1 Kings 9:26

SOLOMON'S NAVY BRINGS GOLD FROM OPHIR

"And 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."

"Ezion-geber ... on the shore of the Red Sea" (1 Kings 9:26). This is one of the most important passages in the O.T., because of its use of the Hebrew term [~Yam] [~Cuwp], an expression which James Moffatt and many other critical scholars erroneously translated as Reed Sea in the Book of Exodus (Exodus 15:22), enabling them to postulate upon the basis of that false translation the proposition that Israel merely crossed over marshy ground and not any sea at all. James Moffatt's translation renders [~Yam] [~Cuwp] in Exodus 15:22 as "Reed Sea"; but here in 1 Kings 9:26, where we find exactly that same expression, [~Yam] [~Cuwp], Moffatt properly rendered it Red Sea, for the simple reason that it would be foolish to relate that Solomon launched his navy on a Reed Sea. We have elaborated this for the purpose of pointing out the essential dishonesty of that type of scholarship.

(For a further discussion of [~Yam] [~Sup], see our dissertation on this in Volume 2 (Exodus) of our Commentaries on the Pentateuch, pp. 177-179.) It is now a matter of general information that [~Yam] [~Cuwp] cannot mean either Reed Sea or Red Sea; it actually means End Sea, a proper name for the Indian Ocean which was in general use in the mid-second millennium B.C. when the Pentateuch was written by Moses.

And upon what part of the Indian Ocean did Solomon launch that navy? It was the port at the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba. "It was at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba that Solomon built his new seaport of Ezion-geber."[11]

Incidentally, present-day scholarship, coupled with extensive archaeological studies, make it clear that Moses led the children of Israel over exactly that same arm of the Indian Ocean, namely, the Gulf of Aqaba - only Moses led them across the southern terminus of the Gulf of Aqaba, believe it or not!

Moses led Israel across the Gulf of Aqaba at its southern strait, as proved by Larry Williams' recent book The Mountain of Moses.[12] He also located Mount Horeb (Sinai) in Arabia, as Paul also did (Galatians 4:25).

"And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold" (1 Kings 9:28). "Ophir is usually located in southwestern Arabia, but some scholars, on the basis of the cargo mentioned in 1 Kings 10:22, locate it in India."[13]