Huram sent him ships and servants who had knowledge of the sea by the hands of his servants; and they came with the servants of Solomon to Ophir, and brought from there four hundred fifty talents of gold, and brought them to King Solomon.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 18. 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 Wisd. 14:6.—Ophir, the kingdom of Pegu, in the East Indies, ( Tirinus.) or some other distant land. Bible.—Fifty. Thirty are omitted, 3 Kennicott. 9:28, as they were expended in the voyage. Calmet.—Yet the Hebrew letters for twenty and fifty are extremely similar. D.
A talent is about 30 kilograms or 66 pounds or 965 Troy ounces, so 450 talents is about 13.5 metric tons