The great intercourse of trade and friendship, which Solomon had with the first commercial people in the western world, inspired him with a strong desire to participate in the advantages of trade. His father's conquests, as we have already seen, had extended his territories to the Red Sea or the Arabian Gulf, and had given him the possession of a good harbour, whence ships might be despatched to the rich countries of the south and east. But his own subjects being totally ignorant of the arts of building and navigating vessels, he again had recourse to the assistance of Hiram. The king of Tyre, who was desirious of an opening to the oriental commerce, the articles of which his subjects were obliged to receive at second hand from the Arabians, entered readily into the views of the Hebrew monarch. Accordingly, Tyrian carpenters were sent to build vessels for both kings at Eziongeber, Solomon's port on the Red Sea; whither Solomon himself also went to animate the workmen by his presence.

Solomon's ships, conducted by Tyrian navigators, sailed in company with those of Hiram to some rich countries, called Ophir (most probably Sofala on the eastern coast of Africa), and Tarshish, a place supposed to be somewhere on the same coast.1 The voyage required three years to accomplish it; yet, notwithstanding the length of time employed in it, the returns in this new channel of trade were prodigiously great and profitable, consisting of gold, silver, precious stones, valuable woods, and some exotic animals, as apes and peacocks. We have no information concerning the articles exported in this trade: but, in all probability, the manufactures of the Tyrians, together with the commodities imported by them from other countries, were assorted with the corn, wine, and oil of Solomon's dominions in making up the cargoes; and his ships, like the late Spanish galleons, imported bullion, partly for the benefit of his industrious and commercial neighbours. (1 Kings vii.-x.; 2 Chron. ii. viii. ix.) Solomon also established a commercial correspondence with Egypt; whence he imported horses, chariots, and fine linen-yarn: the chariots cost six hundred, and the horses one hundred and fifty, shekels of silver each. (1 Kings x. 28, 29.; 2 Chron. i. 16, 17.)

After the division of the kingdom, Edom being in that portion which remained to the house of David, the Jews appear to have carried on the oriental trade from the two ports of Elath and Eziongeber, especially the latter, until the time of Jehoshaphat, whose fleet was wrecked there. (1 Kings xxii. 48.; 2 Chron. xx. 36, 37.) During the reign of Jehoram, the wicked successor of Jehoshaphat, the

It is certain that under Pharaoh Necho, two hundred years after the time of Solomon, this voyage was made by the Egyptians. (Herodotus, lib. iv. c. 42.) They sailed from the Red Sea, and returned by the Mediterranean, and they performed it in three years; just the same time that the voyage under Solomon had taken up. It appears likewise from Pliny (Nat. Hist. lib. ii. c. 67.), that the passage round the Cape of Good Hope was known and frequently practised before his time; by Hanno the Carthaginian, when Carthage was in all its glory; by one Eudoxus, in the time of Ptolemy Lathyrus, king of Egypt: and Cælius Antipater, an historian of good credit, somewhat earlier than Pliny, testifies that he had seen a merchant who had made the voyage from Gades to Æthiopia. Bp. Lowth, however, supposes Tarshish to be Tartessus in Spain. Isaiah, vol. ii. pp. 34, 35.

Edomites shook off the yoke of the Jewish sovereigns, and recovered their ports. From this time the Jewish traffic, through the Red Sea, ceased till the reign of Uzziah; who, having recovered Elath soon after his accession, expelled the Edomites thence, and, having fortified the place, peopled it with his own subjects, who renewed their former commerce. This appears to have continued till the reign of Ahaz, when Rezin, king of Damascus, having oppressed and weakened Judah in conjunction with Pekah, king of Israel, took advantage of this circumstance to seize Elath; whence he expelled the Jews, and planted it with Syrians. In the following year, however, Elath fell into the hands of Tiglathpileser, king of Assyria, who conquered Rezin, but did not restore it to his friend and ally, king Ahaz.' Thus finally terminated the commercial prosperity of the kingdoms of Judah and İsrael. After the captivity, indeed, during the reigns of the Asmonæan princes, the Jews became great traders. In the time of Pompey the Great there were so many Jews abroad on the ocean, even in the character of pirates, that king Antigonus was accused before him of having sent them out on purpose. During the period of time comprised in the New Testament history, Joppa and Cæsarea were the two principal ports; and corn continued to be a staple article of export to Tyre. (Acts xii. 20.)2

During the Babylonish captivity, the Jews seem to have applied themselves much more than they had previously done to commercial pursuits; for though some of them cultivated the soil at the exhortation of Jeremiah (xxix. 4, 5.), yet many others appear to have gained their subsistence by buying and selling. Hence, immediately after their restoration, there were Jewish traders, who, regardless of the rest of the sabbath-day which was enjoined by Moses, not only bought and sold on that sacred day (Neh. xiii. 15.), but also extorted unjust usury. (Neh. v. 1-13.) In later times, foreign commerce was greatly facilitated by Simon Maccabæus, who made the fortified city of Joppa a commodious port (1 Macc. xiv. 5.), and by Herod the Great, who erected the city of Cæsarea, which he converted into a very excellent harbour, which was always sheltered by means of a magnificent mole.3

IV. Respecting the size and architecture of the Jewish ships, we have no information whatever. The trading vessels of the ancients were, in general, much inferior in size to those of the moderns : Cicero mentions a number of ships of burden, none of which were below two thousand amphora, that is, not exceeding fifty-six tons.* The trading vessels, however, which were employed for transporting corn from Egypt (at that time one of the granaries of Rome) were of

During this period, the Jews seem to have had privileged streets at Damascus, as the Syrians had in Samaria. (1 Kings xx. 34.) In later times, during the crusades, the Genoese and Venetians, who had assisted the Latin kings of Jerusalem, had streets assigned to them, with great liberties and exclusive jurisdictions therein. See Harmer's Observations, vol. iii. pp. 489-492.

2 Jahn, Archæol. Hebr. §§ 107-111.

Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. i.

pp. 22-24. 26. Prideaux's Connection, vol. i. pp. 5-10. 8th edit.

3

4

Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. xv. c. 9. § 6.
Epist. ad Familiares, lib. xii. ep. 15.

Pareau, Antiq. Hebr. pp. 418, 419.

2

much larger capacity, probably not inferior to the largest merchantmen of modern times. In such a vessel, bound with corn from Alexandria in Egypt to Rome, St. Paul was embarked at Myra in Lycia. From the description of his voyage in Acts xxvii. it is evident to what small improvement the art of navigation had then attained. They had no anchors, by which to moor or secure their vessels. As the Greeks and Romans, in the more advanced state of navigation among them, were reluctant to venture out to sea beyond the sight of land, it is not improbable that the crew of the vessel, on board of which the Apostle was embarked, drew her up on the beach of the several places where they stopped, and made her fast on the rocks, as the ancient Greeks did in the time of Homer', which practice also still obtains in almost every island of Greece. Further, they had no compass by which they could steer their course across the trackless deep and the sacred historian represents their situation as peculiarly distressing, when the sight of the sun, moon, and stars was intercepted from them (Acts xxvii. 20.); the absence of which increased their danger, since it deprived them of their only means of observation. The vessel being overtaken by one of those tremendous gales, which at certain seasons of the year prevail in the Mediterranean3 (where they are now called Levanters), they had much work to come by the ship's boat, which appears to have been towed along after the vessel, agreeably to the custom that still obtains in the East, where the skiffs are fastened to the sterns of the ships (16.); which having taken up, that is, having drawn it up close to the stern, they proceeded to undergird the ship. (17.) We learn from various passages in the Greek and Roman authors, that the ancients had recourse to this expedient in order to secure their vessels, when in imminent danger. The larger ships, on their more extended voyages, carried with them Tolóμata, or ropes for under-girding, so as to be ready for any emergency which might require them. This method of strengthening a ship at sea, though not adopted so often as it anciently was, is not unknown in the experience of modern navigators.5

1 Iliad, lib. i. 435. et passim.

4

2 Emerson's Letters from the Egean, vol. ii. p. 121. The following passages of Acts xxvii. will derive elucidation from the above practice: it will be observed that at setting sail there is no mention made of heaving up the anchor; but there occur such phrases as the following: - And entering into a ship of Adramyttium, WE LAUNCHED, meaning_to sail by the coasts of Asia (verse 2.). And when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, LOOSING THENCE, they sailed close by Crete (13.). And again, And when we had LAUNCHED FROM THENCE, we sailed under Cyprus, because the winds were contrary (4.). Ibid. pp. 121, 122.

Mr. Emerson has described the phenomena attending one of these gales in his Letters from the gean, vol. ii. pp. 149-152.

Raphelius and Wetstein, in loc., have collected numerous testimonies. See also Dr. Harwood's Introduction, vol. ii. pp. 239, 240.

The process of under-girding a ship is thus performed:-A stout cable is slipped under the vessel at the prow, which the seamen can conduct to any part of the ship's keel, and then fasten the two ends on the deck, to keep the planks from starting. As many rounds as may be necessary, may be thus taken about the vessel. An instance of this kind is mentioned in Lord Anson's Voyage round the World. Speaking of a Spanish man-ofwar in a storm, the writer says,-" They were obliged to throw overboard all their upper-deck guns; and take six turns of the cable round the ship, to prevent her opening." (p. 24. 4to. edit.) Bp. Pearce and Dr. A. Clarke on Acts xxvii. 17. Two instances of VOL. III.

M M

Much ingenious conjecture has been hazarded relative to the nature of the rudder-bands, mentioned in Acts xxvii. 40; but the supposed difficulty will be obviated by attending to the structure of ancient vessels. It was usual for all large ships (of which description were the Alexandrian corn ships) to have two rudders, a kind of very large and broad oars, which were attached to the stern, one on each quarter, distinguished as the right and the left rudder. The bands were some kinds of fastenings, by which these rudders were hoisted some way out of the water; for as they could be of no use in a storm, and in the event of fair weather coming the vessel could not do without them, this was a prudent way of securing them from being broken to pieces by the agitation of the waves. These bands being loosed when the ship was again got under way, the rudders would fall down into their proper places, and serve to steer the vessel into the creek which they now had in view.2

It was the custom of the ancients to have images on their ships both at the head and stern; the first of which was called Ilapárnμos, or the sign, from which the vessel was named, and the other was that of the tutelar deity to whose care it was committed. There is no doubt but they sometimes had deities at the head: in which case it is most likely that, if they had any figure at the stern, it was the same; as it is hardly probable that the ship should be called by the name of one deity, and be committed to the care of another. The constellation of the Dioscuri, that is, of Castor and Pollux (Acts xxviii. 11.), was deemed favourable to mariners; and, therefore, for a good omen, they had them painted or carved on the head of the ship, whence they gave it a name, which the sacred historian uses.3

The Egyptians commonly used on the Nile a light sort of ships or boats made of the reed papyrus. Isaiah alludes to them (xviii. 2.), in our version rendered vessels of bulrushes. Boats of similar frail materials are still in use in the East."

5

under-girding a ship are noticed in the Chevalier de Johnstone's Memoirs of the Rebellion in 1745-46. (London, 1822. 8vo,) pp. 421. 454. More recently in our own time, when, in 1815, Mr. Henry Hartley was employed to pilot the Russian fleet to the Baltic, one of the ships under his escort (the Jupiter) was frapped round the middle by three or four turns of a stream-cable, that is, had three or four turns of the cable passed round the middle of her hull or frame. Sir George Back also, on his return from his Arctic voyage in 1837, was forced to under-gird his ship, in consequence of her shattered and leaking condition. See Mr. Smith's very instructive treatise on "The Voyage and Shipwreck of Saint Paul," pp. 65, 66. In pp. 172-177. he has described the process of under-girding the ships of the ancients.

1 Smith's Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul, p. 143.

2 Elsner and Wetstein on Acts xxvii. 40.

Valpy's Gr. Test. vol. ii. on Acts xxviii. 11.

Ex ipso quidem papyro navigia texunt. Pliny, Hist. Nat. lib. xiii. 11. The same fact is attested by Lucan: conseritur bibula Memphitis cymba papyro. Pharsal. lib. iv.

136.

5 Bp. Lowth on Isaiah xviii. 2.

The Hon. Capt. Keppel, giving an account of an excursion up the river Tigris, thus describes the boat in which he embarked:-"It was in shape like a large circular basket; the sides were of willow, covered over with bitumen, the bottom was laid with reeds. This sort of boat is common to the Euphrates and the Tigris, and is probably best adapted to the strong currents common to these rivers. May not these boats be of the same kind as the vessels of bulrushes upon the waters alluded to by Isaiah? (xviii. 2.)" Narrative of Travels from India vol. i. pp. 197, 198. Mr. Layard, in Southern Mesopotamia, met with

V. Commerce could not be carried on without COIN, nor without a system of WEIGHTS and MEASURES.

Although the Scriptures frequently mention gold, silver, brass, certain sums of money, purchases made with money, current money, and money of a certain weight; yet the use of COIN or stamped MONEY appears to have been of late introduction among the Hebrews. Calmet is of opinion, that the ancient Hebrews took gold and silver only by weight, and that they regarded the purity of the metal and not the stamp. The ancient Egyptians also settled the price of commodities by weight. The practice of weighing money is stated by M. Volney to be general in Syria, Egypt, and Turkey: no piece, however effaced, is there refused. The merchant draws out his scales and weighs it, as in the days of Abraham, when he purchased the cave of Machpelah for a sepulchre. (Gen. xxiii. 16.)3 The most ancient mode of carrying on trade, unquestionably, was by way of barter, or exchanging one commodity for another; a custom which obtains in some places even to this day. In process of time such metals as were deemed the most valuable were received into traffic, and were weighed out; until the inconveniences of this method induced men to give to each metal a certain mark, weight, and degree of alloy, in order to determine its value, and save both buyers and sellers the trouble of weighing and examining the metal. In some eases, the earliest coins bore the impression of a particular figure; in others, they were made to resemble objects of nature. The coinage of money was of late date among the Persians, Greeks, and Romans. The Persians had none coined before the reign of Darius the son of Hystaspes, nor had the Greeks (whom the Romans most probably imitated) any before the time of Alexander. We have no certain vestiges of the existence of coined money, among the Egyptians, before the time of the Ptolemies; nor had the Hebrews any coinage until the government of Judas Maccabæus, to whom Antiochus Sidetes, king of Syria, granted the privilege of coining his own money in Judæa. Before these respective times, all payments were made by weight; this will account for one and the same word (shekel, which comes from shakal, to weigh,) denoting both a certain weight of any commodity and also a determinate sum of money. The holy pliancy of temper with which believers should conform to all the precepts of the Gospel is by St. Paul

similar boats, consisting simply of a very narrow frame-work of rushes, covered with bitumen, which skimmed over the surface of the water with great rapidity. Discoveries in Nineveh and Babylon, p. 552.

Wilkinson's Manners, &c. of the Ancient Egyptians, vol. iii. pp. 237, 238.

2 In a piece of sculpture discovered by Captains Irby and Mangles at El Cab, the ancient Eleethias in Egypt, there was represented a pair of scales: at one end was a man writing an account, while another was weighing some small articles, probably loaves of bread. The weight was in the form of a cow couchant. Travels in Egypt, Nubia, &c. pp. 130-132.

3

Volney's Travels in Syria, &c. vol. ii. 425. In considerable payments an agent of exchange is sent for, who counts paras by thousands, rejects pieces of false money, and weighs all the sequins either separately or together. (Ibid.) This may serve to illustrate the phrase, current money with the merchant, in Gen. xxiii. 16.

4 Calmet's Dictionary, vol. ii. article Money. See a full account of the money coined by the Maccabean princes, in F. P. Bayer's Dissertatio De Nummis Hebræo-Samaritanis. Valentiæ Edetanorum. 1781. 4to.