And Huram sent him ships by the hands of his servants, and servants that had knowledge of the sea; and they went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir, and took from there four hundred and fifty talents of gold, and brought them to king Solomon.
Read Chapter 8
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Ships; not perhaps from Tyre, but from the Red Sea. (Calmet)
Others think that he sent them by a canal, which opened a communication between the Mediterranean and Suez, (Huet) the distance of about ninety miles. (Pliny, ii. 68.)
But this canal seems to have been made after the age of Solomon. Hence others imagine that the ships were taken in pieces, or conveyed by land, as has been sometimes done. Mahomet II transported ships across the isthmus of Corinth. Alexander the Great conveyed on chariots the ships which had been used to cross the Indus, as far as the Hydaspes. (Arrian vii.) (Calmet)
Skilful mariners. They were the most expert, and the inventers of navigation. Prima ratem ventis tradere docta Tyrus. (Tibul.) See Wisdom xiv. 6.
Ophir, the kingdom of Pegu, in the East Indies, (Tirinus) or some other distant land. (Haydock)
Fifty. Thirty are omitted, 3 Kings ix. 28., as they were expended in the voyage. (Calmet)
Yet the Hebrew letters for twenty and fifty are extremely similar. (Du Hamel)
