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OPHIR

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 128 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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OPHIR , a region celebrated in antiquity for its See also:

gold, which was proverbially See also:fine (See also:Job xxii. 24, See also:xxviii. 16; See also:Psalms xlv. 9; Isa. xiii. 12). Thence See also:Solomon's Phoenician sailors brought gold for their See also:master (1 See also:Kings ix. 28, x. 11; 2 Chron. viii. 18, ix. ro) ; Ophir gold was stored up among the materials for the See also:Temple (r Chron. xxii. 4). See also:Jehoshaphat, attempting to follow his ancestors.' example, was foiled by the shipwreck of his See also:navy (r Kings xxii. 48).

The situation of the See also:

place has been the subject of much controversy. The only indications whereby it can be identified are its connexion, in the See also:geographical table (Gen. x. 29), with Sheba and Havilah, the latter also an auriferous See also:country (Gen. ii. II), and the fact that See also:ships sailing thither started from Ezion-See also:Geber at the See also:head of the Red See also:Sea. It must, therefore, have been somewhere See also:south or See also:east of See also:Suez; and must be known to be a gold-bearing region. The suggested See also:identification with the See also:Egyptian See also:Punt is in itself disputable, and it would be more helpful if we knew exactly where Punt was (see See also:EGYPT). (I) East See also:Africa.—This has, perhaps, been the favourite theory in See also:recent years, and it has been widely popularized by the sensational See also:works of See also:Theodore See also:Bent and others, to say nothing of one of Rider See also:Haggard's novels. The centre of See also:speculation is a See also:group of extensive ruins at See also:Zimbabwe, in Mashonaland, about 200 M. inland from See also:Sofala. Many and See also:wild words have been written on these imposing remains. But the results of the saner researches of See also:Randall Maclver, announced first at the South Africa See also:meeting of the See also:British Association (19o5) and later communicated to the Royal Geographical Society, have robbed these structures of much of their glamour; from being the centres of Phoenician and See also:Hebrew See also:industry they have sunk to be See also:mere magnified kraals, not more than three or four See also:hundred years old. (2) The Far East.—Various writers, following See also:Josephus and the See also:Greek version, have placed Ophir in different parts of the Far East. A See also:chief See also:argument in favour of this view is the length of the voyages of Solomon's vessels (three years were occupied in the See also:double voyage, going and returning, 1 Kings x.

22) and the nature of the other imports that they brought—" almugtrees " (i.e. probably See also:

sandal-See also:wood), See also:ivory, apes and peacocks. This, however, proves nothing. It is nowhere said that these various imports all came from one place; and the voyages must have been somewhat analogous to those of See also:modern " See also:coasting tramps," which would necessarily consume a considerable See also:time over comparatively See also:short journeys. It has been sought at under the names of ' quinti-clave ' and' See also:ophicleide, ' they See also:bear a See also:great resemblance to those submitted to the See also:Academy in the sitting of the 11th of See also:March 1811 by M. See also:Dumas, which he designed under the names of ' See also:base et contrebasse guerrieres.' . . The See also:opinion of our See also:commission on the quinti-clave and ophicleide is that M. Halary can only claim the merit of an improvement and not that of an entire invention; still, for an equitable See also:judgment on this point, we should compare the one with the other, and this our commission cannot do, not having the See also:instruments of M. Dumas at our disposal." This is what the commission ought to have had, but it would have sufficed had they referred to the See also:report of the sittings of 6th and 8th See also:April, in which it is clearly explained that the instruments presented by M. Dumas were See also:bass clarinets (Moniteur Universel of 19th April 1811). ' We designedly omit the use of the word " See also:brass " to qualify these instruments. The substance which determines the See also:form of a See also:column of See also:air is demonstrably indifferent for the timbre or quality of See also:tone so See also:long as the sides of the tubes are equally elastic and rigid. Abhira, at the mouth of the See also:Indus (where, however, there is no gold); at Supara, in See also:Goa; and at a certain See also:Mount Ophir in Johore.

(3) See also:

Arabia.—On the whole the most satisfactory theory is that Ophir was in some See also:part of Arabia—whether south or east is disputed, and (with the indications at our disposal) probably cannot be settled. Arabia was known as a gold-producing country to the Phoenicians (Ezek. See also:xxvii. 22); Sheba certainly, and Havilah probably, are regions of Arabia, and these are coupled with Ophir in See also:Genesis x.; and the See also:account of the arrival of the navy in i Kings x. 11, is strangely interpolated into the See also:story of the visit of the See also:queen of Sheba, perhaps because there is a closer connexion between the two events than appears at first sight. Historians have been at a loss to know what Solomon could give in See also:exchange for the gold of Ophir and the costly gifts of the queen of Sheba. Mr K. T. See also:Frost (Expos. Times, See also:Jan. 19o5) shows that by his command of the See also:trade routes Solomon was able to See also:balance Phoenicians and See also:Sabaeans against each other, and that his Ophir gold would be paid for by trade facilities and See also:protection of caravans. (R. A.

S.

End of Article: OPHIR

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