OPHER (Ver), (Heb. o'fer), in Cant. iv:5 it denotes the calf or fawn of a stag (ail).
The term occurs in no other book of Scripture, is unknown in the Syriac and Chaldee, and ap pears to be only a poetical application of a term more strictly belonging to fawn-like animals; for in the above passage it is applied to couples feed ing in a bed of lilies—indications not descriptive of young goats or stags, but quite applicable to the Antilopine groups which are characterized in Griffith's Cuvier, in subgenus X. Cephalaphus, and XI. Neotragus; both furnishing species of exceeding delicacy and graceful diminutive struc tures, several of which habitually feed in pairs among shrubs and geraniums on the hilly plains of Africa. They have always been and still are in request among the wealthy in warm climates for domestication, therefore we may conjecture that a species designated by the name of Opher (perhaps, alluding to Ophir, or even Africa), was to be found in the parks or royal gardens of Solomon and from the sovereign's own observa tion were alluded to in the truly apposite im agery of his poetical diction (Cant. iv:12). (See ANTELOPE ; ROE ; ROEBUCK.) C. H. S.
OPHIR (6"phir), (Heb. o-feer', fat, rich).
1. The proper name of one of the thirteen sons of Joktan, the son of Eber, a great-grandson of Shem (Gen. x :26-29; Vulg. Ophir). Many Arabian countries are believed to have been peo pled by these persons, and to have been called after their respective names, as Sheba, etc., and among others Ophir (Bochart, Phaleg, 15).
2. The name of a place, country, or region, fa mous for its gold, which Solomon's ships visited in company with the Phcenician. The difficulty is to ascertain where Ophir was situated. The first theory which appears to be attended with some degree of evidence not purely fanciful is that Ophir was situated in Arabia. In Gen. x: 29, Ophir stands in the midst of other Arabian countries. Still, as Gescnius observes, it is pos sibly mentioned in that connection only on ac count of its being an Arabian colony planted abroad. Though gold is not now found in Arabia (Niebuhr, Description de l'Arabie, Copen hague, 1773, p. 124), yet the ancients ascribe it to the inhabitants in great plenty (Judg. viii:24, 26; 2 Chron. i; 1 Kings x:i, 2; Ps. lxxii:15). This gold, Dr. Lee thinks, was no other than the gold of Havilah (Gen. ii t), which he sup poses to have been situate somewhere in Arabia, and refers to Gen. x:7, 29; xxv :18; I Sam. xv: 7 ; Chron. 1:9 (Translation of the Book Job, etc., Lond. 1837, Q. 55). But Diodorus Siculus ascribes gold mines to Arabia (ii, 5o). He also testifies to the abundance of 'precious stones' in Arabia 54), especially among the inhabitants of babas (iii, 46; comp. Gen. ii:t2; 2 Chron. ix: ; Kings X:I, 2). Pliny also speaks of the `..Sabcei ditissinzi aztri metallis' (Hist. Nat. vi, 32). Again, `Littus Hammaum, ubi aztri metalla' (ib). Others suppose that though Ophir was situate somewhere on the coast of Arabia, it was rather an emporium, at which the Hebrews and Tyrians obtained gold, silver, ivory, apes, almug-trees, etc., brought thither from India and Africa by the Arabian merchants, and even from Ethiopia, to which Herodotus (iii, 114) ascribes gold in great quantities, elephants' teeth, and trees and shrubs of every kind. In behalf of the 3upposi tion that Ophir was the Arabian port Aphar al ready referred to, it may be remarked that the name has undergone similar changes to that of the Sept. of Ophir; for it is called by Ar
rian Aphar, by Pliny Saphar, by Ptolemy Sap phera, and by Stephanus Saphirini. Grotius thinks his to be Ophir. The very name El Ophir has been lately pointed out as a city of Oman, in former times the center of a very active Arabian commerce (Seetzen, in Zachs. Illonatl. Corre spond. xix, 331, sq.). In favor of the theory which places Ophir in Africa, it has been sug gested that we have the very name in afri, Africa. Origen also says, on Job xxii:2.4, that some of the interpreters understood Ophir to be Africa. Michaelis supposes that Solomon's fleet, coming down the Red Sea from Ezion-geber, coasted along the shore of Africa, doubling the Cape of Good Hope, and came to Tarshish, which he, with many others, supposes to have been Tartes sus in Spain, and thence back again the same way; that this conjecture accounts for their three years' voyage out and home; and that Spain and the coasts of Africa furnished all the commodi ties which they brought back. Strabo indeed says that Spain abounded in gold, and immensely more so in silver (see Mace. viii:3). Others have not hesitated to carry Solotnon's fleet round from Spain up the Mediterranean to Joppa. In behalf of the conjecture that Ophir was in India, the following arguments are alleged: that it is most natural to understand from the narrative that all the productions said to have been brought from °pint. came from one and the same coun try, and that they were all procurable only from India. The Sept. translators also appear to have understood it to be India. Joseplms also gives to the sons of Joktan the locality from Cophen, an Indian river; and in part of Asia adjoining it (Antiq. i, 6, 4). He also expressly and unhesitatingly affirms that the land to which Solomon sent for gold was 'anciently called Ophir, hut now the Aurea Chersonesus, which belongs to India' (Antiq. viii, 6, 4). There are several places comprised in that region which was actually known as India to the ancients (see INDIA), any of which would have supplied the cargo of Solomon's fleet: for instance, the coast of Malabar. Perhaps the most probable of all is Igalacca, which is known to be the Aurea Chersonesus of the ancients. It is also worthy of remark that the natives of Malacca still call their gold-mines ophirs. Prof. Lassen considers it un necessary to examine conjectures concerning other localities from the fact that products which are said to come from Ophir have Indian names, even in the Hebrew text when they are destitute of genuine Hebrew names. Ritter and Max Mul ler favor India as the location of Ophir.
On the other hand. some writers give a wider extent to the cot;ntry- in question. Heeren ob serves that 'Ophir, like the name of all other very distant places or regions of antiquity, like Thule, Tartessus, and others, denotes no particular spot, but only a certain region or part of the world. such as the East or West Indies in modern geography. Hence Ophir was the general name for the rich countries of the south lying on the African, Arabian, or Indian coasts, as far as at that time known' (Historical Researches, trans lated from the German, Oxford, 1833. vol. ii, pp. 73, 74). It remains to be observed, that in Jer. x:9 we have 'the gold from Uphaz,' and in Dan. x:5, 'the fine gold of Uphaz;' and see the Heb. of 1 Kings x:18. In these instances Uphaz is. by a slight change of pronunciation, put for Ophir. J. F. D.