three years these ships completed a voyage, and brought home their merchandise. Hence, it is inferred, the place with which they traded must have been distant from Judea.
The vessels given by Hiram to Solomon, and those built by Jehoshaphat, to go to Tarshish, were all launched at Eziongeber, at the northern extremity of the eastern gulf of the Red Sea, now called the gulf of Ahaba. (2 Chron. xx. 36.) The name of Tarshish was from one of the sons of Javan. (Gen. x. 4.)
Phut, (Gen. x. 6,) or Put, (Nah. iii. 9,) was the third son of Ham; and his descendants, sometimes called Libyans, are supposed to be the Mauritanians, or Moors of modern times. They served the Egyptians and Tyrians as soldiers. (Jer. xlvi. 9; Ezek. xxvii. 10; xxx. 5; xxxviii. 5.)
Pul. A district in Africa, thought by Bochart to be an island in the Nile, not far from Syene. (Isa. lxvi. 19.)
Seba. (Isa. xliii. 3.) A peninsular district of African Ethiopia, deriving its name from the eldest son of Cush, (Gen. x. 7.) who is supposed to have been the progenitor of the Ethiopians. It is called Seba by the Hebrews.
CITIES OF ARABIA.
Arabia, a large country of Asia, lying partly on the east, but chiefly southward of Canaan. Its greatest length from east to west is about 1620 miles; and its greatest breadth from north to south about 1350. It has the Indian Ocean on the south, the Red Sea and Isthmus of Suez on the west, Canaan and Syria on the north-west and north, the mountains of Chaldea and the Persian Gulf on the east. It is ordinarily divided into three parts.
Arabia Petræa, or the rocky, on the north-west, and which is now called Hejiaz. This division contained the land of Cushan, Barnea, Paran, and Midian. The Edomites and the Amalekites also dwelt here, and a very powerful and independent tribe of Ishmaelites. It was a land of shepherds, and the scene of some of the
