinary, more
even than the earthly. In the passage in Exo
dus which describes the ascent of Moses and the
elders1 of Israel on Mt. Sinai, and their vision
of the God of Israel, it is said,
There was under his feet the like of a paved work of sap-
pir stones, and the like of the very heaven for clearness 
and the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like devouring
fire. So in Ezekiel's first vision which called him to
his duty of prophecy,2
1 Ex. XXIV, 10
2 Ezek. 1, 26-27
Hashmal ^DS^f! in this passage, AV amber, JR electrum,is an in
stance of the cryptic method of Ezekiel. While it seems to
mean shining", it is explained as a condensed form of Hayot
esh me-mal-le-loth, the living creatures of fire, speaking"; and
a modern commentator, Malbim, explains the Hayot as "the
living creatures which are the camp of the Shechinah (the
Divine Presence) where there is the 'still small voice.' It is
they who receive the Divine effluence from above and dissem
inate it to the Hayot who are the movers of the 'wheels' of
Ezekiel's Chariot." The Chariot was a sort of 'mystic way'
leading up to the final goal of the soul; and the rider of the
Chariot, or Merkabah, was he who aimed, while still in the
flesh, to mount up to the spiritual world.
— Abelson, Jewish Mysticism, 34-38

THE HOLY CITY 105
was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sap-
pir stone  and the color of hashmal as the appearance of
fire round about enclosing it.
The tables of the law brought down by Moses,
according to legend,3 were engraved upon the
finest blue stone then known — lapis-lazuli.4
The writer of the Apocalypse gives a wider
range of color, for he describes a 6throne in
heaven,
and one sittirig on a thrmre; and he that sat was to look
upon like a iaspis stone and a sardios;  a rainbow round
about the throne like smaragdos to look upon.8
The description of the Holy City is a develop
ment of the brief prophecy in II Isaiah: 6

3 Epiphanius De XII Gemmis 5
4 This may, of course, be a variant of the engraving of the law on the
altar of unhewn stone (Josh. VIII, 32)
8 Rev. IV, 3. The tradition is an ancient one; Cf. Inscription of
Ramses III, in the Medinet Habu Temple, (Breasted, Ancient
Records, IV, 7.)
"He made it as (his) monument for his father, Amon-Re,
making for him "The-House-of-Usermare-Meriamon-Possessed-of-
Eternity-in-the-House-of-Amon," like unto the great palace of the
horizon; of fine sandstone. The "Great Seat" is of gold, its pave
ment of silver, its doors of gold and black granite; the broad-hall
of stone of Ayan, the doors thereof of copper in beaten work, the
inlay-figures of electrum and every splendid costly stone. When
the sun rises, he shines into its midst, his splendor envelops its
house, the favorite seat of (his) father, Amon. When he sets,
he touches its beauty, silver, electrum, and every costly stone . . . . "
8 Is. LIV, 11-12

106 THE SHIP "TYRE"
O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest
And not comforted,
Behold, I will set thy stones in fair colours,
And lay thy foundations with sappir.
And I will make thy pinnacles of chodecod,
And thy gates of eqedakh,7
And all thy border of precious stones.
which in turn is an echo of Solomon's temple:
"and he garnished the house with precious
stones for beauty."8
In the Holy City the names of the twelve
tribes that were engraved on the stones of the
7 EQEDAKH, flTpX from qadakh to kindle; rendered, carbuncles.
The LXX has sappheiros, iaspis and krystallos.
8 2 CKron. Ill, 6: but the Vulgate has "pretiosissimo marmore",
suggesting the possibility that the original stones of the temple,
were merely the costly marble brought down with infinite
labor from Lebanon or Anti-Libanus, translated by later fancy
into "precious marble" and finally into the otherwise rather im
practicable "precious stones" of the foundations of the Holy City.
The Talmud, however, offers assurance of the literal truth of
the precious stone foundations: Rabbi Yochanan, in expound
ing Isa. LIV, 12, said: "The Holy One— blessed be He!— will
bring precious stones and pearls, each measuring thirty cubits by
thirty, and polishing them down to twenty cubits by ten, will place
them in the gates of Jerusalem." A certain disciple contemptu
ously observed: "No one has ever yet seen a precious stone as
large as a small bird's egg, and is it likely that such immense ones
as these have any existence?" He happened one day after this to
go forth on a voyage, and there in the sea he saw the angels
quarrying precious stones and pearls like those his Rabbi had told
him of, and upon inquiry he learned that they were intended for
the gates of Jerusalem. On his return he went straight to Rabbi
Yochanan and told him what he had seen and heard. "Raca!"
said the latter. "Hadst thou not seen them thou wouldst have kept
on deriding the words of the wise!" Then fixing his gaze intently
on him, he with the glance of his eye reduced to a heap of bones the
carcass of his body. (Bava Bathra, 75, 1)

 THE HOLY CITY  107
breastplate are transferred to the twelve gates
of the city,9 while the foundations of the city,
carrying out Isaiah's vision, were of twelve pre
cious stones engraved, with the names of the
twelve apostles.10 THE HOLY CITY
And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high
mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy city Jeru
salem, coming down out of heaven from God,
Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone
most precious, as it were a iaspis stone, clear as crystal;
Having a wall great and high; having twelve gates, and at
the gates twelve angels; and names written thereon, which are
the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:
On the east three gates; and on the north three gates; and on
the south three gates; and on the west three gates.
And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on
them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
And he that spake with me had for a measure a golden reed
to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.
And the city lieth foursquare, and the length thereof is as
great as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed,
twelve thousand furlongs: the length and the breadth and the
height thereof are equal.
And he measured the wall thereof, a hundred and forty and
four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an
angel. And the building of the wall thereof was iaspis and the city
was pure gold, like unto pure glass.
The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all
manner of precious stones. The first foundation was iaspis;
the second, sappheiros; the third, karchedonios; the fourth,
smaragdos.

» Rev. XXI, 11
10 and following the arrangement of Ezekiel in his ideal temple
(XLVIII, 30-35)

108 THE SHIP "TYRE"
The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardios; the seventh, chrysoli-
tkos; the eighth, beryllos; the ninth, topazion; the tenth, chryso-
prasos; the eleventh, hyakinthos; the twelfth, amethystos.
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the
several gates was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure
gold, as it were transparent glass.11
The stones are obviously the same as the list
for the breastplate. After due correction, allow
ing for change in the meaning of words, and with
some re-arrangement in order, they admit of the
same color arrangement.
Curious indeed is the similarity of this vision
to one of a far-distant religion.12 Kusavati, the
Celestial City of the Hindus, is thus described : —
"Seven ramparts surrounded Kusavati, the materials being
respectively gold, silver, beryl, crystal, agate, coral and all
kinds of gems. In these ramparts were four gates — one of gold,
one of silver, one of crystal and one of jade — and at each gate
seven pillars were fixed, each three or four times the height of a
man and composed of the seven precious substances that con
stituted the ramparts. Beyond the ramparts were seven rows
of palm trees, the fourth row having trunks of silver and leaves of
gold; then followed palms of beryl, with leaves and fruit of beryl;
agate palms, whose fruit and leaves were of coral, and coral
palms, with leaves and fruit of agate; lastly, the palms whose
trunks were1 composed of "all kinds of gems" had leaves and
fruit of the same description, "and when these rows of palm
trees were shaken by the wind, arose a sound sweet and pleas
ant, and charming and intoxicating."
And as early as the Gilgamesh Epic we have a
description of the "mystic cedar tree", which
grew in the Elamite sanctuary of Irnina under

11 Rev. XXI, 10-21
12 Maha Sudassana Suttanta; Buddhist Suttas, tr. Rhys Davids,
S.B.E. XI

THE HOLY CITY 109

the guardianship of King Humbaba, and which,
like the oak Ygdrasil of the Saxons, joined heaven
and earth:13
It produces samtu-stones as fruit;
Its boughs hang with them, glorious to behold;
The crown of it produces lapis-lazuli;
Its fruit is costly to gaze upon.
and another tree viewed by Gilgamesh:
It bore precious stones for fruits;
Its branches were glorious to the sight;
The twigs were crystals;
It bore fruit costly to the sight.
Also another tree of Hindu religion:14
The Kalpa tree of Hindu religion, a symbolical offering
to the gods, was a glowing mass of precious stones. Pearls hung
from its boughs and beautiful emeralds from its shoots; the tender
young leaves were corals, and the ripe fruit, rubies. The roots
were sapphire; the base of the trunk, diamond; the upper trunk,
cat's eye, the middle trunk, topaz. The foliage (except the
young leaves) zircons.
The legend was not unknown to the Greeks.
Lucian describes a "gem city":16
The city of the Islands of the Blessed. The walls of this
city were of emerald, the temples of the gods were formed of
beryl, and the altars therein of single amethysts of enormous
size. The city itself was all of gold as a fit setting for' these
marvelous gems.

18 Ward, Seal Cylinders of Western Asia, Washington 1910, pp. 232-4
14 Surindro Mohun Tagore, Mani Mala, Calcutta 1881, II, 645-7
16 Vera Historia 2, 11 : these are quoted from Kunz. The Curious Lore
of Precious Stones.

110 THE SHIP "TYRE"
XI
The goal of our journey might seem too simple
to justify the length of the road, were it not also
fundamental. These enrichments of worship,
as Ezekiel put it, were as ornaments to the found
ling that she might be made fair as a bride for
the Master. When taken for the adornment of
worldly pride, they not only lost their virtue, but
brought ruin and degradation. Military power and
victory over the enemy were likewise as gifts for
the uplifting of the victor. When applied to selfish
ends they brought swift doom. The imagery is
clear where in Ezekiel these riches, taken by
Babylon for her own pride and pleasure and for
the conquest and oppression of mankind, were to
cause the downfall of Babylon. Where, in the
Apocalypse, the downfall of another Babylon is
described, the substances are translated to heaven
to become a part of the glory of the Lord.
Sennacherib profaned and pillaged the temple
and Nineveh fell; Nebuchadrezzar profaned and
pillaged the temple and Babylon fell; Titus pro
faned and pillaged the temple, and the writer
of the Apocalypse predicted that Rome likewise
should fall. The prophecy was fulfilled, but not
as the writer intended, for the interest of the
Christians in Jerusalem was transferred from
Zion to Calvary, and the Rome that fell was a
Christian Rome.
So far as we may point to a moral in all these
symbolic pictures of commerce, it is that the
purpose of man lies not in the pomp and the
trappings of priesthood and princedom.

PRECIOUS STONES 111

XII
When the Israelites were leaving Egypt they
were advised to despoil the Egyptians by carry
ing away jewels of silver and jewels of gold.1
If the jewels were set with stones they were
probably supposed to have talismanic virtue,
based upon the symbolism of color. In the
Book of the Dead, there are numerous texts to
be engraved on stones and buried with the dead.
The Buckle of Carnelian,2 to be placed on the
neck, and which might also consist of red jasper,
red porphyry, red glass, or red sycomore wood,
represented the heart or the life-blood, and was
supposed to bring the protection of Isis. The
Papyrus Scepter,3 to be engraved on emerald
matrix, green feldspar or serpentine, signified
the renewal of youth or continuance of life, like
the evergreen cedar among the trees of the
forest, or the evergreen mistletoe on the bare
branches of the oak in winter. The Pillow4 was
an amulet to be made of hematite, and the Eye6
was to be of lapis lazuli ornamented with gold.
A blue stone recalled the blue vault of heaven,

Ex. XII, 35-36. But the Hebrew is less specific: "things made of
silver and things made of gold"; and the same word is used else
where for the vessels of the temple ( 1^3, Ezra I, 7); DV has
"vessels" in the Exodus passage. 2 Book of the Dead, 156
3 ibid. 159 4 ibid. 166 5 ibid. 140

112 THE SHIP "TYRE"
and signified divinity or immortality.6 Egyptian
priests frequently wore breastplates of gold or
electrum, bearing the names or symbols of their
respective divinities.7
The tabernacle in the desert was designed
under the immediate influence of Egypt; the
temple of Solomon, under that of Phoenicia ; the
second temple, under that of Chaldea. The
first was for nomads; the second for tillers of
the soil; the third for city dwellers. It would
be no more than natural if these influences were
reflected in differing details of equipment or ser
vice. In Egyptian amulets and breastplates, until
quite late, the colors were relatively few. The
breastplate identified the deity, and was worn
when the priest sat in court for judgment.
If breastplates were worn by the Israelite
priests, we may suppose them to have been of
burnished brass or gold, and to have borne the
name or symbol of Jahveh.
In the temple, and especially after the sup
pression of the local sanctuaries, the standing and
influence of the priesthood was greatly increased,
and their dress, no doubt, elaborated and en
riched. In the earlier days the priesthood
was in a more uncertain position; Micah's

8 Cf. amulets presented by Ramses III to Amon-Re (Breasted,
Ancient Records, IV, 319) "I made for thee august amulets for
thy body, of fine Ketem-gold and of silver, in beaten work, in
(raised work) with inlay of real lapis lazuli, in order to put them
upon thy limbs in thy 'Great Seat', and all the gods of the house
of Ptah were contented therewith.'' 7 Cf. Breasted, Ancient
Records, II, 376, 544, 654; IV, 201, 231, 285, 319, etc.

GREEK COINS OF PHOENICIA
The first three, of Sidon and Tyre, from Gardner's British Museum
Catalogue; the fourth, of Byblos, in the Cabinet des Medailles, from
Maspero, The Passing of the Empires. D. Appleton & Co., publishers

THE FLEET OF SENNACHERIB NAVIGATING THE NAR-MARRATUM
From a relief excavated upon the site of Nineveh. Layard, The Monuments of Nineveh.
Reproduced from Maspero, The Passing of the Empires. D. Appleton & Co., publishers

PRECIOUS STONES 113
mother, for example, took silver to the founder
and had a graven and a molten image made for
his house, and that seemed sufficient until a
Levite of the family of Judah happened along
and they engaged him for ten shekels annually.8
Hosea indicates as the essentials the sacrifice,
the image, the ephod, and the teraphim.9
Elsewhere the ephod and the ark are named.10
The ephod was connected with the judgment by
lot, and the high priest had no monopoly of it,
for it was worn by Levites, priests and prophets,11
and Doeg the Edomite on a single day slew four
score and five of them.12 David scandalized his
wife Michal, daughter of Saul, by dancing naked,
girded only with a linen ephod, on that happy
day when he brought the ark from the house of
Obed-edom the Hittite to the tent that he had
pitched for it in Jerusalem, just captured from
the Jebusites.13 Both ark and ephod were con
nected with the judgment by Urim and Thum-
mim, whereby the Lord was consulted as to
everything of importance.14 In later days there
was much uncertainty because there stood up
no "priest with Urim and Thummim."15 When
Solomon had finished building the temple, he
made a procession to bring to its "most holy
place" from David's tent, the ark with its two
tables of stone.16 There it was installed with all
magnificence; but if we search for a description
of the dress and adornment of the priests who
8 Judg. XVII, 4-13 " 1 Sam. XIV, 3 13 2 Sam. VI
• Hos. Ill, 4-5 n 1 Sam. XXII, 18 " Num. XXVII, 21
'» 1 Sam. XXX, 7; XIV, 18 » Neh. VII, 65
18 1 Kings VIII, 1-11

114 THE SHIP "TYRE"
served it, we find nothing in the historical books,
and must refer to the account of the tabernacle
in Exodus. Of their appearance after Josiah
had centralized the worship of the whole nation
in their care, we have not a word.
Ephod means "girdle" and it was of linen and
worn on the person; but there were ephods of
metal17 that could stand on the altar,18 and both
could contain the Urim and Thummim. The
word translated as ark means no more than
"receptacle", whether urn, chest or boat. Some
commentators have suggested that the ark was
the receptacle for the altar and the ephod that
for the person; that the ark held, when not in
use, both the Urim and Thummim and the two
tables of the Law; that it was first called the
ark of Jahveh and subsequently the ark of the
covenant; and that the shining plate of Jahveh
was that which appears as the mitre-plate, while
the twelve-stone breastplate was a post-exilic
development. Certain it is, that the historical
books contain no reference to what has since
become the most distinctive mark of the Jewish
priesthood. Yet the tradition is positive for a
breastplate in the first temple, and there is no
proof of its absence, whatever its design.
The second temple lacked the ark, which had
been destroyed, and the Urim and Thummim,
which had been forgotten. In its adornment
and equipment it was more magnificent than the
first. For it there is no reason to reject any
detail of the glories described in Exodus, and
much reason to think them compact of both
17 Judg. VIII, 24-27 18 1 Sam. XXI, 9

PRECIOUS STONES 115

temples together. However that may be, the
breastplate and shoulder-buckles of the high
priest had become prominent features of its
equipment, and it is to the precious stones with
which they were set, that our attention must now
be directed.
Babylonian astrologers conceived of a path of
the sun through the year, divided among twelve
constellations, which came to be known as the
zodiac; and by observing the positions of sun,
moon, planets and constellations at the date of
birth, believed that they could forecast the lives
of individuals, and through them the fate of
nations. While there are traces of this art at
very early dates, scholars are agreed that it was
not brought into anything like order until the
late Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods, and
not perfected until the Greeks came to live in the
Euphrates valley, in the Seleucid period.19 When
perfected, each constellation had its zodiacal
sign, and its color, stone, plant and animal.
The wearing of a stone engraved with one's
zodiacal birth-sign was supposed to insure the
favorable influence of the stars, and survives to
this day in the lore of "natal stones."
But it would be quite unsafe to date all
astrological talismans after the fall of Babylon,
for there are numerous Assyrian and Neo-
Babylonian references to talismans of stones in
varying number; eight, nine and twelve all
appearing. A twelve-stone zodiacal breastplate,
with stones engraved with the initial letters of
the zodiacal signs, required only a priestly
19 Cf. Jastrow, Encycl. Brit., art. Astrology.

116

THE SHIP "TYRE'

adaptation to become the breastplate of the
second temple, with the stones engraved with
the names of the twelve tribes.
The following Assyrian incantation-text gives
us an eight-stone breastplate:20
The splendid stones! The splendid stones! The stones of
abundance and joy! Made resplendent for the flesh of the gods.
The hulalini stone, the sirgarru stone, the hulalu stone, the
sandu stone, the uknu stone. The dushu stone, the precious
stone elmeshu, perfect in celestial beauty. The stone of which
the pingu is set in gold. Placed upon the shining breast of the
king as an ornament. Azagsud, high priest of Bel, make them
shine, make them sparkle! Let the evil one keep aloof from
the dwelling!
There was commerce by sea between India
and Neo-Babylonia, from which India received
enduring impressions. It is significant that the
ancient Hindu naoratna or sacred talisman was
a zodiacal arrangement of nine stones:21

Center

Sun

Ruby

East

Venus

Diamond

Southeast

Moon

Pearl

South

Mars

Coral

Southwest

Rahu

Jacinth

West

Saturn

Sapphire

Northeast

Jupiter

Topaz

North

Descending node

Cat's eye

Northwest

Mercury

Emerald

20 Fossey, La Magie Assyrienne, Paris 1902, p. 301. Dr. Kunz
connects hulalu and hulalini with a root meaning "to perforate",
and suggests pearls. The same meaning is possible for the
chodecod or chorchor of Ezekiel, as if from kur to pierce. With
tradition asserting redness, this may have been coral.
21 Finot, Les Lapidaires Indiens, Paris 1896, p. 175; quoting the
Nararatnapariksha.

PRECIOUS STONES  M
This gave a stone for the earth, with one each
for the four cardinal directions, halved. The
same arrangement is found on the Calendar
Stone of the Aztecs. Modified, it becomes the
Christian symbol of the four ways of the cross,
the four rays emerging therefrom, and the circle
representing Him who hung thereon.
The breastplate or "covering" of Ezekiel's
"King of Tyre," who was Nebuchadrezzar, was
also a nine-stone talisman. It existed in
Babylonia, probably, before the Hebrew breast
plate was perfected, and may therefore be ac
cepted as it stands, . notwithstanding the LXX
has the list identical with that in Exodus. It
may refer to an actual talisman of the Baby
lonian kings.
Identification of the stones of the breastplate
has afforded interest to many scholars, and it
may almost be said that no two have agreed
upon the same arrangement, nor can such
agreement be hoped for until the end of time.
For if we follow the rabbinical interpretations,
we are misled by late conjecture, covering so
long a period that the same name would be
differently applied to two or more stones;
whereas if we translate literally, we have no
evidence at all. Of the entire list one name only
is of a definite color; the rest are vague, or their
etymology unknown. With the color of blood,
then, we begin; and proceed to pale, flashing,
sparkling, beater, dream-bringer, Tarshish stone
(or, broken stone), nail, and shining. Three

118  THE SHIP "TYRE" 
more in the breastplate we must leave un-
guessed. For stones that might apply to the
shoulder-buckles, we have once more the nail,
one pierced,- one costly and one precious. Upon
such evidence it were idle to dogmatize.
If we look to the results of archaeology, as
shown in museum collections, we find nothing to
support the lists as they appear in the modern
versions, wherein gems appear which were un
known even through the mediaeval period. It
may be as well to begin with what we know of
Egyptian gems. Egypt produced jasper, feld
spar, transparent serpentine, porphyry, basalt,
hematite, chert, quartz crystal, and emerald
crystal (the last two often confused, both being
hexahedral and the colors varying). From Sinai
came the copper silicates and carbonates; from
Arabia the various garnets, onyx and agates and
carnelian, and from Syria likewise; from Media
lazuli, also from Badakshan, whence also tur
quoise. From India and Ceylon, but not until
Graeco-Roman times, came the beryls, sapphires,
topazes and zircons, and from Turkestan, also
very late, jade. Peridots were dug from islands
in the Red Sea, but late. Coral and peridots
appear in the Periplus as exports from Egypt
to India, but coral and pearl came to Egypt also
from the Persian Gulf and from Ceylon. All
these were late.
The gems of the "covering" in Ezekiel were:
odem, pitdah, yahalom; tarshish, shoham, yashe-
pheh; sappir, nophek, bareketh. To these are

PRECIOUS STONES 119
added in Exodus : leshem, shebo, ahlamah. Their
equivalents in the LXX are: sardios, topazion,
onychion; chrysolithos, beryllion, iaspis; sap-
pheiros, anthrax, smaragdos; ligurion, achates,
amethystos. The same stones appear in the
Apocalypse, except that for anthrax, we have
karchedonios ; for beryllion, beryllos; for ligurion,
hyakinthos; for achates, chrysoprasos ; and for
onychion, sardonyx.
Some commentators have attempted to classify
these lists according to chemical composition,
but this is beside the point, for the ancients knew
nothing of chemistry. Color is the principal
criterion; but if they are crystals, the number of
faces is to be considered; and notable character
istics, such as hardness, should not be forgotten.
A discussion of astrological symbolism would lie
beyond our present objective; but it is very
clear that the three lists can be so rearranged
as to fall within an almost identical color-scheme.
The names of the precious stones in the original
fall into a sort of jingle: —
Odem, pitdah and bareketh,
Nophek, sappir and yahalom,
Leshem, shebo and ahlamah,
Tarshish, shoham and yashepheh.
Because of the uncertainty of the translations,
they are presented herein in the original for
better identification between the passages in
which they appear. In MT yahalom and yashe
pheh have probably changed places.

120

THE SHIP "TYRE'

THE STONES OF THE BREASTPLATE (1)
'KING OF TYRE" (2) AND HOLY CITY (3)

1

Bareketh

Pitdah

Odem

MT 3

np-a

2 mos

1 D1K

Levi
Simeon
Reuben
LXX 3
ffpapaySos
2 ro7raftoi'
1 aapdiov
2
MT 9
np-n
2 nana
i m«
LXX 3
crjuapcryfios
2 TOTrafiop
1 aapiiov
3
MT 4
oTxapcryfios
9 ro7raftoi'
6 aapbuov
Andrew
James the Less
Bartholomew
White (spectrum) Yellow-Green
Blood-Red
1
Yashepheh
Sappir
Nophek
MT 12
nse"
5 -psd
4 TBJ
Zebulun
Issachar
Judah
LXX 6 ZacTrts
5 cra-r-oeipos
4 oi<0pa£
2
MT 6
JIM"
7 iiqd
8 -&:
LXX 6 laaTris
5 o~6.irtpei.pos
4 i.v9paKa
3
NT 1
Zaff7TtS
2 cr&Tr^eipos
3 KapxijSovtos
Peter
James
John
Green (Deep)
Blue (Deep)
Red (Deep)
1
Ahlamah
Shebo
Leshem
MT 9
no^nx
8 nt?
7 DtJ>5>
Dan
Benjamin
Joseph
LXX 9
&/xe0uflTOs
8 axar-ris
7 Xfyiptav
2
MT
0
0
0
LXX 9
&/uet9uoTOs
8 &XCtTJ7S
7 /\iybpiov
3
NT 12
ap£&vo~Tos
10 xPv<r^irpacros
1 1 baKtvdos
Paul
Thaddeus
Simon Zelotes
Purple
Gray and White, ther
i Golden Brown
veined lt. green
1
Yahalom
Shoham
Tarshish
MT 6
D5iT>
11 Dp[B>
io B»Bnn
Asher
Gad
Naphtali
LXX 12 bvbxcov
11 f}r-pbX\un>
10 xpv0'0^1^0*
2
MT 3
ttfir
5 QH'B'
4 twin
LXX 12
bvbxcov
11 f}-~pb\}\u>v
10 xP«o"6Xit9os
3
NT 5
aapSbvvl-
8 pi-pvWos
7 xpvcrcWuOos
Philip
Thomas
Matthew
Flesh-Red
Blue-Green
Yellow
PRECIOUS STONES

121

Our modern versions are misleading in that
they assume the modern meaning for the Greek
original, and so produce a breastplate that would
exceed the resources of many a monarch, and
would be impracticable as well, for the gems
could not be engraved by any tool known to the
ancients. We must assume a stone large enough
to take the name, soft enough to take the
graver's tool, and available in the market at the
time. The arrangement of Flinders Petrie seems
best to meet these requirements:22

Hebrew

LXX

Early

Late

Odem

Sardios

Red jasper

Sard

Pitdah

Topazion

Yellow-green serpentine

Peridot

Bareketh

Smaragdos

Quartz crystal

Emerald

Nophek

Anthrax

Garnet — Carbuncle

Sappir

Sappheiros

Lapis lazuli

Yashephehlaspis

Dark green jasper

Leshem

Ligurion

Yellow agate

Shebo
Achates
Agate, carnelian?
Banded agate
Ahlamah
Amethystos
Amethyst
Tarshish
Chrysolithos
Yellow jasper
Topaz
Shoham
Beryllion
Green feldspar
Beryl
Yahalom
Onychion
Onyx?
Onyx
For the doubtful onyx of the early arrange
ment, corundum (emery) and hematite both
suggest themselves.
For the tarshish Kunz makes the interesting
suggestion of the Spanish smoky quartz, which,
when heated, changes to a brilliant yellow.23 This
would tend to give it a specific local name.
82 Hastings, Diet, of the Bible, art. Precious Stones
28 Kunz, The Curious Lore of Precious Stones, 297-298; to Dr. Kunz
acknowledgment is made for numerous references used in this
section.
122 THE SHIP "TYRE"
Returning to our color-scheme, we have:
3 White, with 2 Yellow-green 1 Blood-Red

spectrum

6 Green, Deep

5 Blue, Deep

4 Red, Deep

9 Purple

8 Gray and white

7 Golden Brown

.2 Flesh-red

11 Blue-green

10 Yellow

Other stones

appearing in

the Hebrew are:

Hebrew

LXX

Identification

Bdolakh

Anthrax

Precious: carbuncle?
pearl?

Shoham

Prasinos

Sardonyx? beryl?

Ramoth

Rhamoth

Costly: pearl?

Chodecod

Chorchor, Iaspis

Pierced? Coral? Pearl?

Eqedakh

Krystallos

Carbuncle? Crystal?

Shamir

Smiris

Emery, corundum

Except as to the last-named there is no certainty,
and the LXX renders shoham in Genesis differ
ently from its rendering in Exodus.24
The stones appearing first in the Apocalypse
are: Karchedonios Deep red garnet
(rather than chalkedonios)
Sardonyx Red and white onyx
Chrysoprasos Green chalcedony
Hyakinthos Zircon (Our sapphire was included also
under this name)
24 The LXX in Gen. II, 12, thus makes bdolakh equivalent to, or
possibly a scribe's mistake for nophek; and supports the in
ference that shoham in both breastplate and shoulder-buckles,
was beryllion, that is, a hexahedral crystal.
Yet shoham in Exodus, for the shoulder-buckles, is rendered by
the LXX as onychion. Onyx, in Greek, as shoham in Hebrew,
means nail, or claw; or anything like a nail. It includes the
white part at the end of rose-leaves, as if their nail-mark; a
part of the liver; and a veined gem. This might indicate that
shoham could be a double-tinted crystal.

PRECIOUS STONES 123
Numerous passages indicate that one of the
stones was a prismatic crystal which refracted
light into the hues of the rainbow. Smaragdos,
beryllos and iaspis are all named in the Apocal-
lypse as having such properties, but Flinders
Petrie's selection of bareketh, "flashing", the
original of smaragdos, and his identification
thereof with quartz crystal, are doubtless correct;
as also his explanation of the confusion of crystal
and emerald, both being hexahedral and varying
in color. Pliny describes an eye-glass made for
Nero of smaragdos, which would have been im
possible for emerald. A passage in the Talmud,
already quoted, may be taken as naming tarshish
also, which would be possible if that was the
Spanish quartz.25
The priest's shoulder-buckles are also to be
considered. They were of shoham, identified in
the breastplate with beryllion, feldspar and,
later, beryl. Flinders Petrie would have them
to be beryls, and Patrick suggests that as each
stone bore the name of six tribes and the beryl is
a six-sided prism, each face would do for one
tribe. But if we follow Josephus, the buckles
flashed like the rainbow stone on the breast
plate, that is, the crystal; and it is the imperfect,
or three-sided crystal, that best refracts the light.
Josephus, and the name in the text, may both be
wrong. Elsewhere we read of the shoham as
coming from Havilah, that is, the coast of the
Persian Gulf, along with the bdolakh, "precious"
which our versions render as bdellium, but the

28 Note 53, page 37

124 THE SHIP "TYRE"
Arabic as pearl. And again, we have ramoth,
"costly", associated with chodecod, "pierced" ( ?)
in such a way as to suggest pearl and coral. Now
the same word in Arabic means both coral and
pearl, and in the echo of this passage in the
Apocalypse we have the Greek margarita, pearl;
which included both gem and shell. And beryls
were not mentioned as Arabian products. On
the other hand, onyx, given in our English
versions for shoham, was received from Arabia;
and sardonyx answers for the meaning "nail",
if we refer to the finger-nail, and exchanges
readily with coral.26
Kunz gives the following arrangement of the
tribal names with their zodiacal signs:
Judah Aries
Issachar Taurus
Zebulum Gemini
Reuben Cancer
Simeon Leo
Gad Virgo
Ephraim Libra
Manasseh Scorpio
Benjamin Sagittarius
Dan Capricorn
Naphtali Aquarius

Asher Pi

isces

28 Ben Sira (Ecclus. XXIV, IS) has "onyx" for the onycha of the
incense, and permits the inference that this meant rose-leaves, by
connecting the rose with the cedar, cypress and olive of the temple
(XXIV, 13). But it is more probable that onycha was the
claw-like operculum of a mollusc, still used in Egypt for
fumigation. (Masterman, in Hastings, op. cit. 769.)

PRECIOUS STONES

125

Kunz also arranges the stones in their zodiacal

order as follows:

Aquarius,

Jan. 21-Feb. 21

Garnet

Pisces,

Feb. 21-Mar. 21

Amethyst

Aries,

Mar. 21-Apr. 20

Bloodstone

Taurus,

Apr. 20-May 21

Sapphire

Gemini,

May 21-June 21

Agate

Cancer,

June 21-July 22

Emerald

Leo,

July 22-Aug. 22

Onyx

Virgo,

Aug. 22-Sept. 22

Carnelian

Libra,

Sept. 22-Oct. 23

Chrysolite

Scorpio,

Oct. 23-Nov. 21

Beryl

Sagittarius,

Nov. 21-Dec. 21

Topaz

Capricorn,

Dec. 21-Jan. 21

Ruby

And he quotes from a Jewish commentary the
following arrangement of the tribal standards
in the desert:27

Odem PitdahBarekethNophekSappir
Yahalom Leshem SheboAhlamah
Tarshish Shoham
Yashepheh

RedGreenWhite, black, red
Sky-blue
Glistening black
WhiteSapphire-colorGrayWine-color Pearl-color
Very black
Colors of all the
stones

ReubenSimeonLevi
JudahIssacharZebulun DanGadNaphtaliAsher
JosephBenjamin

The children of Israel, we are informed, when
they were encamped in the wilderness, pitched
"every man by his standard, with ensigns ac
cording to their fathers' houses."28 This list pre-
27 Midrash Bemidbar Rabba, ed. Aug. Wunsche, Leipzig 1885, pp.
15-16 (a rabbinical commentary on Numbers)
28 Num. II, 2

126 THE SHIP "TYRE"
serves the colors of the breastplate, albeit in
some confusion, and confirms the prismatic hues
from one of the stones by the flag that had the
"colors of all the stones."
It was the opinion of St. Augustine29 that the
Urim and Thummim were stones that changed
color and so enabled the priest to prophesy good
or ill to the congregation. And Josephus30 says
that the pectoral and onyxes emitted a light,
as often as God was present at the sacrifices.
This may give some reason to think that the
Urim and Thummim followed the same course
as the stones of the breastplate, precious stones
of the same color being substituted, as they
reached the market, for the earlier and less
precious varieties. Prismatic crystals or chatoy
ant gems might thus have taken the place of
opaque pebbles. But the most satisfactory ex
planation of the Urim and Thummim is that
which would make them stones of light and dark
29 Opera Omnia, Patrologiae Latinae ed. Migne, III, 1, 637
80 Ant. Jud. 3, 8, 9 (37-95 A. D.) Cf. Plutarch, De Defectu Oraculorum
XLl. Commentators have called this passage "mere anti
quarian conjecture," bbt it is borne out by the incantation text
quoted by Fossey, wherein the breastplate was worn by the
Assyrian king, and the glow was supposed to come through the
high priest of Bel; whether by reflected light or otherwise, it would
be fruitless here to guess.
In Jewish symbolism, the Crown contained within itself the
plan of the universe in its infinity of time and space, in its
endless varieties of form, color and movement  The Crown
is ofttimes styled the White Head' — 'head' denoting the idea
of source, and 'white' being the blend of all the colors (just as
the Crown is the blend of all forms in the cosmos)."
— Abelson, Jewish Mysticism, 147:
(see also p. 49, note 13; p. 53, note 29).

 PRECIOUS STONES 127
color; and that the answer, yes or no, was given
when the priest put his hand into the ephod and
drew out one or the other from its place of con
cealment.31 The conjecture may be admissible,
that the saying in the Apocalypse, "I am the
alpha and omega, the beginning and the end",
contains an allusion to the Urim and Thummim,
and suggests that Christ as judge of the quick
and the dead assumed the oracular function of
the priesthood. The various versions give their
names as "light and truth", or "light and per
fection", but it would be better to translate
"light and completion" — that is, "dawn and
dusk", "light and dark", whence it is but a step
to "beginning and end", or, availing of the
Greek alphabet, "alpha and omega".32
Ben Sira gives the following description of the
sanctuary: He exalted Aaron, a holy man like unto him, even his
brother of the tribe of Levi. He established for him an ever
lasting covenant, and gave him the priesthood of the people.
He beautified him with comely ornaments, and girded him
about with a robe of glory. He clothed him with the per
fection of exultation; and strengthened him with apparel of
honour, the linen breeches, the long robe, and the ephod.
And he compassed him with pomegranates of gold, and with
many bells round about, to send forth a sound as he went,
to make a sound that might be heard in the temple, for a
memorial to the children of his people; with a holy garment,
with gold and blue and purple, the work of the embroiderer;
with an oracle of judgment, even with the Urim and Thum
mim; with twisted scarlet, the work of the craftsman; with
precious stones graven like a signet, in a setting of gold, the
81 Carus, Oracle of Yahveh, pp. 12-14
32 D,%11X tpuno-poi A
d'Dri Te\euiicrecs fi

128  THE SHIP "TYRE" 
work of the jeweller, for a memorial engraved in writing,
after the number of tribes of Israel; with a crown of gold
upon the mitre, having graven on it, as on a signet, HOLI
NESS, an ornament of honor, a work of might, the desires
of the eyes, goodly and beautiful.38
Josephus gives an explanation of the symbol
ism of the sanctuary, which seems composite of
both early and late ideas; an earlier scheme of
five colors (blue, purple, scarlet, white and gold)
and a later scheme of the zodiac, which was cur
rent after the Alexandrian conquests :
When Moses distinguished the tabernacle into three parts,
and allowed two of them to the priests, as a place accessible and
common, he denoted the land and the sea, for these are accessible
to all; but when he set apart the third division for God, it was
because heaven is inaccessible to men. When he ordered
twelve loaves to be set on the table, he denoted the year, as dis
tinguished into so many months. When he made the candle
stick of seventy parts, he secretly intimated the decani, or
seventy divisions of the planets: and as to the seven lamps upon
the candlesticks, they referred to the course of the planets, of
which that is the number; and for the veils, which were composed
of four things, they declared the four elements, for the fine linen
was proper to signify the earth, because the flax grows out of the
earth; the purple signified the sea, because that color is dyed by
the blood of a shell-fish; the blue is fit to signify the air; and the
scarlet will naturally be an indication of fire. Now the vest
ment of the high-priest being made of linen, signified the earth;
the blue denoted the sky, being like lightning in its pomegranates
and in the noise of its bells resembling thunder; and the ephod
showed that God had made the universe of four elements; and
as for the gold interwoven, I suppose it related to the splendor
by which all things are enlightened. He also appointed the
breastplate to be placed in the middle of the ephod, to resemble
the earth, for that has the very middle place in the universe;
and the girdle which encompassed the high-priest round, signi
fied the ocean, which goes round about, and includes the world.
"Ecclus. XLV, 6-12

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THE HIGH PRIEST'S BREASTPLATE AND EPHOD
HI-

I. II, THE BREASTPLATE UNFOLDED
A. lower fold: B, B, B. B, rings for attachment to Ephod; C, the twelve
gems in their settings; D, D, hooks for attachment to shoulder; E, E, bands to
pass through rings in Ephod.
III. EPHOD WITH BREASTPLATE FOLDED AND ATTACHED
G.G. rings through which pass bands of Breastplate; H. H, bands of Ephod.
From Johann Braun's Vestitus Sacerdotum Hehraeorum, Amsterdam, 1680.
Reproduced from Kunz, The Curious Lore of Precious Stones. J. B. Lippin
cott Co., publishers.

Compare Testament of Levi, VIII, 2-3:
And I saw seven men in white raiment saying unto us: Arise,
put on the robe of the priesthood, and the crown of righteous
ness, and the breastplate of understanding, and the garment of
truth, and the plate of faith, and the turban of the head, and
the ephod of prophecy. And they severally carried these things
and put them on me, and said unto me: From henceforth
become a priest of the Lord, thou and thy seed forever.

PRECIOUS STONES

129

Each of the sardonyxes declares to us the sun and the moon;
those I mean that were in the nature of buttons on the high-
priests' shoulders. And for the twelve stones, whether we
understand by them the months, or the like number of the signs
of that circle which the Greeks call the Zodiac, we shall not be
mistaken in their meaning. The mitre, which was of a blue
color, seems to me to denote heaven; for how otherwise could
the name of God be inscribed upon it? It was also illustrated
with a crown of gold, because of that splendor with which God is
pleased.34 The gems considered in this section may be
tabulated for convenience as follows :3B
Silica

Jasper Onyx, sardonyx
AgateCarnelian ChrysopraseChalcedonyRock Crystal
Amethyst Smoky quartz
Chert rock flint.
Jade, hornblende
SerpentineFeldspar

Garnet, carbuncle
hyacinth
Beryl, emerald

SilicaSilicate of calcium
and magnesium, etc.
Silicate of magnesium
Silicate of aluminum,
with potassium, so
dium and calcium
Silicate of iron and
and aluminum
Silicate of aluminium
and beryllium

Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor
Arabia Egypt, Arabia
Arabia, India
Asia Minor
Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor
Egypt, Syria, Arabia
Syria SpainEgyptTurkestan; varieties in
, Egypt
EgyptEgypt

Egypt, Syria, India
Egypt, India

-* Antiq. Jud. iii, 7
36 Compiled in part from G. F. Herbert Smith, Gem Stones, London,
1912

130

THE SHIP "TYRE"

Peridot
Topaz ChrysocollaMalachiteCorundum, sapphire, ruby
Chrysolite, chrysoberyl, cat'
eye
Lapis lazuli

TurquoiseHematiteObsidian

Silicate of magnesium Egypt
and iron
Silicate of aluminium India, Ceylon
Silicate of copper Sinai
Carbonate of copper Sinai
Oxide of aluminium Naxos, India, Ceylon

Alumir.ate of beryl-
s Hum

India, Ceylon

Phosphate of alumini- Media, Badakshan
um, with iron and
magnesium
Phosphate of alumini- Persia
um, with iron and
copper
Oxide of iron Egypt, Arabia, Nubia,
Syria, Asia Minor
Volcanic glass: quartz Egypt, Red Sea coast
and orthoclase with
mica or hornblende

THE SPECIFICATIONS COMPARED 131

XIII

EXODUS

EZEKIEL

REVELATION

25, 26, 28, 29, 30

27,28

18,21

NUMBERS 4

Gold

Gold

Gold

Ark

Sheba

Table, vessels

Raamah

Curtains
Boards
Veil
Screen
Ephod
Breastplate
Mitre-plate
Silver
Silver
Silver
Boards
Tarshish
Veil
Hangings
Screen
Brass
Brass
Brass
Tent
Javan
Screen
Tubal
Altar, vessels,
&c. Meshech
Court
Blue
Blue
Curtains
Isles of Elishah
Veil
Screen
Ephod
Breastplate
Purple
Purple
Purple
Curtains
Isles of Elishah
Veil
Edom
Screen
Ephod
Breastplate
132

THE SHIP "TYRE"

Scarlet

Scarlet

Curtains

Veil

Screen
Ephod
Breastplate
Fine Linen
Fine Linen
Fine Linen
Curtains
Egypt
Veil
Edom
Screen
Hangings
Ephod
Breastplate
Goats' Hair
Goats
Silk
Tent
Arabia, Kedar
Rams' skins dyed red Sheepskins
Covering ol
f tent Damascus
Seal skins
Outer covering
Acacia wood
Ark
Table
Boards
Altar
Shewbread
Cakes: honey
Judah, Israel
GENESIS 2
Shoulder pieces
Bdolakh
Ramoth
Pearl
Shoham
Chodecod Edom
Precious stones:
Precious stones:
Precious stones:
Odem
Odem Sardios
Sardios
Pitdah
Pitdah Topazion
Topaaon
Bareketh
Bareketh Smaragdos
Smaragdos
Nophek
Nophek Anthrax
Karchedonios
Sappir
Sappir Sappheiros
Sappheiros
Yashepheh
Yashepheh Iaspis
Iaspis
Leshem
* Ligurion
Hyakinthos
Shebo
* Achates
Chrysoprasos
Ahlamah
* Amethystos
Amethystos
THE SPECIFICATIONS COMPARED 133

Tarshish Tarshish Chrysolithos Chrysolithos

Shoham Shoh

am Beryllion

Beryllos

Yahalom Yahalom Onychion

Sardonyx

Urim and Thummim

Iaspis stone
most precious

Bullocks

Cattle

Offering

Rams
Rams
Offering
Arabia, Kedar
Lambs
Lambs
Sheep
Offering
Arabia, Kedar
Oil (olive)
Oil
Oil
Light
Judah, Israel
Offering
Anointing oil
Fine wheat flour
Wheat •
Wheat, Fine flour
Offering
Judah, Israel
Wine
Wine of Helbon
Wine
Offering
Damascus
Myrrh
Anointing oil
Incense
Cinnamon
Anointing oil
Calamus
Calamus
Ointment
Anointing oil
Uzal
Cassia
Cassia
Anointing oil
Uzal
Storax
Spices
Spice
Incense
Sheba, Raamah
Onycha
Incense
Incense
Galbanum
Storax, balm
Incense
Judah, Israel
Frankincense
Incense
/ CHRON. 29
(Temple)
Iron
Iron
Iron
Uzal
Marble
Marble
134

THE SHIP "TYRE"

Cedar

Cedar Lebanon

Thyine wood

Cypress

Cypress Senir

Olive wood

Thyine wood

Precious wood

Kittim

Vessels

/ KINGS 10

(Palace)
Ivory
Ivory
Ivory
Ebony
Ebony
Vessels
Throne
Dedan
Raiment
Gorgeous Fabrics
Haran, Canneh,
Eden
Armor
Shield and Helmet
Persia, Lud, Put
Horses
Horses Togarmah
Horses
Mules
Mules Togarmah
(Purification)
NUMBERS 31
Gold
Silver
Brass
Iron
Iron
Tin
Tin
Lead
Lead
(Spoil Division)
Tarshish
NUMBERS 31
Persons
Persons of men
Slaves
Javan, Tubal, Meshech Souls of men
Beeves
Cattle
Asses
Beasts of burden
Dedan
Sheep
(Army of Solomon)
/ KINGS 10
Chariots
Chariots
Horsemen
Horsemen Togarmah
DATE OF THE TRADITION 135

XIV
The interpretation herein suggested leads to
inquiry concerning the date of the passages con
sidered. Modern criticism has established the
existence of separate elements in the Old Testa
ment. The Mosaic, the Deuteronomic and the
Levitical laws reflect different epochs in the
history of Israel; the Jahvist, the Elohist and the
Priestly writers restate that history from differ
ent points of view and with different obj'ects.
There has been a tendency to regard the P
document as lacking in authority because it is
post-exilic in its final form. But it would be
nearer the facts of history to regard it as resting
upon a traditional basis that antedates the other
documents as the sanctuaries of Israel antedated
the kings; as containing a discussion of the
course of royalty from the priestly standpoint;
and as going on with the national record after
the kingdom had fallen and when the priesthood
was the only remaining native authority. We
must expect to find in such a document very
early and very late matter in a sort of stratifica
tion. But, as Driver observes, "the laws of P,
even when they included later elements, were
still referred to Moses — no doubt because in its
basis and origin Hebrew legislation was actually
derived from him, and was only modified
gradually."1 As ceremonial changes less readily than law,
so we may assume that the ceremonial element
1 Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament, 154.

136  THE SHIP "TYRE" 
in the P document contains a large share of the
early tradition; and that it will yield, upon
examination of its details, useful results.
While the priestly tradition has been presented
herein purposely in its order of appearance in
the traditional text, the true order of events
becomes clear by beginning with Ezekiel and
working backward. For with him the con
tinuity of service at the sanctuary is broken,
and the thoughts of the captive are directed to a
study of the past with a view to correcting its
errors in the future. This means that the past
is spread out in review, albeit in idealized form;
its glories magnified and its crudities forgotten.
To arrive at a date for this remarkably con
sistent tradition, three alternatives may be con
sidered. The political cryptogram may be
wholly post-exilic, of the time of Darius or one
of the Seleucidae; the politics may be of the time
of Nebuchadrezzar and the commercial details
a later interpolation for another purpose; or the
text may be as Ezekiel wrote it, in the reign of
Nebuchadrezzar. Were it necessary to accept
all the rabbinical interpretations of the names
of commercial substances, which have found
their way into our modern versions, there would
be grounds for bringing the whole story down to
the Seleucid period. But it is not necessary, for
the interpreters have missed many allusions and
their conclusions are not sound. The theory of a
series of interpolations in the text of Ezekiel is
not easily maintained. What would become of
the stories of the foundling and the sisters, with
out the details of their adornment borrowed from

DATE OF THE TRADITION 137
the lost glories of Israel? But if we retain the
details, we must admit their allusions to the
past. We conclude, therefore, that the text is
historical, and remarkably free from extraneous
matter. The political cryptogram fits the inter
national situation for the oppressive Chaldean
empire; but for the tolerant Persian, not at all.
We have seen how, in Ezekiel's parable of
Jerusalem the foundling, the original reference
to the fabrics of the sanctuary was lost by
rabbinical interpretation that remembered the
wanton but forgot that she personified the city.2
The same process may be observed in a similar
passage in Isaiah. In his third chapter3 the
prophet describes the humiliation to come upon
Jerusalem for her unfaithfulness :
Because the daughters of Zion are haughty,
And walk with stretched-forth necks
And wanton eyes,
Walking and mincing as they go,
And making a tinkling with their feet;
and he tells how all her finery shall be torn from
her, "and utterly bereft she shall sit upon the
ground." He lists the finery in full detail of
feminine jewels and apparel, closing with a
phrase rendered from MT as "the gauze robes,
and the fine linen, and the turbans, and the
mantles." But if we turn to the same passage
in the LXX, we must translate "the fine linen,
and the blue, and the scarlet, and the linen with
gold and blue interwoven"; and by the sub-
» See note, "Silk," pp. 53-54 8 Isa. Ill, 23 For bell-ringing to
ward off evil spirits, cf. Frazer, The Magic Art, ii, 343-344.

138  THE SHIP "TYRE" 
stitution of a single word in the Greek,4 we
obtain "the purple, and the blue, and the scarlet,
and the linen with gold and blue interwoven",
clearly an allusion to the fabrics of the sanctuary.
This enables us to infer when the allusion was
lost. Corruption of the text, begun in the LXX,
has proceeded so far in MT as to miss the point
of the story, and late interpretation has con
cerned itself with a living, not a symbolic wan
ton. Isaiah was concerned about political mis
fortune to befall his people. His interpreters,
centuries later, had eyes alone for his picture of a
frail woman; whose feet tinkled from the bells of
the priest's robes.
But this was the real Isaiah, and the text, if
correctly restored, carries us back into pre-
exilic times, and well before the Deuteronomic
reform. It is an allusion to the temple of Solo
mon. And Ezekiel, a century later, uses the
same symbol.
The substances mentioned by Ezekiel, if con
sidered in the text rather than the interpreta
tions, are all such as entered into the commerce
of his time. With few exceptions, they had
appeared for centuries in the markets of Baby
lonia and Egypt. They were no new enrich
ments made available to the sanctuary by the
discovery of new markets. The lists in the
earlier books agree with those of Ezekiel in all
essentials. Where they disagree, they contain
later matter, in connection with equipment that
may be ascribed to archaistic revival rather than
* iroptpbpa for fib(Taiva.

DATE OF THE TRADITION 139
original specification. Where Ezekiel has cassia
and calamus, the Priestly writer in Exodus calls
for cassia, calamus and sweet cinnamon; but
these were for the anointing oil, which kept on
gathering new ingredients, if we take the word
of Josephus; and it could change, if we follow
Ben Sira, who combines cinnamon with aspala-
thus. Where Ezekiel has a nine-stone breast
plate, Exodus has a twelve-stone arrangement.
Without asserting the correctness of Ezekiel's
text, it is significant that the Exodus list con
tains one stone which, perhaps, did not reach the
Egyptian market until considerably later — the
golden stone of Tarshish. "Perhaps" is said
advisedly, for the "tarshish" stone may have
been a "broken" crystal, for producing prismatic
rays. But the breastplate, in its final form, is
relatively late. Breastplates there were in abun
dance in the temples of Egypt, but nothing so
elaborate as this, which seems reminiscent of
the astrology of Chaldea.
Of the sanctuaries of Israel we have descrip
tions in reverse order. Of the second temple we
are told only that it was finer than the first; of
the first we are given the materials but few mea
surements; of the tabernacle we have materials
and measurements to the minutest detail. The
exact opposite is what we should expect, were
the accounts historical. But for Ezekiel's ideal
temple we have careful measurements, and an
emphasis laid upon the inner sanctuary which
the builders of the first temple had not ob
served. For the rebuilding after the exile
Ezekiel and his followers, from Haggai and

140  THE SHIP "TYRE" 
Zechariah to Ezra and Nehemiah, sought the
sanction of history in an idealized tabernacle.
The descriptions were added to the earlier books
rather than to those of their own time. The
tabernacle of Exodus XXVI-XXX is a very
different thing from that of Exodus XXXIII,
which must be regarded as the fact, as the other
is the ideal of a later age. But the idealized
description is not without value, for it translates
into portable form the structure and equipment
of Solomon's temple, even to its brazen altar,
curiously inappropriate in the tabernacle.5
The real "tabernacle of dwelling" in the desert
was pitched apart from the camp, with Joshua
as its sole and non-Levitical attendant.6 Within
it was the ark of the Lord. There were, prob
ably, the high place, pillar and stock, and the
table for the presence-bread and incense; the
oracle, the ephod and the Urim and Thummim.
Thither every one that sought the Lord might
go, to make his offering, of cereal and drink,
which he shared with the Lord; to bring his
sacrifices; to consult the oracle and receive judg
ment. There were such sanctuaries in every
town of Israel, and for their service the Levites

5 Cf. Kennedy in Hastings, Diet, of the Bible, arts. Tabernacle,
Temple, High Place, Sacrifice, etc.
6 Ex. XXXIII, 11.
And, assuming that manifestations were in fact produced, it
was an adequate container of psychic force, with its curtains of
fine white linen, hangings of dark goat's hair, covering of rams'
skins dyed red, and outer covering of dark sealskins, impervi
ous to light, wind and moisture. Cf. Luke IX, 33.

DATE OF THE TRADITION 141

were set apart. The temple of Solomon at
Jerusalem was the greatest of the sanctuaries,
but not for centuries did it supplant the rest.
Then came the reform that abolished all the
other high places, centralized the worship of
Israel in the temple, reduced the Levites to
minor service, raised up the priestly guild and
set the sanctuary apart from the people. The
captivity followed soon after; and Ezekiel, him
self a hereditary member of the priestly guild,
devoted that time of trial to a study of the
ancient institutions, to determine wherein they
had so fallen short of the divine ideal as to bring
down upon Israel the divine wrath. In the
words of Kennedy, "we are dealing, not with
historical fact, but with the product of religious
idealism; and surely these devout idealists of the
Exile should command our admiration as they
deserve our gratitude. If the Tabernacle is an
ideal, it is truly an ideal worthy of Him for whose
worship it seeks to provide. Nor must it be
forgotten, that in reproducing in portable form,
as they unquestionably do, the several parts and
appointments of the Temple of Solomon, includ
ing even its brazen altar, the author or authors of
the Tabernacle believed, in all good faith, that
they were reproducing the essential features of
the Mosaic sanctuary, of which the Temple was
supposed to be the replica and the legitimate
successor."7 And who shall say, as all things
made on earth are but imperfect forms of a
greater Idea, that these successive sanctuaries
' Kennedy, in Hastings, op. cit. 888.

142  THE SHIP "TYRE" 
are not the developing manifestations of a "house
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" ?8
The point of interest in Ezekiel's allegories is
that they contain the materials of the pre-exilic
worship, with such allusions as to prove that
they were matters of common knowledge. They
indicate also that the idealizing of the earlier
worship was in the way of dignity, ornateness
and size, rather than essentials of sanctuary and
sacrifice. While the ideal Tabernacle, with its
improbable dimensions, its central position in an
encampment of impossible extent, and its array
of priests and Levites guarding the sanctuary
from the people, is beyond acceptance as histori
cal, yet the materials themselves are such as the
followers of Moses might have been expected to
put into their "tabernacle of dwelling" and their
descendants to translate, with a minimum of
necessary change in the enlargement, into per
manent form in the temple of Solomon.
These materials were known to the whole
people, and there could have been no violent
break between the old and the new; for the
second temple was seen by "old men that had
seen the first house standing on its foundations",
and they "wept with a loud voice, when this
house was before their eyes; and many shouted
aloud for joy."9 Although there were many of

8 As the Talmud puts it, Seven things were formed before the
creation of the world: The Law, Repentance, Paradise,
Gehenna, the Throne of Glory, the Temple, and the name
of the Messiah." P'sachim, 54, 1
• Ezra III, 12

DATE OF THE TRADITION 143
the younger generation, when the Law was read,
to whom the Levites were obliged to give the
sense, that they might "understand the reading' ' , 10
there were enough of the older generation pres
ent to insure the essential continuity of the
tradition.11 The Priestly editor, it is true, brings
new emphasis to ceremonial institutions; but it
does not follow that they are all post-exilic.
Their elaboration is progressive and even late,
but their origin, in many instances, is of high
antiquity.12 How faithfully the tradition was preserved
may be seen in a late text like that of Ben Sira :
I was exalted like a cedar on Lebanon,
And as a cypress tree on the mountains of Hermon;
I was exalted like a palm tree on the seashore,
And as rose plants in Jericho,
And as a fair olive tree in the plain;
And I was exalted as a plane tree.
As cinnamon and aspalathus,
I have given a scent of perfumes;
And as choice myrrh,
I spread abroad a pleasant odour;
As galbanum, and onyx, and stacte,
And as the fume of frankincense in the tabernacle."
The ignorance and primitive character of the
Hebrews of the Exodus, and their subsequent
isolation from the thought and action of their
neighbors, have been over-emphasized in modern
10 Neh. VIII, 8: i. e. they had not been taught Hebrew.
11 Cf. Edghill in Hastings, op. cit., art. Law, 8: The Priestly Code.
12 Cf. Harper, The Work of the Old Testament Priests.
i" Ecclus. XXIV, 13-15

144 THE SHIP "TYRE"
criticism. Civilization and sacred ceremonial had
reached an advanced stage in Egypt before the
sojourn of the Hebrews in that land. The
sacrifices and offerings of Ramses III, of the
Twentieth Dynasty, are preserved in the Papy
rus Harris, now in' the British Museum. The
English version fills 120 printed pages; exceed
ing in length any similar list in the Old Testa
ment, and including a greater variety of treas
ured substances. This document dates from
the 12th century B. C.14 Nineteenth Dynasty
temples, covering the period of the Hebrew
exodus, display sculptured hieroglyphic records
including practically every substance mentioned
in the Old Testament ritual.15 Eighteenth
Dynasty temples give records of the 15 th cen
tury B. C.,16 telling of Punt expeditions which
were on a larger scale and brought back a
greater variety of treasured cargo than the
Ophir voyages ascribed to Solomon in the 10th
century B. C. There are hieroglyphic records
of Punt expeditions as early as the Fifth Dynasty,
28th century B. C.17
The Hebrews had been in personal contact
with Egyptian civilization and ceremonial.18
The records of their own ceremonial specify al
most nothing which had not been reduced to
14 Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, IV, 151-412
"Ibid., Ill, 251-617
" Ibid., II, 246-295
»» Ibid., I, 161
18 Cf. Naville, The Store City of Pithom (Egypt Exploration Fund)
and Ex. I, 11

DATE OF THE TRADITION 145

writing in Egypt before their departure. There
is no reason to doubt that Ezekiel, using materials
of the ceremonial to cloak a prophecy of doom
upon an oppressor, selected them from a tradi
tion wherewith his people were fully acquainted.
Priests came before kings.19 The oracle, the
service and the annals of the sanctuary preceded
the law and the prophets. Man consults his
gods before he codifies their decrees.

D»on

19 Cf. Gilmore, Animism, XV.

146 THE SHIP "TYRE"

APPENDIX

Hashmal and Theios: A suggested interpretation
In the sixth century B. C. the Jews were being held in Babylonia
as conquered captives, and Ezekiel was assuring them of the restora
tion of their independence and the downfall of their oppressor before
the wrath of God. This he had to do in language not easily under
stood by Babylonian officers. In his first chapter he describes the
"living creatures" about the Throne of Heaven, whose voices sounded
like "an army of horsemen", and whose interest in the Jewish cap
tives was doubtless set forth more at length in secret sessions; for,
according to the Talmud, that chapter was not to be read until a man
had attained to years of discretion, nor its meaning divulged. The
purpose, we may be sure, was the restoration of the kingdom.
The "living creatures" appeared from whirlwind, cloud, fire, and a
brightness like "amber"; they were ranged around a Throne, as of
"sapphire", with the color of "amber" and fire round about. In the
Hebrew these three "appearances" are sappir, esh and hashmal.
This hashmal is a word not elsewhere found; it seems to have some
connection with a root meaning "to shine", but Jewish commentators
explain it as an anagram or artificial word, made from several,
hayot esh memalleloth, "the living creatures of fire, speaking"; and
this in turn is said to be the "abode of the Shechinah (Divine Pres
ence) where there is the still small voice"- Hashmal has the tradi
tional surface meaning of "golden", and is rendered in AV "amber",
RV "electrum". In the Septuagint the three "appearances" are
rendered sappheiros, pyr and elektron. Here the translators did not
go below the surface for their equivalent to hashmal.
In the first century A. D. the Jews had been almost annihilated
and their Temple again destroyed, this time by the Romans, and an
obscure Jewish sect was denying the authority of the Roman Em
peror as representative of divinity on earth, commanding the worship
of his subjects. The Romans held this doctrine seditious; but it
spread, and its supporters proclaimed the fall of their oppressor be
fore the wrath of God. They had to do this in language not easily
understood by Roman officers; and the art of the detective had
progressed since Babylonian days. One of their first books to em
body this political prophecy was written largely in the words of
Ezekiel; it was entitled The Apocalypse of John. In the fourth
chapter the Throne reappears, with the four "living creatures";
and in the ninth chapter four angels, leading an "army of horsemen"
to the destruction of the "third part of men"- These warriors wore

APPENDIX 147

breastplates of fire and "hyacinth" and "brimstone"; so AV and RV.
In the Greek, pyrinous, hyakinthinous and theiodeis. These are
descriptive adjectives, and our English versions omit the word 'ap
pearance' which they contain, and which the Greek carries down
from the text cf Ezekiel. Underlying the adjectives are the nouns
pyr, hyakinthos and theion. Pyr is the same as esh; hyakinthos
stands for sappir, both being blue; there remains theion, 'brimstone',
representing hashmal. So far as color goes it may do so, for sulphur
is golden yellow, like amber or electrum; but it too avoids the con
cealed meaning of hashmal. Here, however, while holding to the
color, the Seer of Patmos has found a way to express his political
message; for theion is also the accusative of the adjective theios
meaning 'divine' or 'miraculous', which very well represents hashmal.
The four angels and their army of horsemen are to destroy the
'third part of men', that is, Rome. The remaining two-thirds may
be understood as the other world powers of that day, Parthia and
Armenia, or possibly India. The horsemen wear the breastplate of
divine power and approval, theios. Who are they? Here appears
a coincidence so remarkable that it is hard to think it accidental.
Greek letters were used instead of numerals, which were not yet
invented, and numerical codes were frequently used to embody and
preserve teaching in many lines. There is reason to think that such
codes were in use by the early Christians especially. Later, they
passed into the philosophical fancies of the Gnostics and were swept
aside; but in the first century they were a political necessity. Iesous
was 888 and Nero 6661; and Roman officers understood the signifi
cance well enough to destroy the Christian books as seditious.
Bearing in mind, therefore, that hashmal was the Voice of the In
effable actuating the warriors of heaven who were to overcome the
power of evil at Babylon and that theios was the word chosen to
represent it as against the power of evil at Rome, we find that
theios is equivalent numerically to 294, and that 294 is also the
equivalent of ekklesia. That is, the Church of Christ was to des
troy the Romans, whose hands were still red with the blood of the
slaughtered hosts in Palestine. The avenging army, sent forth from
the Divine Presence, was the Church Militant; and the Christians
on earth were to share the fruits of victory. Such interpretation
seems, at any rate, to meet the conditions of the time.
Ezekiel and John spread their messages despite the spies of the
autocrat. When the autocrat himself became the patron of the
Church, cryptic utterance was no longer necessary, and its rules and
devices were forgotten. But it is to these very devices that we owe
most of the "commercial chapters" of Scripture.

1 Cf. Bond and Lea, The Greek Cabala, Oxford 1917; The Apostolic
Gnosis, 1919; Begley, Biblia Cabalistica.

The following abbreviations are used:
MT, Masoretic Text
LXX, Septuagint
Vulg., Vulgate
DV, Douay Version
AV, Authorized Version
RV, Revised Version
JR, Jewish Revision (Jewish Publication Society of
America, 1917).
Bertholet, Das Buch Hesekiel (Kurzer Hand-Comment
tar z. A. T.) Leipzig 1897
Kraetzschmar, Das Buch Ezechiel (Hand-kommentar
z. A. T.) Gottingen 1900
Cheminant, Les Proprieties d'Ezechiel contre Tyr,
Paris 1912
JRAS, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
JAOS, Journal of the American Oriental Society

INDEX

149

INDEX

Acacia, 10, 11, 12,13, 100,132
Achates, 119, 120, 121, 132
Agate, 108, 118, 121, 125, 129
Age, 65, 69, 89
Ahlamah, 119, 120, 121, 125, 132
Alashia, 78
Algum trees, 26, 27, 75, 100
Almug trees, 26
Aloe, 27, 87
Altar, 11, 13, 17, 18, 19, 44, 77,
81, 87, 105, 109, 114, 131,
132, 140, 141
Amber, 104, 146, 147
Amethyst, 109, 121, 125, 129
Amethystos, 108, 119, 120, 121,
132
Amulets, 111, 112
Anthrax, 119, 120, 121, 122, 132
Antioch, 47, 59, 88
Apes, 25, 29, 31, 87
Arabia, 21, 22, 23, 24, 30, 34, 36,
38, 42, 60, 63, 79, 82, 85, 86,
88, 118, 129, 130, 132, 133
Ararat 91 93
Ark, 10, 17, 60, 77, 88, 89, 92, 95,
113, 114, 131, 132, 140
Armenia, 81
Armlets, 14
Armor, arms, 19, 40, 56, 60, 80,
84, 134
Army, 20, 21, 60, 101
Arvad, 62, 78
Asia Minor, 129, 130
Aspalathus, 85, 139, 143
Asses, 14, 15, 134
Asshur, 41, 42, 58
Assyria, 22, 39, 43, 44, 47, 55, 57,
58
Awning, 54, 62, 82
Babylon, 36, 39, 40, 41, 42 44,
45, 46, 47, 48, 55, 56, 57, 58,
59, 69, 79, 81, 85, 87, 89, 91,
92, 93, 94, 97, 99, 103, 110,
115

Babylonia, 22, 43, 44, 45, 47, 58,
59, 69, 88, 116, 117, 138
Badakshan, 21, 118, 130
Badger skins, 11
Bahrein, 35, 36
Balikh, 88
Balm, 22, 63, 83, 133
Bareketh, 63, 68, 118, 119, 120,
121, 123, 125, 132
Barley, 18, 19, 82
Basalt, 118
Bashan, 61, 74
Basra, 35
Bazu (Buz), 79
Bdellium, 23, 80, 100, 123
Bdolakh, 22, 23, 100, 122, 123,
132
Beasts of burden, 60, 63, 86, 134
Beer, 20
Beeves, 14, 134
Bells, 12, 127, 128, 138
Beryl, 108, 118, 121, 122, 123,
124, 125, 129
Beryllion, 119, 120, 121, 122,
123 133
Beryllos' 108, 119, 120, 123, 133
Bloodstone, 125
Blue, 10, 11, 12, 19, 62, 63, 77,
88, 127, 128, 129, 131, 137,
138
Boards, 11, 74, 131, 132
Boxwood, 75
Bozrah, 69
Bracelets, 14, 53
Brass, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17,
19, 44, 62, 80, 81, 98, 100,
112, 131, 134, 140, 141
Bread, 13, 20, 55, 140
Breastplate (covering), 10, 12,
60, 68, 82, 87, 99, 107, 108,
112,114, 115, 116, 117,118,
122, 123, 126, 131, 132, 139
Brimstone, 147
Bronze, 45, 80
Budaa, (Putaa), 79

150

THE SHIP "TYRE"

Bullocks, 13, 20, 94, 133
Byblos, 78
Cakes, 13, 55, 63, 83, 132
Calamus, 13, 63, 85, 133, 139
Calves, 20
Camels, 16, 23, 86
Candlestick, 11, 17, 19, 128
Canneh, 63, 88, 134
Caravan-routes, 35, 86, 87, 88
Carbuncle, 121, 122, 129
Carnelian, 111, 118, 121, 125, 129
Carthage, 57, 78
Cassia, 13, 63, 84, 85, 133, 139
Cat's eye, 109, 116, 130
Cattle, 99, 101, 133, 134
Cavalry, 20, 60, 81
Cedar, 18, 19, 27, 28, 29, 45, 56,
61, 63, 74, 75, 82, 88, 89,
108, 111, 124, 134, 143
Ceylon, 21, 87, 118, 130
Chains, 16, 53
Chalcedony, 122, 129
Chaldea, 38, 43, 55, 56, 57, 58,
59, 112, 139
Chalkedonios, 122
Chariot, 17, 20, 56, 81, 92, 93, 99,
101, 104, 134
Chebar, 47, SO, 59, 81
Chequer work, 12, S3
Chert, 118, 129
Cherubim, 10,17,18,68, 91,92, 95
Chest, 60, 63, 88
Chilmad, 63, 88
China, 26, 27, 83
Chios, 81
Chodecod (chorchor) 63. 82, 106,
122, 124, 132
Chrysoberyl, 130
Chrysocolla, 130
Chrysolite, 125, 130
Chrysolithos, 108, 119, 120, 121,
133
Chrysoprasos, 108, 119, 120, 122,
129
Cilicia, 76, 80
Cinnamon, 13, 25, 84, 85, 87, 99,
101, 133, 139, 143
Cinnamon wood, 25
Colonia Agrippina, 31
Conifers, classification of, 76

Copper, 20, 25, 80, 105, 118
Coral, 23, 80, 82, 87, 100, 108,
109, 116, 118, 122, 124
Cords, 63, 89
Corundum, 121, 122, 130
Costly stones, 15, 18, 19, 45, 105,
Costly substance, 100
Cotton, 52
Covering, 11, 53, 60, 84, 132
Covering (outer), 11, 51, 53, 132
Cow, 14, 20
Crimson (see Scarlet), 19
Crown, 53, 126, 128, 129
Cryptic utterance,
political necessity of, 47, 48,
91,93
Ezekiel's method of, 57-60, 92-
93
applied to Nero in the Talmud,
93
Crystal, 107, 108, 109, 118, 121,
122, 123, 129, 139
Curtains, 11, 54, 86, 131, 132
Cush, 30, 79, 87
Cypress, 18, 27, 28, 29, 61, 63,
74, 75, 82, 88, 89, 100, 124,
134, 143
Cyprus, 75, 76, 78
Damascus, 41, 46, 63, 80, 82, 83,
132, 133
Damsels (See Persons), IS
Deck, 62
Dedan, 62, 63, 75, 76, 82, 86, 134
Demavend, 39, 91, 93
Devoted substances, 14, 15, 48,
S3
Diamond, 109, 116
Dogs, 25, 87
Doors, 18
Draft-horses, 62, 81
Dumah, 42
Dushu stone, 116
Ear-rings, 14, 16, 53
Ebony, 25, 28, 31, 34, 38; 63, 82,
87, 100, 134
Eden, 63, 88, 92, 93, 134
and the mountain, 68, 90, 91
Edom, 26, 46, 47, 63, 82, 86, 87,
93, 131, 132

INDEX

151

Egypt, 20, 22, 23, 34, 36, 38, 39,
42, 45, 46, 47, 55, 61, 75, 76,
79, 81, 85, 112, 118, 124,
129, 130, 132, 138, 139, 144
Elam, 41, 58
Electrum, 104, 105, 112, 146, 147
Elishah, 62, 78, 131
Ellutu wood, 87
Elmeshu stone, 116
Eloth, 26
Embroidery, 15, 77, 88, 127, 137,
138
Emerald, 109, 111, 116, 118, 121,
123, 125, 129
Emery, 121, 122
Ensign, 61, 77, 125
Ephesus, 81
Ephod, 10, 12, 16, 113, 114, 127,
128, 131, 132, 140
Eqedakh, 106, 122
Ethiopia, 30, 47
Euphrates, 23, 36, 41, 46, 50, 57,
87, 88, 93, 103
Exchangers, 62, 64, 78
Eye cosmetic, 25
Eye-paint, 87
Ezion-Geber, 26, 35, 36
Feldspar, 111, 118, 121, 123, 129
Fine fabrics, gorgeous fabrics, 19,
63, 88, 134
Fire, 14, 16, 46, 55, 68, 69, 92, 95,
98, 104, 105, 128, 146, 147
Firstfruits, 14, 55, 83, 94
Flint, 129
Floors, 18
Flour, 54, 99, 101, 133
Flowers, 18
Foundations, 106, 107
Fowl, 25
Frankincense, 13, 25, 87, 99, 101,
133, 143
Galbanum, 13, 133, 143
Gammadim, 62, 80
Garments, 14, 15, 16, 19, 25, 51,
53, 54, 55, 56, 87, 88, 127,
134
Garnet, 118, 121, 122, 125, 129
Gates, 107, 108
Gazelle, 20

Gebal, 62, 78
Geese, 20
Gerrha, 38
Gifts, 19, 20, 21, 86
Gilead, 22
Girdle, 12, 13, 14, 56, 128
Glass, 107, 111
Goats, 14, 63, 86, 94, 132
Goats' hair, 10, 11, 14, 51, 52, 53,
54, 86, 99, 132, 140
Gold, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16,
17,18,19,20,21,22,24,25,
26,29,34,38,40,42,45,51,52,53,55,63,66,68,75,86,87, 88, 97, 98, 99, 100, 105,
107, 108, 109, 111, 112, 116,
127,128,129,131,134,137,
138
Golden Chersonese, 24, 37
Granite, 105
Groves, 61, 75
Gulf of Aden, 34, 36, 79
Hailstones, 68, 92
Hangings, 12, 57, 131, 132
Haran, 63, 69, 88, 134
Hashmal, 104, 105, 146, 147
Havilah, 22, 23, 123
Hazor, 46
Helbon, 63, 83, 133
Helech, 62, 80
Hematite, 111, 118, 121, 130
Hermon, 143
Hewn stone, 18, 29
Honey, 54, 55, 63, 83, 132
Hooks, 11, 12,80
Horn of Africa, 21, 85
Hornblende, 129
Horsemen, 20, 56, 81,134,146,147
Horses, 19, 20, 56, 62, 81, 99, 101,
134
Hulalini stone, 116
Hulalu stone, 116
Hull, sides, 59, 61
Hyakinthos, 108, 119, 120, 122,
132, 147
Hyacinth, 129, 147
Iaspis, 105, 106, 107, 119, 120,
121, 122, 123, 132, 133

152

THE SHIP "TYRE'

Incense, 10, 13, 19, 21, 23, 25,
38, 55, 60, 83, 86, 87, 99,
101, 124, 133, 140
Incense trees, 25, 29, 87
India, 21, 24, 27, 28, 31, 34, 36,
38,84,85,87,116,118,129,130
Iron, 14, 16, 17, 62, 63, 80, 84,
98, 100, 133, 134
Ivory, 19, 25, 29, 31, 34, 38, 60,
61, 62, 74, 75, 76, 82, 87, 98,
100, 134
Jackals, 33, 43
Jacinth, 116
Jade, 108, 118, 129
Jasper, 111, 118, 121
Javan, 62,80,81,84, 131, 134
Jebel Shammar (goldfield), 35,
79, 84, 86
Jerusalem, 20, 35, 39, 44, 45, 46,
47, 48, 49, 50, 56, 57, 87, 89,
92, 95, 96, 106, 110, 137
Jevan, 63, 84, 87
Jewels, 14, 55, 56, 60, 111
Kadi, 85
Karchedonios, 107, 119, 120, 122,
132
Kasu, 64
Katan, 23
Kedar, 46, 63, 86, 132, 133
Keveh, 20
Khesyt wood, 25
Kition, 76
Kittim, 61, 76, 134
Krystallos, 106, 122
Kyphi, 85
Lacing, 13, 89
Ladanum, 22
Lambs, 13, 63, 86, 94, 133
Lamps, 11, 12, 17, 19, 83, 101,
128
Land of traffic, SS, 56
Lapis-lazuli, IS, 25, 10S, 109,
111, 112, 118, 121, 130
Larch, 75
Laver, 13, 19
Lead, 14, 16, 62, 81, 134

Lebanon, 18, 27, 29, 56, 61, 74,
82, 134, 143
House of the forest of, 79
Leshem, 119, 120, 121, 125, 132
Libya, 33
Lign aloes, 27
Ligurion, 119, 120, 121, 132
Linen, 10, 11, 12, 13, 19, 25, 51,
53, 54, 61, 76, 77, 98, 99,
113, 114, 127, 128, 132, 137,
138, 140
Lions, 19
Liquidambar, 26
Lower Sea, 45
Lud, 30, 62, 78, 79, 134
Lydia, 79
Maidens (See Persons), 16, 60, 81
Malabar, 21
Malachite, 15, 25, 130
Malmistras, 80
Mantle, 15, 54, 63, 84, 88
Marble, 17, 29, 82, 98, 101, 106,
133
Mast, 59, 61, 74
Medes, 42, 43, 58
Media, 21, 118, 130
Mehalleb, 62, 78
Men of war, 62, 64, 79
Meshech, 62, 81, 131, 134
Minnith, 63, 82
Mistletoe, 111
Mitre, 12, 13, 89, 128, 129
Mitre-lacing, 13, 89
Mitre-plate, 13, 60, 90, 114, 131
Moab, 41, 46, 47
Molten Sea, 19, 44, 81
Monkeys, 25, 29, 32, 34, 87
Mount of meeting, 43
Mountain of dwelling, 91
Mountain of the north, holy
mountain, 39, 45, 68, 91
Mountains, products of, 45
Mugheir, 28
Mules, 19, 62, 81, 86, 134
Musical instruments, 26, 28, 95,
100
Muza, 35, 86
Myrrh, 13, 24, 25, 83, 87, 133.
143
Myrrh trees, 25

INDEX

153

Naoratna, 92, 116
Natal stones, 115
Natives (See Persons), 25, 87
Naxos, 130
Nebuchadrezzar, inscription of,
45
Nineveh, 39, 42, 43, 44, 58, 78,
92, 110
Nizir, 91
Nophek, 63, 68, 82, 118, 119,
120, 121, 122, 125, 132
Nubia, 19, 33, 34, 35, 75, 76, 82,
84, 87, 130
Oak, 61, 74, 109, 111
Oars, 59, 61
Obsidian, 130
Odem, 62, 118, 119, 120, 121,
125 132
Offerings, 13, 48, 51, 55, 83, 94,
95, 101, 133, 140
Atonement-offering, 14
Burnt-offering, 13, 60, 83, 94
Consecration-offering, 13
Drink-offering, 13, 55, 60, 83
Meal-offering, 13, 55, 60, 83,
94, 101
Sin-offering, 60, 86, 94
Oil (anointing) 10, 13, 40, 51, 60,
83, 84, 85, 101, 133, 139
Oil (olive), 10, 12, 13, 14, 18, 51,
54,55,63,82,83,94,99,101, 133
Ointment, Parthian, 85
Ointment, 99, 101, 133
Olive-wood, 18, 100, 124, 134,
143
Onycha, 13, 124, 133, 143
Onychion, 119, 120, 121, 122,
133
Onyx, 100, 118, 121, 122, 124,
125, 129, 143
Ophir, 17, 21, 22, 24, 26, 29, 30,
31, 34, 36, 37, 38, 79, 82, 87,
144
Oracle, 75, 127, 140, 145
Ornaments, 16, 51, S3, 55, 98,
127, 128
Oryx, 20
Ostriches, 32, 33, 34, 43
Oxen, 15, 19, 20

Palace, 19, 20, 38, 40, 70, 100,
103, 105, 134
Palestine, 9, 19, 22, 23, 26, 34,
38 83
Palm-trees 18, 45, 108, 143
Panther skins, 25, 87
Parvaim, 22, 87
Paths, 26, 28
Peacocks, 29, 31, 32, 34
Pearl, 23, 80, 82, 87, 97, 98, 99,
100, 106, 108, 109, 116, 118,
122, 124, 132
Peridot, 118, 121, 130
Persia, 41, 62, 78, 79, 94, 130, 134
Persian Gulf, 22, 26, 28, 30, 36,
38, 41, 57, 78, 87, 118, 123
Persons, 14, 62, 81, 102, 134
Philistia, 41, 46, 47, 83
Phoenicia, 18, 57, 60, 76, 112
Pillars, 11, 12, 19, 26, 28, 59, 80,
81, 108
Pine, 27, 75
Pitdah, 68, 118, 119, 120, 121,
125, 132
Pithom, 33
Plane-tree, 143
Planks (See Boards), 59, 61, 74
Porphyry, 111, 118
Prasinos, 122
Precious stones, 12, IS, 17, 19, 21,
23, 24, 25, 26, 45, 63, 68, 82,
87, 91, 97, 98, 99, 106, 107,
108, 109, 126, 127, 129, 132
Precious substance, 100, 108
Precious wood, 98, 100, 134
Prismatic refraction in stones,
123, 126, 139
Pul, 30
Punt, 23, 24, 25, 29, 31, 32, 34,
36, 79, 87, 144
Purple, 10, 11, 12, 16, 19, 62, 77,
88, 97, 98, 99, 127, 128, 131,
138
Put, 30, 62, 78, 79, 134
Puta a, 79
Raamah, 63, 86, 131, 133
Ramoth, 63, 82, 122, 124, 132
Rhamoth, 122
Rams, 13, 63, 86, 94, 133

154

THE SHIP "TYRE'

Rams' skins, 10, 11, 53, 84, 132,
140
Red Sea, 26, 30, 33, 34, 35, 36,
78, 82, 118, 130
Rhinoceros horn, 82
Robe, 12, 51, 57, 60, 88, 127, 138
Rome, 48, 93, 96, 97, 98, 99, 103,
110
Rose, 124, 143
Rose-wood, 28
Ruby, 109, 116, 125, 130
Sabaeans, 38, 86
Sacrifice, 13, 86, 126
Saddle-cloths, 86
Saddle-horses, 62, 81
Sahar, 63, 84
Sail, 52, 54, 59, 61, 82
Sak el Farwain, 22, 87
Salt, 94
Samaria, 49, 56, 57
Samos, 81
Samtu-stones, 109
Sanaa, 35, 84
Sanctuary, 69, 92, 95, 128, 136,
138, 139, 141, 145
Sand-dwellers, 25
Sandal-wood, 27, 28
Sandu stone, 116
Sappheiros, 106, 107, 119, 120,
121, 132, 146, 147
Sapphire, 109, 116, 118, 122, 125,
130, 146
Sappir, 68, 104, 105, 106, 118, 119
120, 121, 125, 132, 146, 147
Sard, 121
Sardios, 105, 108, 119, 120, 121,
132
Sardis, 38, 81
Sardonyx, 108, 119, 120, 122,
124, 129, 133
Scarlet, 10, 11, 12, 16, 51, 61, 77,
88, 97, 98, 99, 127, 128, 132,
137, 138
Screen, 11, 76, 131, 132
Scylax of Caryanda, 36
Seal, 68, 90
Sealskins, 10, 11, 51, 52, 53, 77,
132, 140
Seas, wealth of, 45
product of, 87

Seat, 60, 61, 74, 75, 105, 112
Seir, 47
Senir, 61, 74, 134
Senna, 84, 85
Serpentine, 111, 118, 121, 129
Shamir, 122
Sheba, 21, 23, 24, 34, 35, 38, 63,
84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 131, 133
Shebo, 119, 120, 121, 125, 132
Sheep, 14, 15, 99, 101, 133, 134
Sheepskins, 63, 84, 132
Shewbread, 10, 17, 19,55,60,77,
83, 94, 101, 128, 132
Shield and helmet, 56, 62, 79, 134
Shinar, 15, 88
Ships, ancient,
their construction, rigging,
equipment, manning and oper
ation, 71-73
Ships, 99
Shoham, 10, 12, 17, 22, 23, 63,
68, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122,
123, 124, 125, 132, 133
Shoulder-pieces, 12, 60, 100, 115,
118, 122, 123, 126, 129, 132
Sidon, 41, 62, 78
Sidonian fabrics, 76
Signet, 14, 53, 90, 127, 128
Silk, 51, 52, 53, 54, 98, 138
Silver, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17,
18,20,25,29,31,40,42,45,
53, 55, 62, 66, 80, 98, 105,
108, 111, 112, 113, 131, 134
Sinai, 118, 130
Sirgarru stone, 116
Skin, 14
Slaves (See Persons), 81, 99, 101,
102, 134
Smaragdos, 105, 107, 119, 120,
121, 123, 132
Smiris, 122
Smoky quartz, 121, 123, 129
Sockets, 11, 12, 80
Socotra, 21
Souls of men (See Persons), 99,
101, 102, 134
South, lands of ,47
Spain, 30, 80, 129
Spices, 10, 13, 19, 21, 22, 24, 38,
40, 63, 83, 87, 99, 101, 133

INDEX

155

Spoil, division of 14, IS, 16, 70,
• 70, 101, 102, 134
Spoil, purification of, 14, 80, 81,
84, 101, 134
Stacte (see Myrrh), 83
Standard, 59, 61, 77, 125
Steel, 84, 8S
Steps, 19
Stones, engraved, 12, 106, 107
Stones of fire, 68, 92
Storax, 13, 133
Styrax, 26
Succoth, 33
Sumur, 62, 78
Susa, 38
Sycomore wood, 111
Syria, 19, 22, 38, 57, 82, 83, 118,
129
Tabernacle, 10, 11, 13, 14, 48,
52, 53, 54, 56, 59, 60, 70, 77,
81, 86, 87, 95, 98, 99, 100,
101, 103, 112, 114, 128, 139,
140, 141, 142, 143
Tabernacle of dwelling, 91, 140,
142
Table, 10, 17, 19, 128, 131, 132,
140
Taima, 35
Talismans, 91, 92, 111, 116, 117
Tarshish, (stone) 63,68, 118, 119,
120, 121, 123, 125, 133, 139
Tarshish, (place) 29, 30, 31, 36,
37,62,79,131,134
Ships of, 63
Tarsus, 30, 80
Tartessus, 30, 31, 80
Teak, 28
Teasshur, 75
Teima, 86
Temple, 17, 21, 25, 38, 40, 48,
49, 57, 59, 60, 70, 77, 80, 81,
84 87,98,93,94,95,99,100,
101, 103, 106, 107, 109, 111,
112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 124,
133, 139, 141, 142
Tent, 11, 52,53,77,86, 113, 131,
132
Theion, 147

Theios, 147
Throne, 17, 19, 20, 60, 75, 82,
100, 105, 134, 142
Thuku, 33, 34
Thyine wood, 27, 61, 75, 98, 100,
134
Tiglath-pileser III, inscription of,
39
Timbers, 28, 29
Tin, 14, 16, 62, 80, 134
Tithes, 14, 15, 48, 55, 83, 94, 101
Togarmah, 62, 81, 134
Topaz, 109, 116, 118, 121, 125
Topazion, 108, 119, 120, 121, 132
Traffic, land of, 55, 56
place of, 61, 74
Treasure, treasury, 40, 44, 60, 66,
81, 88, 89
Tribute, 21, 87
Tubal, 62, 81, 131, 134
Tunic, 12
Turbans, 56
Turkestan, 118, 129
Turquoise, 118, 130
Turrets, 62
Tyre, 18, 31, 41, 42, 45, 47, 48,
49, 55, 57, 58, 59, 61, 69,
78,81
" Tyre," the ship, 47, 58, 59, 60, 61-65
its standard, 77
political significance of, 89 ,92,
93
prince of, 66, 67
king of, 47, 68, 69, 90, 91, 93,
117
Uknu stone, 116
Upper Sea, 45
Urim and Thummim, 12,95, 113,
114, 126, 127, 133, 140
Ushu, 26, 83, 87
Uzal, 63, 84, 85, 133
Valley of Vision, 42
Vedan, 63, 84
Veil, 11, 19, 54, 57, 59, 76, 83,
128, 131, 132

156

THE SHIP "TYRE"

Vessels, 17, 19, 44, 57, 60, 62, 80,
81, 89, 94, 95, 98, 111, 131
Wadi ed Dawasir, 87
Wadi er Rumma, 22, 87
Wafers, unleavened, 13
Walls, 18
Western Sea, 39
Wheat, 14, 18, 63, 82, 83, 94, 95,
99, 101, 133
Wheat flour, 13, 54, 133
Wilderness of the sea, 42
Wine, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20, 55, 63,
82, 83, 94, 95, 99, 101, 133
Wood, 14, 17

Wool, 84
Woven in colors, Woven work,
13, 51, 53, 61, 63, 87, 88
Yahalom, 68, 118, 119, 120, 121,
125, 133
Yashepheh, 68, 118, 119, 120,
121,125,132
Yemama, 23, 31,35,38,87
Zahi, 19
Zinc, 80, 81
Zircon, 109, 118, 122
Zodiac, 115, 124, 128, 129
Zodiacal signs, 115

PUBLICATIONS 157

By the same Author :
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Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the
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