OPHIR. Gold is often mentioned in the I lebrew Scriptures as an article of commerce. In 1 Kings ix. 26, about 1000 B.C., Solomon king of all Israel '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 these ships brought gold, silver, and precious stones from Ophir and Tharshish in such quantities, that king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches.' Silver was so plentiful at his court that it was accounted nothing of.' The king's drinking cups were made of pure gold, and his shields were covered with beaten gold. It has never, how ever, been settled where Ophir and Tharshish were situated ; but we are distinctly told that the navy of Tharshish brought gold and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks,' and Ophir has been supposed to have been some district or port in the Red Sea, on the east coast of Africa, the Malabar coast, and the coast of Malacca. Some Portuguese his torians have supposed that it was Sofala, or some other place near the mouths of the Zambezi, on the cast coast of Africa. The Tharshish fleet is said to have arrived at Ezion-geber only once every three years, from which it may fairly be inferred that the voyage was a considerable one, or that the ships had to go with the S.W. monsoon and return with the N.E. winds, or that they made a trafficking voyage from one place to another until the cargo was sold and another shipped. Ships or boats coasting from the Red Sea to the mouths of the Zambesi would not take three years for such a voyage. Solomon's navigators seem to have crossed the open seas and traded with India. Ezion geber, on the shores of the Red Sea (1 Kings ix. 26), is a little port at the head of the Elamitic or Eastern Gulf of the Red Sea. This town more natur ally belonged to the Midianites of Sinai, or rather to their friends the Egyptians. It was afterwards called Berenies by the Ptolemies ; and its place is still pointed out by the Egyptian name of the valley in which it stood as Wady Tabe, the valley of the city, and is no doubt the town known seven centuries later under the name of the Golden Berenice, and not many miles from the modern Souakin. Solomon's ships brought home gold from Ophir, and precious stones and ebony. There are at present in Further India two places called Mount Ophir,—one of them in Sumatra in Palimbangan district, 9770 feet above the sea, to which the name was given by the Portuguese; and they gave the same name to Gunong Ladang, a mountain 40 miles N. of the town of Malacca, 4000 feet high. In the vicinity of both of them gold has been obtained. Josephus expressly says that the Aurea Chersonesus was the Ophir of Solomon's time. Malacca, as is thought, is the eastern extremity of what was known as Ophir to the ancient Hebrews, or Sophir to the authors of the Septuagint version, whither the fleets of Hiram and Solomon voyaged on their trading expeditions. Once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.' Professor Max Milller believes Ophir to be India, and he supports his opinion by a reference to the ancient names for the articles imported by Solomon, which are Sanskrit. The nature and
direction of the winds blowing in those quarters would allow of a voyage from the head of the Red Sea to India, stopping at several places on the way, being accomplished by the rude vessels and cautious sailing of those days in a period of from eighteen months to two years. (See 1 Kings ix. 28, x. 11, 22 ; 2 Chronicles ix. 10, 21.) In Bochart's Geog. Sacr. (Phaleg) lib. ii. c. 27, he affirms that every circumstance required to con stitute tho Ophir of Hebrew Scripture may be found in the classical Taprobane, the modern Ceylon : Quia Taprobanre insulaa (quam Zeilan case alibi probabo), omnia ad amussim quadrant Tire de Ophira legere est in libris Reguni et Paralipomenon. Ibi enim aurum et ebur, gem masque et margaritas magna copia nisei nem° est qui nesciat. Scatere etiam pavonibus, scribit sten eking in Arrianum. Et in Chersoneso proxima magni pretii cercopithecos memorat Ludovicus Vartamanus! In the second part of his sacred geography or Chanaan ' (lib. i. c. 46), he collects diagrammatically the proofs offered in support of his opinion by classical writers, and modern geographers, travellers, and others. Sir Emerson Tennant has suggested that the Port of Gallo may be the Tharshish of the Bible, which lay in the track between the Arabian Gulf and Ophir,' and that Ophir itself is Malacca, or the Aurea Cher sonesus. Sir Emerson has stated that the names of the articles brought by the fleet are identical with the Tamil names by which some of them are called in Ceylon to the present day:' Senhabin, or teeth of elephants, Kophim, or apes, and Tukum, or pea-fowls. But these are the pure Sanskrit words Ibha, Kapi, and Suka, with the mere addition of the Hebrew plural termination. Sans krit names in the south of India have not dis placed the original Tamil appellations, which still remain the terms in common use, namely, Yana for elephant, Kurangu for monkey, Myle for peacock, and Kilip-pullai for parrot. Sofir is the Coptic name of India at the present day ; but the name must have applied originally to that part or parts of the Indian coast frequented by the merchants of the west. In the Septuagint translation of the Bible the Hebrew Ophir is always rendered by Sophir. The earliest mention of the name is in the book of Job, where the gold of Ophir' is referred to as of the finest quality. At a later date, the ships of Hiram king of Tyre went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir, and took thence 450 talents of gold, and brought them to king Solomon.' The gold of Ophir is referred to by Isaiah, who says, I will make a man more precious than gold, even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.' The word here translated wedge' means a tongue or ingot; and General Cunningham suggests that the wedge of gold of 50 shekels weight that was concealed by Achan was one of the ingots of Ophir. At the present day the Aravrdli range is the only part of India in which silver is found in any quantity, while the beds of many rivers still produce gold. —Sharpe's Egypt ; Biknzore; Onseley's Tr. ; ninaham's India ; Tennant's Ceylon;