1 Kings 10:22

22. Once in three years came the navy of Tarshish This navy need not be identified with that which was built at Ezion-geber, (1 Kings 9:26,) for Solomon probably had many fleets that sailed on many seas. And yet it must not be supposed that the navy of Tarshish never went to Ophir, or that ships designed to carry on commerce with Tarshish might not be built at Ezion-geber. The contrary is clearly indicated at 1 Kings 22:48 and 2 Chronicles 20:36. Scholars are now quite generally agreed that Tarshish, which figures so largely in Scripture in connexion with Phenician commerce, is to be identified with Tartessus of classic history, a city and district in southwestern Spain not far from the Straits of Gibraltar. But Solomon’s navy certainly would not require three years to go to Spain and back; and though gold and silver abounded in that country, it would hardly be the place to go for ivory, apes, and peacocks. These latter abound in India and its neighbouring isles. Hence some have been disposed to look for another Tarshish in India. But why may not the fleets of Solomon and Hiram have passed on from Spain through the Straits of Gibraltar round the Cape of Good Hope, and thus to Southern Asia? This might well have taken three years; but an enterprise of lesser magnitude could hardly have required so long a time. This supposition is rendered exceedingly plausible by the statement of Herodotus, (iv, 42,) that Necho, king of Egypt, once sent out a fleet under charge of Phenicians, who started from the Red Sea and came round through the pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar) back to Egypt again. This seems clearly to show that Africa had been circumnavigated in Herodotus’s time, and Necho’s putting the enterprise in charge of the Phenicians may have been because those far-famed navigators had accomplished such a voyage before. In short, I can see nothing impossible or improbable in the supposition that the enterprising seamen of Tyre had already, in Solomon’s time, discovered the route to India by circumnavigating Africa, and that Solomon’s fleet was wont with them to make the voyage once in three years. That this line of commerce afterwards ceased, and the route became unknown, is not to be wondered at in view of the divisions and wars that prevailed immediately after Solomon’s death, both in the land of Israel and also in all the neighbouring nations wars that resulted, in the course of a few hundred years, in the total destruction of Tyre and all her glory.

Apes קפים , kopim, some species of the monkey tribe, still called in some parts of India kapi. They are represented on the Egyptian and Assyrian monuments as an article of traffic.

Peacocks תכיים , tukiyim. Some suppose the parrot and some the Guinea fowl to be meant; but several of the better versions and some eminent critics interpret the expression of the peacock, whose natural home is India. It is said by some authorities that these Hebrew words for ivory, apes, and peacocks are identical with the Tamil names by which they are known in Ceylon at the present day. “It has long since been decided that India was the cradle of the peacock. It is in the countries of Southern Asia, and the vast archipelago of the Eastern Ocean, that this bird appears to have fixed its dwelling, and to live in a state of freedom. All travellers who have visited these countries make mention of these birds. Thevenot encountered great numbers of them in the province of Guzzerat; Tavernier, throughout all India; and Payrard in the neighbourhood of Calcutta. La Billardiere tells us that peacocks are common in the Island of Java.” CUVIER’S Animal Kingdom. Wordsworth sees a sort of irony and sarcasm in the mention of apes and peacocks as “the climax of the produce of the commerce of Solomon. Apes and peacocks to Solomon, the wise king at Jerusalem! To gratify curiosity; to amuse the people; and perhaps to while away the time of the strange women to whom Solomon clave in love instead of cleaving to the Lord.” Here he sees one of the causes of Solomon’s fall.