During the reign of David, king of Israel, that powerful monarch disposed of a part of the wealth obtained by his conquests in purchasing cedar timber from Hiram, king of Tyre, with whom he kept up a friendly correspondence while he lived. He also hired Tyrian masons and carpenters for carrying on his works. Solomon, the son of David, cultivated the arts of peace, and indulged his taste for magnificence and luxury to a great extent. He employed the wealth collected by his father in works of architecture, and in strengthening and improving his kingdom. He built the famous Temple and fortifications of Jerusalem, and many cities, among which was the celebrated Tadmor or Palmyra. From the king of Tyre he obtained cedar and fir, or cypress-timbers, and large stones cut and prepared for building, which the Tyrians conveyed by water to the most convenient lauding place in Solomon's dominions. Hiram also sent a vast number of workmen to assist and instruct Solomon's people, none of whom had skill to hew timber like the Sidonians.' Solomon, in ex change, furnished the Tyrians with corn, wine, and oil, and received a balance in gold. Solomon and IIiram appear to have subsequently entered into a trading speculation or adventure upon a large scale. Tyrian shipwrights were accordingly sent to build vessels for both kings at Eziongeber, Solo mon's port on the Red Sea, whither he himself went to animate them with his presence (2 Chron. viii. 17). These ships, conducted by Tyrian navi gators, sailed in company to some rich countries called Ophir and Tarshish, regarding the position of which the learned have multiplied conjectures to little purpose. The voyage occupied three years ; yet the returns in this new found trade were very great and profitable. This fleet took in apes, ebony, and parrots on the coasts of Ethiopia, gold at Ophir, or the place of traffic whither the people of Ophir resorted ; it traded on both sides of the Red Sea, on the coasts of Arabia and Ethiopia, in all parts of Ethiopia beyond the straits when it had entered the ocean ; thence it passed up the Persian Gulf, and might visit the places of trade upon both its shores, and run up the Tigris or the Euphrates as far as these rivers were navigable.
After the reign of Solomon the commerce of the Israelites seems to have very materially declined. An attempt was made by Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and Ahaziah, king of Israel, to effect its revival ; but the ships which they built at Ezion geber having been wrecked in the harbour, the undertaking was abandoned. It does not appear
that they had any assistance from the Phoenicians in fitting out this fleet. Great efforts were made by the Egyptians to extend the commerce of their country, among which, not the least considerable was the unsuccessful attempt to construct a canal from the Nile to the Arabian Gulf.
The rising prosperity of Tyre soon eclipsed the ancient and long-flourishing commercial city of Sidon. About 600 years before Christ her com mercial splendour appears to have been at its height, and is graphically described by Ezekiel (xxvii.) The imports into Tyre were fine linen from Egypt ; blue and purple from the isles of Elisha ; silver, iron, tin, and lead from Tarshish the south part of Spain ; slaves and brazen vessels from Javan or Greece, Tubal, and Meshech ; horses, slaves bred to horsemanship, and mules from Togarmah ; emeralds, purple, embroidery, fine linen, corals, and agates from Syria ; corn, balm, honey, oil, and gums from the Israelites ; wine and wool from Damascus ; polished iron ware, precious oils, and cinnamon from Dan, Javan, and Mezo ; magnificent carpets from Dedan ; sheep and goats from the pastoral tribes of Arabia ; costly spices, some the produce of India, precious stones, and gold from the merchants of Sheba or Sabma, and Ramah or Regma, countries in the south part of Arabia ; blue cloths, embroidered works, rich apparel in corded cedar-chests, sup posed to be original India packages, and other goods from Sheba, Ashur, and Chilmad, and from Haran, Canneh, and Eden, trading ports on the south coast of Arabia. The vast wealth that thus flowed into Tyre from all quarters brought with it its too general concomitants—extravagance, dissi pation, and relaxation of morals.
The subjection of Tyre, the renowned city which was strong in the sea, whose merchants were princes, whose traffickers were the honourable of the earth,' by Cyrus, and its subsequent overthrow by Alexander, after a determined and most for midable resistance, terminated alike the grandeur of that city, and the history of ancient commerce, as far as they are alluded to in Scripture (Ander son's History of Commerce; Vincent's Commerce and Navigation of the Indian Ocean; Heeren's Re searches; Barnes's Ancient Commerce of Western Asia, in American Biblical Repository, 1840.— G. M. B.