1 Kings 9:26

And king Solomon made a navy of ships [Heb. אֱנִי , a collective noun, classis . The chronicler paraphrases by אֱנִיוֹת , plural. This fact finds a record here, probably because it was to the voyages of this fleet that the king was indebted for the gold which enabled him to erect and adorn the buildings recently described.. But no historian could pass over without notice an event of such profound importance to Israel as the construction of its first ships, which, next to the temple, was the great event of Solomon's reign] in Ezion-geber [lit; the backbone of a man (or giant ). Cf. Numbers 33:35 ; Deuteronomy 2:8 ; 2 Kings 4:22 ; 2 Chronicles 8:17 . The name is probably due, like Shechem (see note on 1 Kings 12:25 ) to a real or fancied resemblance in the physical geography of the country to that part of the human body. Stanley speaks of "the jagged ranges on each side of the gulf." Akaba, the modern name, also means back . 2 Chronicles l.c. says Solomon went to Ezion-geber, which it is highly probable he would do], which is beside [Heb. אֵת =aloud (Gesen; Lex. s.v. )] Eloth [lit; trees akin to Elim, where were palm trees ( Exodus 15:27 ; Exodus 16:1 ). The name is interesting as suggesting that Solomon may have found some of the timber for the construction of his fleet here. A grove of palm trees "still exists at the head of the gulf of Akaba". Palms, it is true, are not adapted to shipbuilding, but other timber may have grown there in a past age. But see note on verse 27. For Elath, see Porter, p. 40; Deuteronomy 2:8 ; 2 Samuel 8:14 (which shows how it passed into the hand of Israel); 2 Kings 8:20 ; 2 Kings 14:22 ; 2 Kings 16:6 . It gave a name to the Elanitic Gulf, now the Gulf of Akaba ] , on the shore [Heb. lip ] of the Red sea [Heb. Sea of Rushes . LXX . ἡ ἐρυθρὰ θάλασσα . The redness is due to subaqueous vegetation. "Fragments of red coral are forever being thrown up from the stores below, and it is these coral-line forests which form the true 'weeds' of this fantastic sea". There is also apparently a bottom of red sandstone. It is divided by the Sinaitic peninsula into two arms or gulfs, the western being the Gulf of Suez, and the eastern the Gulf of Akabah. The former is 130 miles, the latter 90 miles long], in the land of Edom . [The subjugation of Edom is mentioned 2 Samuel 8:14 .]