TOCHEN TOLA

The most important modern commentaries are those of Ilgen, to ’ salute ’ David (ie., to recognise his suzeraiuty) and
D i e Geschichte Toby’s noch drej verschiedenen Oripinaien, denr to offer presents of silver, gold, and bronze, after David’s
Griexhischen, dem Lateinischen des H i e r -
21. Literature. o~zyint~s qnd eirzem Synkchen,. etc., 18co ; victory over Hadad-ezer. If the text is correct, Toi’s
Fritzsche in KGH, 1853 ; Wace in Speaker’s Hamath cannot be the great Syrian city of Hamath,
Comm. 1888; and Ziickler in h-GH, 1891. On the Ahikar whose king was too powerful to mind David, and indced
story &e the literature cited under A CHIACHARUS, especially was not one of David‘s neighbours, but a second Hamath,
T b Story of Ahikar j v o m the Syriac, Arabic, Amzenian,
Ethiofiic, Greek, asd Slavonic Versions, by F. C. Conybeare, on the W. of Zobah, which formed a state on the same
J. Rendel Harris, and Asnes Smith Lewis. Nestle, review of minute scale as Maacah (=Gcshur). So Winckler ( G I
The Story of Ahikar, E.r#. T 10 [1899] z - / 6 x ,and ‘ Zum Ruche 2209 J ) . More probably, however, both here and
Tobit,’ Sr#tsagintast2~d.:~n, 2 [18991 2 2 $ ; J. Rendel Harris,
‘ The Double Text of Tobit,’ Anzsr. /. Theol., July 1899, pp. wherever a Hamath is spoken of as on the border of
541.554 ; Moulton, ‘The Iranian Background of Tobit,’Exj. T , Israel, nnn ( M T Hamath) should be nip (Maacath).
March rgco, pp. 257.260. W. E. I t is, to s a y the least, uncertain which of the two Maacahs is
intended here (see MAACAH).T h e Hadad-ezer defeated by
TOCHEN (]ah; BOKKAP I , - X X A N [A], E N e E K E M David may have heen king of Zarephath (not ZOIIAH). I n
[ =‘n ]V?] and I€XefM. perhaps a doublet, [L]), avillage this case ‘Maacah’ may be another name for the territory of
in Judah assigned to SIMEON (5 Io), I Ch. 432. It corre- KEHonOTH (g.v.), and ‘yn will perhaps be a corrupt form of
sponds to the Ether of 11 Josh. 19 7, which is probably a
.&, T A L n l A I (9.u.). Cp, however, Driver and Eudde [ S B O r ]
on 2 S., l.c. T. K . C.
corruption of A T H A C I I(4.v.).
Ir. Josh. (Z.C.) @ B inserts 0 a h X a (var. in cursives Baaa 8aaA)- TOKHATH (no??, &4),2 Ch. 3422 ; see TIKVrZTII.
iz., Tochen -before wOcp-i.e., .Ether. Bennett ’(SBOT,
‘Josh.,’ Hebi) follows CBB, but the insertion must be due to a TOLA (l&, emha [BADFL]), b. Puah, b. Dodo,
later correction. i s perhaps a corruption of py. See an Issacharite. a deliverer of Israel. who dwelt, and
A T HACH. finally was buried, at Shamir in ‘mount Ephraim’ (Judg.
TOGARMAH (X?!?lb~, Gen. 10 3 [PI, elsewhere 10 I J ) ; the name also occurs with Pnvah, Job (or
?lplSn: B o p y a p a [BQDsilEL], Bepyapa [B in Ezek. 386; hut Jashub), and Shimron as a clan-name of lssachar (Gen.
B a r p y a p a in 2 i 14 ; Q in Ezek. and A everywhere except I Ch. 4613 : emhbN [I,] ; Nu. 2623 I Ch. 7 1 f: : BOhAEK,
16 Boppap] : Thogormair in Gen., elsewhere Thogorina, Pesh. eohs, ewhAel [El ; CP Tolaite, N u . IC., ewh&li
tizga?,&). [BAFL]). On these ‘minor judges’ in general, see
Togarmah appears in Gen. 1 0 3 I Ch. 1 6 as third son J U D G E S , § 9 ; and on the difficulties arising out of ( I )
of Gomer, son of Japheth ; also (as Beth-Togarmah) in the designation ‘son of Dodo,’ ( 2 ) the dcscription of
Ezek. 27 14 as a people trading with Tyre in horses and Tola’s home as in Mt. Ephraim, and (3) the reading
mules, and in 386 as representing the far north, and ~ a p r e(or K C C ~ ~ in
E ) eight minuscules which are, with
forming part, with Gorner, of the army of Gog. Josephus one exception, without the reference to Issachar, see
thought of the Phryzians, who were famous for their ISSACHAH, 2, 7 ; lastly, on the coincidence between
horses (Hom. IL 3185) ; the Armenians, however, in Tola, ‘crimson worm, cochineal,‘ and Puah ( n x i ~ )a,
later times claimed Haik the son of Thorgom for their plant from which a red dye was obtained, see Moore,
ancestor. The name has been identified by Delitzsch JudgeJ, 273 (cp N A M E S , § 68). All these questions are
and Halevy independently with Tel-garinimu, a city still open.
(mentioned by Sargon and Sennacherib) situated on T h e problems may seem small ; but they a r e not insignificant.
the border of Tahali (see TUBAL). That Z ( 5 ) had be- T o understand ‘Tola’ we must revise our notions respecting
come o in the document from which P drew, surprises Abimelech, Jair, and Jephthah, between whom ‘ Tola, h. Puah,
h. Dodo’ i s introduced. I n reality the three former heroes all
Schrader ( K A T ( * )8,;), nor can we blame him. The belong to the Jerahmeelite Negeb, Abimelech to Cusham (see
truth probably is thxt here, as elsewhere in Gen. 10, SHECHEM), Jair and Jephthah t o ‘ Ir-gil‘ad’ or ‘ Ir-jerahme’el.’l
corruption and reconstruction are jointly the causes of T h e personal names too have suffered change ; here the alteration
was to agreat extent caused by the wearing down o f the old names
the present form of the Table of Nations. ‘ Gomer ’ is in the mouth of the people. ‘Ahimelech,’ which, superficially
one of the current corruptions of ‘ Jerahmeel ’ ; .4shkenazregarded, appears to mean ‘the heaven-god i s father,’ may he
is a combination of Asshur and Kenaz; Riphath is a a modification of ‘Arab-Jerahmeel’; ‘Jair’ of ‘Jether,’ ‘Jeph-
corruption of Zarephath (the southern Zarephath), and thah’ of ‘Naphtoah.’z On the analogy of these and similar
restorations, we are methodically bound toread thus in Judg. 10 I,
Togarmah represents either Gomer simply or Beth-gomer ‘ Eshtaol, b. Ephrath, b. Dodi, h. Jerahmeel, a Zarhite ; he dwelt
( = Beth-jerahmeel). This throws light on Ezek. 27 14 in S H A n l r R (q.u.) in the highlands of Jerahmeel.’ The least
386. See CY&. Eib. obvious of these restorations is $irnwr (Eshtao1)for ysin (Tola).
See Del. Par. 246 ; Calwer Bi&-Lex. 906 ; Hal. RE/ 13 13;T h e entendation, which is a t a n y rate plausible, is suggested by
Lag. Arvzenische Strrd<en, 5 865. T. K . C .
the comhination of Zerah and S h a d in Nu. 26 13 (Gen. 46 IO).
Eahtaol-i.e., virtually Shaul-is, in fact, a N. Arabian clan-name
TOHU (Vlh), b. Zuph, a name in the genealogyof of the Negeb ;3 indeed, in I Ch. 2 53 the Eshtaolitesare expressly
connected with Kirjath-jearim-is. (asonecan nowsee), Kirjath-
Samuel ( I S. 1 I , m t ( E [U], eooy [AI, ewe [I2]), cor- jerahnleel. K a p r e or rap?< should, according to round method,
responding tO NAHATH (nn!; KbiNAfJ [B], K . N A e [XI. represent ni? (Kareah or Korah), and this i s probably the ex-
NA& [L] ; n&ith [Pesh.]) in I Ch. 626 [I.], and to pansion of a fragment of Jerahmeel, which came to be adopted a s
TOAH (nrn;O€I€=n’n [E], e O O Y € [A19 N A A e [L]; the name of one of the Jerahmeelite clans. Th:u Shcmer is a
N. Arabian clan-name could‘easily be shown a t length, but is
t i h u [Pesh.]; Tlt0h.u [Vg.] as in Sam.) in v. 34 [19]. plain enough from the combination of names in 2 Ch. 24 26 ( z K.
The second of these forms (nni)map have arisen out of nnn 12 21). T h a t there is a southern Ephraim (= Jerahmeel) has
by a scribe’s error. But this is not certain. for Nahath, been repeatedly maintained by the present writer (cp MICAH, I).
As to the historical kernel of Judg. 10 13, it is enough to remark
in Gen. 36 13. is the son of Re‘uel= Jerahmeel (Che. ). that, though genuine historical evidence is wanting, it is a t any
Most (e.,n, Klost., Dr., Bn., Ki.) adopt the form Tohu ; rate probable that king Saul was not the first meniber of the Snul-
but, o n the assumption that Znph is really an Ephrainlite clan to strike an effective blow for Israel and that the earliest
place-name, some prefer in? or n y (cp We. P r o l ( 4 ) achievements of this clan were not in Eenjimin hut in the Kvgeb.
The same emendation ( ~ for i i i,aw,) should possibly be
2 2 0 ; Marq. Fund. 12, and see T AHATH , E P H R A I M , made in Judg. 5 15 (see C r i f . Bib.). T. Ei. C.
§ 12). -___ ~-~ ___-___~~_~ ~ ~~

[The subject, though small, i s intricate, and the correct reading 1 ‘Kamon’ in Judg. 105 might come from ‘Mahanaim’ (cp
KAMON),hut also from ‘ Je+meel’ (which is moreover the
of the text can only be decided as a art of a larger inquiry,
which includes the question whether Eamuel was not really of
probable original of ‘ hlahanaim ’ and ‘ Karnaim ’). 7 9, . ~ in v
a Jerahmeelite family, helonging perhaps to Benjamite territory
I ? 7 can hardly in the present state of inquiry be regar&d other.
in the Negeb. Textual criticism, too, has to he practised com-
wise than as a corruption of ,yJ> 1-y. There seems t o the
prehensively. c p RAMATHAIM-ZOPH1M.-T. K. C.] present writer to he evidence of a southern Gilead (another name
for Terahmeel ?).
TO1 (’&+:eoyoy or eooy PI,
Bas1 [ALI, 2 S . 8 9 3 ), Z-Or, vice &sa, Naphtoah (cp Naphtubim) is a modification
or (.run.
B a h [BK], Booy [AI, 8ohb [L]; PuL of iphtah , cp Nathan and Ethan.
2’
Eshtabl ’ is probably a modification of the clan-name Shaul ;
RingoftlremenofA7rtioch [Pesh.], I Ch. lSgf.), king of
the t is a transition-consonant-i.e. it facilitates the transition
Hamath, who sent his son Joram (or, as Ch., HADORAM) from o i e articulation to another (cp’Kon., Lehrg. 2 T, p. 472).
5129 5’30
 TOLAD
TOLAD (l$n),I Ch.429; in Josh.1530 ELTOLAD.
cBA1)' 925=Ezra
1024, TELEM.
TOLL (nyp, Ezra 420 ; nq!Q, Ezra 413 724).
-_ . TRADE;.~6 82 i f : ), (21.
T AXATION, f; 7 n. :. CD , ,
- \ -
T .-
TOLNIAN
..-.. ( T O A M A N [A,),
I AL,V,"N.
I Esd, 28 RV=Ezra242,
TOMBS.' As already observed (see DEAD, 5 I,
col. 1041), the regular practice of the Hebrews was to
Religious bury their dead, the instalices in which
conceptions. they burned them being exceptional and
extraordinary.2 The explanation is to
be sought in the idea that the human soul remained
even after death in some kind of connection with the
body ; in the case of unburied persons, as long as the
body found no resting-place, the Soul also had none.
T h e spirits of such departed ones wander restlessly
about, and even in the world of the dead, in Sheol,
must hide themselves in holes and corners (Ezek. 3223
Is. 14 ' 5 , etc.).
These views being held, one would expect to find the
Hebrews not only attaching great importance to burial
but also giving special care to making their tombs as
splendid and artistic as possible. It was by similar
views, in point of fact, that the Egyptians were led not
only to preserve-one might almost say, for ever-the
bodies of their dead by embalming them, but also to
build magnificent resting-places for them, dwellings
resembling those of the living, and furnished with every-
thing in which the soul when in life took most delight.
Thus it was in the construction and adornment of its
tombs that the art of Egypt found its most welconle
tasks and the widest field for its development. With
the Israelites, however, the case was quite different.
With them, apart from cases where Greek or Roman
influences interfered, the places of sepulture were always
of the simplest description, without any resort to the
arts of the painter or the sculptor. The cause of this
is, naturally, to be sought in the first instance in the
Hebrews' notorious deficiency in artistic endowment ;
in none of the fine arts did they ever make any im-
portant contribution of their own. Cp COLOURS.§ I.
I n the present case, however, we ought probably to
take account also of the operation of a religious motive
which prevented the Israelites, while borrowing from
the Phoenicians in other respects, to imitate them in the
architectural beauty and monumental grandeur of their
tombs. The religion of Yahwe from the outset set
itself against every kind of worship of the dead with the
utmost emphasis.
However we may explain it the fact is undeniable that
Yahwism had at times to contend with a very strong inclination
towards this form of worship. This could not fail to have its
influence on the outward form given to places of burial. Every-
thing that was fitted to promote worship of the dead in any form
mnst have been antipathetic to Yahwism. And as the worship
of the dead on the one hand led directly to the sumptuous
adornment of the places where they lay, so on the other hand
beauty and luxury displayed in these could not fail to promote
that form of worship.
It was entirely in accordance with the spirit of
Yahwism that the graves of the dead-though with all
reverent piety towards the dead, and notwithstanding
the existence of the view stated above-were kept as
plain and simple as possible.
The whole of Palestine is rich in ancient burying-
places. It would be natural, therefore, to expect full
2. subterranean and accurate information as to the
ancient ~~b~~~ practice, -ibis ex-
sepulchres. pectation, however, is not fulfilled
those which are known to US are far from having been
examined with respect to their origin and
1 [For the various Hebrew and Greek terms see below, 8 9.1
2 [Recent investigations at Gezer seem to ;how that crema.
tion was regular among the earliest inhabitants of that district
at least. But it is impossible to speak more decidedly until the
excavations are completed ; see PEFQ, 1g02, pp. 3 4 7 8 1
5131
TOMBS
I date, so that we are often unable (for example) to
distinguish Christian from Jewish tombs. I t lies-indeed
in the very nature of the case that there should be
difficulty in dating these; by reason of their very
See simplicity they show no very characteristic architectural
I forms by which their period could be fixed, and
I
inscriptions, too, are almost wholly wanting. It is not
possible therefore to describe the sepulchral stvles of the
various ages in the order of successive periods,-in
other words to sketch the development and history of
this department of art. W e must rest content with
describing the ancient sepulchres still extant, classifying
them according to the differences they show and deduc-
ing from these the characteristic features of this class
of structure in the Hebrew domain.
The first generalisation which presents itself is that
they are all of them rock-tombs, that is to say, hewn
out of the living rock. Nowhere do we find any trace
of built sepulchres. Of tombs above the level of the
ground-mausoleums in which the sarcophagus was
placed-no trace has reached us from ancient times nor
do we hear of any such, any more than we hear of
sarcophagi or coffins. With the Phoenicians, also,
tombs above the surface are the exception, not the rule;
but they are frequent in Syria in the Hellenistic period
(cp, for example, the sepulchral towers of Palmyra).
I n so far as tombs above the surface occur in Palestine
at all, they belong to the Hellenistic period ; and even
then the characteristic examples of this type of
sepulchre are not buildings, but are hewn out of the
solid rock. The same holds good of the subterranean
tombs. Nor does the O T contain any hint of built
sepulchres though this has often been supp0sed.l This
is connected with the physical character of the country ;
the soft limestone of the mountains of Palestine pre-
sented many natural caverns which in the early period
were used in the first instance as burial-places (see
below). In particular, it was easily wrought, so that
the excavation of vaults and chambers in it presented
no difficulty too great for the technical skill of the
Israelites to overcome.
There are indeed in Palestine (as already indicated)
some examples of tombs above the surface. The best
known are those of the Valley of Kedron ; the so-called
Tomb of Absalom and the Pyramid of Zacharias.
These two, however, show quite clearly in their ornalnen-
tation the influence of Greek and late-Egyptian art ;
moreover, they too have been carved out of the living
rock, and their arrangement is so analogous to that
of the subterranean tombs as to make it quite clear
that it has been copied from these.
A solitary exception would seem to he the so-called monolith
of Siloam which, according to the unanimous judgment of
archaeologists, dates hack to the r-exilic period ; hut this
great rock 'die ' of 6.10 metres in ength, 5.60 in breadth, and
about 4 in height is also c u t out of the living rock. It hears
evidence of Egyptian influence, hut on the other hand there is
no trace of the Greek style. Perrot and Chipiez, however ( H i s t .
Of A r t in Jud. 1 2 7 - 3 ) ueqtion for weighty reasons whether
this monument reall; wak %iginally and from the first intended
as a tomb ; more probably its purpose was formerly quite
different (perhaps to serve as site for an altar) and the hurial
chambers and niches within must have been excavated later.
The which served for the Hebrew tomb was
unnlistakably the Phcenician not the Egyptain type,
3. phaenician a'ike as regards sing1e sepulchres and
models. collective groups. Here also a leading
characteristic of Phoenician architecture
comes into the (cP PH(IENrCIA, § :
the great part which is assigned to the ~rpendicubdr
rock-wall. The individual tombs as well as the larger
burial places were hewn by preference in steep rock-
faces where natnre offered these. For this purpose
ready use was made of the walls of the caverns which
are of such frequent occurrence in Palestine and which
furnish natural (see &low). Thus
for example the hollow under the Haram of Hebron-
' 1 On Job 3 1 5 , see below, t g [j].
5x32
 TOMBS
which has not as yet been explored with any detail-is
a cave sepulchre. The finest example of a system of
rock-hewn sepulchres of the type indicated is supplied
by Petra, the ' City o f Tombs. ' There can be seen the
most magnificent tombs, series upon series, with
sumptuous portals, hewn at almost inaccessible heights
in the perpendicular wall. These tombs, it is true,
belong all of them :o the later period, but thus they
bear witness merely to the persistent survival of the
practice. If no natxal rock wall was available, then
such a wall was artificially made by excavating from
the surface downwards in a rocky bed a rectangular
space with perpendicular walls. A quite characteristic
example of this kind of burying-place is to be seen in
the so-called ' Sepulchres of the Kings' at Jerusalem
(fig. I), though these also belong to the later period
(1st cent. A . D . ) . Here we find a great enclosure
(28 x 2 5 . 3 metres) excavated to a depth of 8 metres in
the solid rock, and reached from the surface by a wide
stair. The portal to the place of graves properly so-
called, is on the western wall (see below).
On the other hand, no example has yet been found
in Palestine of the shaft-tombs (tombs reached by a
narrow perpendicular shaft).l so frequently met with in
Egypt and so characteristic for this branch of architec-
ture there. Yet it does not follow, of course, that this
type of tomb was wholly unknown in Palestine in the
olden time.
As regards the form of sepulchre proper in Palestine,
the Phcenician type is closely followed. The extant
4. Form examples fall into four classes : ( I ) Pigeon-
of tombs. hole tombs, usually called k i k i m , ~rect-
angular recesses driven into the wall at right
angles to the face, arid measuring about 5-6 ft. in length
by I* ft. in breadth and depth. Into these the body
was thrust lengthways. ( 2 ) Sunken tombs which like
FIG. pl plan of the tombs of the kings.
our modem graves were hewn out on the upper surface
of the rock and closed with a flat stone. ( 3 ) Shelf
tombs, that is to say benches or shelves on which the
bodies were laid. These shelves either ran at a height
of about 2 ft. round one or more walls of a sepulchral
chamber, or else were hewn lengthways as niches in the
rock wall (about 16 ft. square, and of the length
required for the body) ; in the latter case they were as
a rule provided with an arch above. (4) Trough tombs,
1 [Two examples of the shaft-type, however, have been found
at Tell ej-Judeideh. A cylindrical shaft over z metres deep is
hollowed in the rock, and at the bottom a small doorway leads
to an irregular chamber about 7 . 8 0 metres by 1.50 (Rlks and
Macalister, PEF Exca:uationc, r898-1go0, p. 199f: ( I ~ o ? ) . ]
[2 With the post-biblical D'!iS (Dalman D'?El), are connected
the i * n ~ and
> iqnn3 of Nahatean and Palmyrene inscr. respec-
tively; ultimately the word seems to come from the Ass.
kimah&u. For a discussion of other Nabatean terms, see D e
Vogiie, 'Notes d'kpigraphie arame'enne,' 1 1 7 j fi, 1.As.
(extrait), 1896.1
TOMBS
troughs hewn out of the perpendicular rock-wall, I 5 ft.
wide and of the length of the body, some 21 ff. above
the level of the floor. These also are invariably arched.
They thus represent a combination of the shelf tomb
with the sunken tomb : a shelf tomb is hewn into the
rock-wall and in this shelf a sunken tomb or mould
like a coffin is hollowed out.
The observed departures from these four types are
unimportant and in no case alter the fundamental type
but relate principally to the measurements. In the
KihRim double resting-places are met with, that is to say,
Rihim of twice the ordinary width in which two bodies
could be laid side by side; down the middle runs a
little channel-like hollow about a handbreadth wide
separating the two restir~g-places(see fig. I ) ; there are
instances also of double benches for the reception of
two bodies, though these are of rarer occurrence (see
fig. I H).
In the trough-tomb class an interesting peculiarity is seen in
a tomb near Haifa Here the trough-tombs are not, as is
usually the caie like shelf-tombs hewn out lengthways along
the wall, hut lik; KJKim, at right angles to its surface. In this
case also double tombs occur corresponding to the double kakjm
mentioned above ; a narrow d i t nearly I foot wide separates the
individual resting-places. Each pair of these is connected
breadthways by a semicircular arch.
The tombs jnst described were not simply hewn out
of the rock without further -
.
preparation. Even when it
was but one grave for a single person
6. Form Of
that was in question, it was not the
sepulchral practice to excavate in the rock-surface a
chambers hollow like the graves we use; by pre-
and groups ference a little subterranean chamber was
of chambers. made. and the mave was made in the
Y
floor or in the wall as the case might be. At first sight
we might feel inclined to connect this general preference
for subterranean sepulchral chambers with the original
custom of using caves for purposes of burial. There
was yet another element, however, which contributed to
this result, namely the desire to keep the dead members
of a family, or clan, still united even in the grave. In
such a sepulchral chamber many graves of all the
different kinds could easily be brought together. Subse-
quent stages were the adding of a second chamber to
the first, or several chambers might be connected by
passages, or great subterranean constructions made.
Thus the places of burial fall into three distinct classes :
( I ) simple chambers for one body only which is buried
in a sunken tomb in the floor. These burial chambers
axe frequently unclosed. ( 2 ) Single chambers with
several graves of the different sorts mentioned, prrrticu-
larly k8kim and shelf tombs. ( 3 ) Larger complexes
embracing several chambers. Examples of all three
classes are numerous in Palestine. To the first class,
that of single chambers with only one grave, belong
FIG Z.-Plan of the tombs of the judges.
many of the tombs on the southern slope of the Valley
of Hinnom. In agreement with the purpose they serve,
these chambers are for the most part rather small.
Amongst these, on the side of the Hill of Evil Counsel,
are also some belonging to the second class : single
chambers with several graves. For a fuller account of
these see Tobler (of. cit., I I below). Very instructive
examples of the third class of larger complexes are
found in the so-called Sepulchres of the Kings and of
the Judges in Jerusalem. Both examples indeed are of
late date, but the Hellenistic influence (so far as it
 TOMBS
appears at all) is shown only in the ornamentation,
particularly in the portal, not in the arrangement of the
complex as a whole. The Sepulchres of the Kings
display best the quite regular type. From the porch
with a portal in Greek style a qnite low narrow passage
which was closed by a disk of stone leads into the
approximately cubical antechamber which has no graves.
Opening out of this on three sides are the three
sepulchral chambers proper-also approximately cubical,
with shelf and shaft tombs. Each of these chambers
has a side-chamber also : of these two (fig. I G ) are at
a lower level and partly go under the principal chamber
-plainly on account of the configuration of the site.
0
SCALEOF YARDS
5 1.0 1p 30
F IG. 3.-Plan of the tombs of the prophets.
This difference of level in the various chambers is' the
characteristic feature of the sepulchres of the Judges.
These (see fig. z ) are on two different levels and, besides,
in the upper sepulchral chamber. above the graves on
the ground level at a height of about 3 ft. from the
surface, there is a second set of chambers and graves.
A complete departure from this regularity is shown in a very
interesting way by the so-called Sepulchres of the Prophets on
the Mount of Olives which hitherto are quite &que among
the tombs of Palestin;. They belong to the ancient-that is to
say, at least pre-Grecian- period, and exhibit no trace of
Hellenistic influence. Their original feature (see fig. 3) is that
instead of various chambers of square or rectangular plan
opening into each other, two semicircular passages round a
rotunda are hewn out of the rock, and connected with one
another and with the rotunda by means of ray-like passages
radiating from the rotunda. In the wall of the outermost
passage are 27 kakim arranged in ray-fashion, hewn out of the
solid rock. Connected with this passage moreover are two side-
chambers, also with klikim.
The principal difference between single tombs and
- not so much in com-
family sepulchres is to be sought
~~
6. beof parative size (for even the single tomb
can have its antechamber, etc., as well as
these Its chamber proper) as rather in the
_ - I
number and description of the separate resting-places.
So far as we are at present in a position to judge, the
single tombs (i.e., tombs with room for one or at most
two occupants) have either shelf or trough tombs, and
according to the pretty generally accepted opinion of
Tobler, Mommert, and others, such tombs are to be
regarded as ancient Jewish. On the other hand,
according to the same authorities the single burying.
place with grave hollowed in the ground is not to be
' dated earlier than the beginning of the Christian era,
No instances are known of sepulchral chambers with
only one or two Rihim. This is easily accounted for :
the use of this description of tomb, which demanded the
smallest amount of space, was only desirable or necessary
where the problem was to provide a relatively large
number of resting-places within the same sepulchre. In
the case of a single tomb even the smallest sepulchral
chamber was always able to furnish room for a trough
or shelf tomb (or alternatively a sunken tomb). K5fiinz
m e thus peculi'ar to family sepulchres, which in other
5135
TOMBS
respects have the same characteristics as single graves.
The sunken tomb is also, in the case of family hurying-
places for the most part regarded as a sign o f a relatively
late date. Until, however, all the known tombs shall
have been systematically examined, this question ought
not to be regarded as definitely settled. So also the
other questions as to the age of the shelf-, niche-, and
shaft-tomb, and the frequency of their occurrence
respectively at the different periods remain open.
Of one form only, namely of the k#kRim, can it he
definitely affirmed that it was already extensively in use
in the older period, as w-e can also say that the single
chambers (mentioned above under 5 5 [ z ] ) are shown by
the excavations to be, properly speaking, the oldest, and
at all times the most usual type of tomb among the
Israelites. These kikim placed at right angles to the
wall surface, take up least room and permit the intro-
duction of a large number of bodies into one chamber.
This arrangement appears as that most commonly in use io
the Mishna also where it alone ismentioned and precise regula-
tions are laid ddwn as to its size and the like (8&i BathrZ, 6 8).
T h e sepulchral chamber (Q?p, nrd'ZrZh, see CAVES) has to b o
4 cubits in breadth and 6 in length ; the entrance is to be on the
short side; the other short side is to have two kikinr, each of
thelongersides three, makingeight in all. It need not, however
cause any surprise to discover that the sepulchres which hav;
been explored do not accurately answer these prescriptions (the
nearest approach to them is found in a tomb a t ed-Duweimeh
and another on the Hill of Evil Counsel) ; practical necessities
were stronger than prescriptions, and, in particular, the number
of resting-places in each tomb greatly vanes. In reality no rule
is observable, but complete freedom prevails, as in the instances
already cited.
That we may safely assume for the older period the
employment of large complexes is made evident by the
fact that the kings of Judah had two great burial-places
of this description. In the first and oldest of these were
buried the kings down to Hezekiah's time : Manasseh
appears to have prepared a new sepulchre of the Kings
( z K. 418). We may safely suppose these tombs to
have been of great extent, yet simpler than those of
later date, and without much elaboration of ornament.
Not each separate resting-place was closed, but only
the entrance to the sepulchral chamber. The sunken
7, Protection tombs-on the surface of the ground
were doubtless as a rule covered with
of ~ m b s . a flat stone, but the k#kim on the other
hand were often left open. At the same time there was
no special ditficulty in this case also in closing the
entrance with a stone, and this may frequently have
been done. In the case of bench tombs, however,
shutting up was impossible, for there the body,
enveloped only in grave-clothes-coffins were not usual
-was simply laid upon the shelf. All the more care-
fully therefore in these circumstances must the sepul-
chral chambers have been closed and protected againit
the entrance of wild beasts. The passages to these
chambers are therefore for the most part very low and
narrow, so that in entering one has to creep rather than
walk. Even in the case of great sepulchres with fine
large porches, as for example in the Sepulchre of the
Kings (see fig. I ) , the accesses are of this narrow sort.
'The external opening in such cases was closed either hy
a regular stone door turning on hinges, or-the more
frequent case-by a round stone disk which could b e
rolled and placed before the entrance. Such a disk
closed for example the entrance to the Sepulchres of the
Kings and is still preserved. For this puryose, naturally,
large and heavy stones were employed, such as one man
alone could hardly move (cp Mt. 2760 : ' h e rollcd a
great stone'). In order to ensure against slipping,
another large stone, and doubtless also an underpin
was frequently placed against the stone that properly
constituted the door (ZDZ'?7, 1878, pp. 11 f: 14 ;
1890, P. 177).
Such a method of closing.served to guard the tomb
against the ravages of wild beasts, but not against
human visitants. This last protection, however, was
5'36
 TOMBS
quite as necessary as the other. For nothing w3s so
much dreaded as the desecration of the tomb by willul
violators-a dread which is easily explained from what
has been said above ($ I ). And yet, it was not mere
plundering of the graves, which often contained things
of more or less vnlue, or yet injury to the bodies or
their disturbance (Jer. 81 z K. 2316) or even the total
destruction of the tcmh, that was feared. For the
Hebrews it was already a great and wicked outrage if a
corpse not helonging to it was laid in a grave, the dead
body of one who did not belong to the family. Against
such desecration at human hands full protection w a s
certainly difticult. In some cases it was possible to hew
out the sepulchre at an inaccessible height on the steep
rock wall (Is. 2216). But generally speaking it was
found necessary to rely simply on the power of established
custom which condemned any such wickedness in
the strongest possible way. In another direction
protection was sought by means of an inscription
invoking the severest (curses on any who should disturb
the repose of the sleeper or introduce a strange body
into. the grave.‘
With the Phcenicians it was a frequent custom to
mark the site of a subterranean tomb by the erection of
8. a menlorial above ground. Various
very interesting Phmnician monuments
of the kind are still exta.nt. On the other hand we have
none that date from Old Hebrew times. and nowhere in
the OT is any such practice indicated. The custom
existed indeed of piling a heap of stones over the body
in cases where it had been simply covered wi& earth ;
the purpose of this, however, was merely to protect
froin wild beasts (cp z S. 18 17). The pillar in the Valley
of Kedron which Absalom raised for himself in his life-
time to keep his name in remembrance ( 2 S. 18 18) was
not strictly speaking a monument but rather a pillar
(rnn;>rihih)having a religious purpose.2 The memorial
also at the grave of the anonymous prophet spoken of
in z K. 2 3 1 7 may also have the same meaning. That
the Hebrews at a later date adopted foreign customs in
this respect also is shown by what we read of the
magnificent mausoleum of the Maccabees at Modin
( I Macc. 1 3 2 7 8 ) . See MODIN,5 3.
Hitherto little account has been taken of the notices
of the subject contained in the OT. These also
leave us quite in the dark as to the form
9‘ E t T ’ a n d description of the sepulchres of the
Hebrews.
[The following Hebrew and Greek terms require
mention :-
I . &%e~, l??, E V ‘grave,’ the commonest term, Gen.234,
etc. (Is. 22 16 with lsn, pre-supposing a rock -hewn sepulchre
[Cp H A N DIC R A F T S , I ] ) ; Cp KIUKOTH-HATTAAVAH.
2. k c l r i ~ a k ,a?!?, E V ‘grave,’ Gen. 35 20, etc.
3. g d G , O‘’??, Job 21 j 2 t (see BDR ; rop6r).
iiiim ( ‘I no. 1 in Is. 86 4) AV ‘ monuments,’ @ mrjhrrrov
a burial cave, but R V ‘secret places’ is preferable.
d b f k , ni>?$, Job 3 1 5 t , ‘desolate’ (RV ‘waste ’)
‘places.’ Che. (Ex#. T, Apr. 1899) reads nil??, following
Hitz., Budde, Duhm, etc. who see a n allusion to the treasures
in royal sepulchres. The h e w that the pyramids in particular
are referred to, is maintained by Budde and Duhm, but contro-
verted b y Che. in Ex#o.iitor, 1897 6, 407. 01. and formerly
Che. read n i l n i ~ ‘palac(%s.’
, But the reference seems t o be to
the splendour of the Sepulchre of the Kings (so a t least Budde,
Che., etc., but not Di. Davidson).
6. sd$os(iu Ecclus.SOrs=()l~~, a stone placed over a grave),
hft. 33 ’9 AV ‘ tomb’ (RV ‘sepulchre,’ and so E V in 2). 27), etc.
7. pvqpm2 hlk. 5 5 Lk. 8 27.
Y , 23 29 K V (AV ‘sepulchre’), 2i52f:
8. ~ V ~ ~ E L OMt. (AV
‘grave ’), id. 6ua (in 606 AV ‘ sepulchre ’).
1 Cp, for example, the inscription in the Ermunazar
sarcophagus, 1. 6, and various Nabatgan inscriptions (Euting
Nahaatiiiscke Inschrj/tpn am- ~ r a b i e n[Berlin, 18851,no. 2 ) ; 0;
the inscription of Darius Hystaspis. Unfortunately no ancient
Hebrew tomb inscriptions have come down to US.
2 For ma$j2hZh (in Ph. ‘gravestone’) see col. 2975, and for
~iyylin( p ) , 2 K. 23 17, etc. (RV ‘monument ’), col. 2978 (e).
5’37
TOMBS
Nos. 6-8 are frequently used b y @ indiscriminately to translate
kP6er and k&Z?-cih.]
The data supplied establish before aught else the
great importance that was attached to having the
members of the same family united even after death in
a common tomb.
(Cp Gen. 15 15 2 S. 17 23 T K. 4 3 1 15824 22 51 z K. 1538, and
often.) Barzillai desires to die beside the grave of his father and
mother (2 S. 19 38 [37]) ; David in his maq,aniinity causes the
bones of Saul to be huried in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish
(2 S. 21 14) ; Nehemiah gives it as his reason for wishing to go
t o Jerusalem that the fathers are buried there (N eh. 2 5). Jacob
and Joseph lay upon their descendants a n oath that they will
bring their bones to the sepulchre of their fathers, in the cave of
Machpelah a t Hebron (Cen. 4720f: 4 9 2 9 8 5 0 ~ 5 ) . Hence P’:
constantly repeated phrair ‘ t o he gathered to one’s fathers
(Gen.26 8 17 35 29 Nu.27 13 31 2 U t 32 50) with the corresponding
expression of Kings he slept with his fathers ’ (I K. 1431 158
24 22 j r 2 K. 1.5 38, etc.), expressions both in the first instance to
be understood literally of tbcir being gathered t o the sepulchre
of their ancestors.
Not to be buried with one’s ancestors is a great hard-
ship, a punishment with which conspicuous offenders are
threatened by God; as witness the case of the dis-
obedient prophet ( I K. 1322). of Ahaz ( I K. 21 24), and
others. Poor people, indeed, who had not the means t o
procure family graves of their own, strangers from a
distance-pilgrims, for example-as also criminals, had
to be content to find a last resting-place in the comnion
public burial-place ( z K. 2:3 6 Is. 53 9 Jer. 2 6 2 3 Mt. 277).
In family tombs naturally none but members of the
family came to be laid ; to bury in it a stranger who
had no title to the privilege u-as equivalent to desecrat-
ing it (see above). At the same time, on this point the
views of a later age seem to have grown laxer, and
instances are not wanting in which a stranger was
admitted to the family tomb. Biit it is always a great
sacrifice and a token of special esteem or regard for the
deceased or for his people that is implied (Gen.236
I K. 1 3 3 0 8 2 Ch.2416 Mt.2760).
These family tombs were made in the oldest times on
the family property in the vicinity of the family abode, an
arraugement which is easy to understand in view of the
fact that community of iamily life was held to continue
after death.
Thus Samuel is huried beside his house in Ramah (I S. 25 x)
Joab in his own house in the wilderness of Judah ( I K. 2 34):
T h e sepulchres of the kings of Judah lay quite close to the
palace within the citadel in the immediateneighhourhood of t h e
temple, as we see from Ezekiel’s sharp rebuke (cp Ezek. 43 7).
From Manasseh onwards, the kings were huried in the ‘Garden
of Uzza‘(see UZZA ii.); the old burying-place was probably full,
but of course thenew one was made not far from the old. The
‘Garden of Uzra’ (if Uzza=Azariah) m y well have been a
garden laid out by that king within the citadel, and thus the
allusion may he to a palace built by Manasseh in the garden of
Uzza, in or near which be also prepared his burial-place.
It will be readily understood, however, that this very
soon became an impossibility in the towns, and that for
practical reasons the sepulchres had t o
lo.of tombs. be placed outside the walls.
This became the case all the more an
~~. ~ ~- ~~~~~~
with a later age the idea of the impurity of sepulchres
came into increasing prominence. The law of P enacts
that everyone who has come into contact with a dead
body or with a bone of a man, or even with a grave,
shall be unclean for a period of seven days (Nu. 19 16).
Since, as remarked above (a
8), the underground
tombs of the Israelites were for the most part not
marked out by means of monuments above ground,
and it was not altogether easy at once to recognise
from a safe distance a sepulchre or the entrance to one,
the custom arose of white-washing afresh the stone at
the door every spring. In this manner a grave was
made recognisable from afar and the passer-by could
guard himself against defilement (Mt. 2327).
Descriptions of particular tombs are to he met with in almost
all books of travel in Palestine. Of researches of scientific value
the mnst iniportant will he found in the
11.Literature. works named below. Titus l’obler, GoZwfha,
1851, and Zwei Blichr To#ogra&e mn
Jerusalem, esp. 2 2 2 7 8 : Robinson, BR : Sepp, frwsalenr
und dar ltcilige Land,(=)1873. esp. 2 ~ 7 3 ;8Karl Mommert.
5x38
 TONGS
Golgotha una’ das heihge Gra6 zu /erusaZenr (1900); The
Survey of Wesfern Palestine, 1881 j? Copious material is
also supplied by the journals devoted to Palestine exploration :
PEfiQSt. (1873j?), ZDPV(1878j?), Miftheiiungen u. Naclr-
richfen d. Deuischen Pal.-Vereins (1895 ), Rmuc 6i6Zigur
trzbzestrielZe ( 1 8 8 2 8 ) . For description o&he more important
individual tombs see further Baedeker-Benzinger PaZ. (p. cxi.),
and for Phcenician and Syrian tombs de Vogue, ’Syri6 cenfrale
(1865), 1103-110 270.97. I. B.
TONGS (I) n!&Q, mPZ&i&iyim, Is.66, etc., EV
rightly. See C OOKING UTENSILS, B 4, and C ANDLESTICK ,
2. (2) XZQ, mu‘risiiri, Is. 44 12, AV wrongly. See AXE.
TONGUES, CONFUSION OF. See BABEL,
[TOWER OF].
TONGUES, GIFT OF. See S PIRITUAL GIFTS.
TOPARCHY (TOTTAPXIA [AKC.a.V]), I Macc. 1 1 2 8
AV, RV P KOVINCE (g.v. ).
TOPAZ (Yl?2?, TOTTAZION). The precious stone
called pitduh occurs in the list of stones on the high
priest’s breastplate (Ex. 28 1 7 8 = 39 103 ); also in the list
(derived by an interpolator from that in Exodus) of the
gems with which the king of Tyre ( l i s ) or perhaps
hJi+r (imn : see P ARADISE , 3 ) is said in a prophetic
poem to have been adorned in Eden (Ezek. 2813).
Lastly, a TOT&OV (EV ‘ topaz ’) is represented as one
of the foundation-stones of the wall of the New Jerusalem
(Rev. 2120).
Strabo (16 770) describes the topaz as diaphanous and
emitting a gold-like light (XfBos . .. 6ra@av$s xpuuo-
F&S ~ T O U T L X / ~ W V @yyos), not easily
1 . Topaz
of Strabo rnd seen in the daytime for it is outshone
( d ~ c p u v y e i ~ ay dt p ) , and as obtained
Rev. 21 x ) only in the Ophiodes island off the
Troglodytic coast of the Red Sea, about the latitude of
Berenice.l The monopoly was carefully guarded by the
Ptolemies. Pliny ( H N 378, cp 6 3 4 ) describes the stone
as green, meaning doubtless olive green (e virenti
genere), and calls the island Cytis or Topazus. This
agrees with the Targum’s rendering N ~ TN ~ J ‘, yellow-
green gem,’ in Job 28 19, and with the phrase dip n???,
‘p,itdZh of Ethiopia,’ in the (traditional) Hebrew text of
this passage.
The stone intended by the Greek geographers was
almost certainly the transparent variety of olivine now
generally known as peridote, which is usually some
shade of olive-pistachio or leek-green (on the yellow
variety see CHRYSOLITE, TARSHISH [STONE]). The
topaz of modern mineralogists (yellow, blue, or colour-
less) was unknown to the ancients.
This may no doubt be a correct identification of the
V Rev. 21 M.
T O T C ~ ~ L Oof It is much less certain whether
‘ topaz’ (explained as above) is the
*’Qip!!cu
Assyrirn right rendering of pitdZh. Is the
in theory more than a superficial con-
UI.
jectuie,z based on the metathesis of
p and f ’F Can we give any satisfactory philological
account of pitdzh? A Sanskrit etymology (pit.,
yellowish, pale; von Bohlcn) is still to be found in
some books of reference : but for such a case there
is no sure analogy ( n p m is surely not a Sanskr.
loan-word ; see E MERALD ), and no tradition mentions
India as the home either of the T O T ~ { L O V or of the
pi@%. Experience leads us to suspect that there may
be a transcriptional error, and if so it is reasonable to
look to Assyria for a word out of which moa may have
been corrupted. Using this key we may very plausibly
1 Cp Diod. Sic. 3 39 : AiOos 6ia+aLv6pevos ;arreprris, 3dAm
aapsp+ppir K& Oavpaurfv ~ y ; ~ ~ p v urrp6uo+~v
ov rrapc,y6pevoF-‘ i ‘ hurning ’ to ‘ flashing ’ occurs in the use of hamritu, ( I ) to burn,
stone of a pleasing diaphanous [“glow~ng,”see L. and S.] char-
acter, someyhat like glass, and presenting a wonderful golden
appearance.
2 Precisely such a guess led to the renderin5 of 13 byroa&<‘ov
in Ps.119 127, unless indeed TOT. there IS a corruption of
aa5. But in 63 Cant. 5 TI, 13 is transliterated as $a<.
5139
TORMAH
assume that a i m is an early corruption of l~on-i.e.,
bipindu, or perhaps of *&pi?d?r (whence *&ipiddu,
bipindu).
This is the name of a precious stone referred to in the Ass.
inscriptions (see Del. and Muss-Amolt s.v ) and explained
there by a6an G&-i.e., not literally ‘isto; of fire,’ but ‘a
flashing stone’=rsiE ,!;I ’&en ’&, in Ezek. 2814 (11 ?I??;
=‘precious stone,’ v. 13).1 Not only in Exodus and Ezekiel
but also in Gen. 2 12 (in the penultimate form of the text);2 id
Nu. 117, and in Is. 54 12 a thorough textual criticism permits us
to restore the word i)Dn (Ass. &&ndu). In the first of these
passages, the statement, ‘there is bdellium and the onyx-stone ’
certainly misrepresents the writer’s meaning. As the text stoyd
a t a comparatively early period it must have referred rather to
the &ipixdu and the S&m.3 In the second passage, we are
bound to bold that the appearance (i9y) of the manna was
likened, not to any resinous substance like B DELLIUM (q.~.),
but to something which would a t once strike the imagination.
A precious stone like the hijindu satisfies this condition,4
and we may plausibly adopt the view of @ that crystal is
intended : the transparence of rock-crystal (see CRYSTAL) would
make it a n appropriate comparison. I n the third we can
hardly rest satisfied with the purely conjectural kendering
‘carbuncles’ for n i p *)IN ; experience of corruption elsewhere
leads one to emend the first of these words into i y ~ (&@indu),
n
disregarding the second a s a corruption of a dittographed
1311 (see v. ma). Read, therefore, in Is. 54 12, ,]on’, -ppv>
I and thy gates of Bipindu. It only remains to be added tha;
in Job28 19, dn-n:Q? also probably presents two corruptions
-i.e., not onlyhas m u 3 come out of 113n, but WlD is a mutilated
and corrupt form of @&dl) ‘and &aZmi; (see TARSHISH,
STONE OF) where &almiSmay perhaps be the white sapphire
a suitable ’stone to be combined with the hipindu whici
seems to be the rock-crystal (see above). If-this cdrrection
he accepted, together with the correction of v. 18a given under
TARSHISH [STONE], 8 3, it will be plausible t D identify the
‘Edomite stone’ mentioned in 7,. 18a with the hipindu-stone
referred to in v. 19a. It is also a t any rate posgihle that the
lrijindu-stone should displace the very questionable ‘ apes and
peacocks ’ in I K. 10z z (see OPHIR).
R V w . ‘ topaz’ for tar5zJ in Cant. 5 14can hardly he justified,
except as a warning of the Revisers not to be sure that tnrsis‘is
rightly rendered ‘beryl. See BERYL, TARSHISH (STONE OF).
T. K. C.
TOPHEL ($&h;
TO@OA[BAL]), a locality near
the wilderness, mentioned with Laban, Hazeroth, and
Di-zahab (Dt. 1I?). See SUPH,W ANDERINGS , 5 IO.
TOPHET, TOPHETH (n@ln?),Is. 3 0 3 3 Jer. 731 etc.
The Aramaic connection (see MOLECH, § 3). rejected
by Delitzsch (Zsniah, E T , 240) has been brilliantly
defended by Robertson Smith (in RSW 377 n.). W e
must not, however, lay too much stress on the supposed
description of a Topheth ( n n ~ n becomes in EV
c Topheth’) in Is. 3033, for, as well as its context, it is
(not incurably) corrupt ; see Crit. Bi6., ad Zoc. The
ancient etymologies (from qh, ‘ tympanum ‘ or nn5,
‘ aperuit ’) need only bare mention. Cp MOLECH, 3.
T. K. C.
TORCH (T&, Zuppid; AAMITAC), Nah. 24[s] Zech.
1 2 6 Jn. 1 8 3 ( A A M ~ A C ) . Cp LAMP. The military use
of torches was common in ancient warfare ; cp Statius,
The& iv. 6 .
On nil)?, p;Zadath, Nab. 2 3 141, see IRON, 5 2.
TORMAH (ng7c; for @ see ARUMAH,and cp
Moore, ‘Judges,‘SBOT[Heb.]), mentioned in the story
of A BIMELECH ( g . ~ . ) ,Judg. 9 3 1 EVmg. Moore and
Budde identify it with AKUMAH (4.v.).
Very possibly both ; I n i H (Arumah) and Tormah (7n.m) are
corruptions of 5xony.. Underlying the present story of Gideon
who was of Ophrah near Shechem (so Moore), there seems t:
have been an earlier tale with different geography. The dis-
tricts of Ophrah and Cusham-jerahmeel were among those
which the ‘children of the East’ (or ‘rather [col. ‘719, n. 41 the
Amalekites) devastated, and which Gideon set free from their
~ _ _ _ .
1 See C HERUB , col. 742, n. 2. The same transition from
(2) to flash. Cpbimtu, ‘bright, shining.’ See Del. Ass. HWB.
2 For the most probable original form of the text, see PARA-
DISK, 8 5.
Read onvni imnn im ow. CP GOLD,5 1 ; OI\.YX. 63, it
is true, gives id&, perhaps reading nipu instead of n h ~ .
[.e., for n h x ’y3 read i n n p 2 .
5140
 TORTOISE
raids and hft. Jerahmeel (not Gilboa, see S AUL , S 4) was the
placd where the hero encamped. Cusham-jerahmeel was the city
of which Abimelech made himself king, and Jerahmeel (or
rather no doubt, some popular shortened form of it) was the
name bf the place (in the Jerahmeelite region) where Ahime.
lech resided when Zehul sent word to him of Gaal’s intrigues.
c p SHECHEM.
It is important to notice ( I ) that P knows of Gideoni
as a Benjamite name (Nu. 111, etc.), (2)that the list of
David’s heroes ( z S. 2327) contains the name of Abiezer
the Anathothite, and ( 3 ) that an Ophrah is known to
have existed in the land of Benjamin ; Gideon was, upon
this theory, a hero of S. Palestine. Cp M EONENIM ,
MOREH. T. K. C .
TORTOISE (Zy, G b ; o KPOKOAEIAOC o xep-
C A ~ O C; crocodilus).The Heb. word thus rendered by
the AV in Lev. 11251. has been supposed by some to
mean a kind of crocodile (cp d Pesh., etc.), whilst,
according to the Talmudists, it denoted a ‘toad.’
Most, however, take the word, like its Ar. equivalent
dabb, to mean some kind of L IZARD ( 4 . u . ) ; RV renders
G REAT L IZARD .
The tortoise, which AV referred belongs to that grou pf
the Reptilia called the Zhelonia ’which is representecf in
Palestine by two specie; of land tArtoise and several aquatic.
Testudo ibera, the Mauritanian tortoide, is the commonest
species; it is widely distributed independent of soil, and is
found from Mogador to Persia. I n S. Palestine its place is
taken by T.Zeithii, which prefers a sandy soil. The terrapins,
CZemmys carpica, var. rivulala, are frequent in the streams
and pools of Palestine, and Emys 0~6icularis,a synonym for
E . europea, is found in the lakes of Gennesaret and Hiileb.
T h e Egyptian soft tortoise, Trionyx triunguis= T. q y j t i a c u s ,
a n African species, has been taken in the Ligani and the Nahr-
el-Kelb. A. E. S.-S. A. C.
T O R T U R E ( E T Y M l l A N I C e H C A N ) , Heb. 1135. see
MACCABEES (S ECOND ), § 8.
TOU (Wh),I Ch. 189f:; in 2 S. 89 Tor.
TOW. ( I ) i’ll@S, piSteh, Is. 43 17, RV FLAX. (2)
nlbl, nr“dvcf&, Judg. 16 g Is. 131 ; J1J1, ‘ to shake,’ so ‘that
which is shaken off’ from the flax (see BDB).
T O W E R . The psalmists qompare God to a lofty,
impregiiable tower or fort ; Z4yQ, miig&b, and ilTlYP,
m&zid&h,occur in combination, 183 [.I, also separately.
il.fisg.66 conveys the idea of height ; M&iddh that of
ambush (David’s ngxp. EV ‘ hold,’ may have suggested
the application of the ‘termI ) . But the ordinary word
for tower ‘ is $;!n, migdd, an old Canaanitish term,
also found as a loan-word in Egyptian (see MIGDOL,
and cp N AMES , § 106). Towers were used both for the
defence of cities (see FORTRESS, 5) and for the pro-
tection of flocks and vineyards (see CATTLE, § I , and
cp ‘ tower of the watc:hmen,‘ z K. 179 ; ‘ tower of the
flock,‘Mic. 48, cp EDER). These protecting towers were
probably adjoined by the rude houses of peasants, and
out of these groups of dwellings larger places would
arise.
The towers of Babel (Gen. 11 4), Penuel (Judg. 8 9 17) Shechem
(Judg. g q 6 8 ) , and Siloam (Lk. 134, &pyx) are kspecially
mentioned ; also in AV of 2 K. 5 a4, a tower which, from v. 8,
we might believe to he that of Samaria. But though 559,
‘&W, will hear the meaning ‘tower ‘ in Is. 32 ‘4 (11 i”), the
primary sense of the word is ‘hill’ (lit. ‘swelling’). Hence
RV renders ‘hill.‘ The versions all render as if they read
$$, ‘Zphel (c.g., Tg. ‘e?.7n$, ‘to a secret place’; Q cis io
anorcrvdv). Pesh., however, implies ; 1 $k-!’K. Cp OPHEL.
We also hear of a ‘tower of David ’ (Cant. 4 4) which may be a
slip for ‘ tower of Solomon ’ (cp I K. 72), and, i t least in the EV,
of the ‘ tower’ of SYENEm(q.v.),and cp MIGDOL.
~
1 I n I Ch. 11 7 12 8 16, rue find l$p (EV ‘hold,’ except in 11 7,
where AV ‘castle,‘ R V ‘stronghold’); the ‘city of David’ is
meant, for which 2 S. 5 7 has ” p p (EV ‘strong hold ’).
2 I t also exists in Tihvan (an ofkhootof Satean). and in M I :
hut there is no trace<?-& in Ais&n.
3 T h e difficult phrase rendered in E V ‘as a besieged city’
(Is. l a ) means rather, as Hitz. and Ges. (Tkes.) suppose, a
watch-tower’(>irs) l + y =p q y j 5,ln). Nearlyso thinks Duhm.
n u t this has no solid basis. Perhaps we shoud read n?VY 1.Y.
‘ a forsaken city,’ or the like (see ‘ Isaiah,’SBOT(Addenda).
164 5141
TRACHONITIS
A third word for ‘tower’ is ’?8, Arfizan, Is. 32 14 (RV ‘ watch-
tower’), or ]’?? (Kr. ]?n?), Is. 23 13 (of siege-towers), and a
fourth is fiq,nzri‘az, which unites the meanings of ‘fortress’
and ‘refuge’ (Ps. 27 I 31 5 [4], etc.); see Del. on Ps. 31 5 [4].
T O W N in EV sometimes corresponds to ( I ) l’‘ir $,
(see CrTyFr.g., in ‘ unwalled town‘ (Dt. 3 5 R V w . ‘country
town ’ ; Esth. 9 ~ g ) , or ‘town [RV city] in the country
I S.27 j (nl,?:! ’ly nnfig); also to four of the terms [(z),
(3), (4), (S)] also rendered V ILLAGE (q
T O W N C L E R K (rpAMMATeyC), Acts 19 35. See
E PHESUS , 8 2.
T R A C H O N I T I S . The name of the,region surround-
ing and including the ‘Trachon, a remarkable
1. N ~ m e . volcanic formation, beginning about 25 ni.
S. of Damascus, and 40 m. E. of the Sea of
Galilee, mentioned in the Bible only once, Lk. 31 (74s
‘IToupafar K U ~T ~ U X W ~ ~ T L ~ O Sas part of the
XLjpas),
‘tetrarchy’ of Philip, one of the sons of Herod the
Great (see vol. z col. zo33f:, 2041f.). The word
itself is a derivative of Tpdxwv, the name given by the
Greeks to the ’ rough ’ and rugged areas, formed by lava
deposits, which are characteristic of the region S. and
E. of Damascus (see Fischer’s Map of this district in
ZDPY 12 [1889]H., 4 ) . Strabo (xvi.220) speaks of two
‘ hills ’ called Tpdxwves beyond Damascus (Sr+wsrv.rac
G’adrijs 6ui, hqbpevor hb+oor Tpdxwuer) : the more remote
and easternmost of these is the rugged basaltic area,
bare and uninhabited, now called Tuizil ej-SafZ (‘ the
hills of stone ’), 55 m. SE. of Damascus : the other
is the nearer and better known ‘ Trachonitis ’ of Philip,
corresponding to the modern f i j u ( i . e . , Zujuhh,
refuge, retreat), so called because, from its physical
character, it forms a natural fortress or retreat, where
bandits could feel themselves secure, or which could be
held by a small body of defenders against even a
determined invader.
The entire region S. and SE. of Damascus was once
actively volcanic, and the SE. corner of the Leja is
contiguous to the NW. end of the IebeZ
a’ Desrrip- Nuurdn range-called also now, from its
having been largely colonised by Druses
migrating from Lebanon, the Jebel ed-DMa-with its
many conical peaks (Ps. 68 16f: [15f.]), the craters of
extinct volcanoes ; and it is to the streams of basaltic
lava, emitted in particular by the Ghurdrut el-k-ib-
Ztyeh, and the neighbouring TeZZ Shi&in (see view in
Merrill, IS), at the NW. end of this range, that the
Leja owes its origin. In shape, the Leja resembles
roughly a pear ; it is about 25 m. long from N. to S.
and 19 m. broad from E. to W. ; and it embraces an
area of some 350 sq. m. It rises to a height of from
20 to 40 ft. above the surrounding plain, so that it
looks from a distance like a rocky coast ; its surface is
rugged, and intersected by innumerable crevices and
fissures. ‘ I n its outline or edge the bed is far from
being regular, but sends out at a multitude of points,
black promontories of rock into the surrounding plain.
Through this rugged shore there are a few openings
into the interior, hut for the most part it is impassable,
and roads had to be excavated to the towns situated
within it.’ The appearance of the Leja is very strange.
‘ Its surface is black, and has the appearance of the sea
when it is in motion beneath a dark cloudy sky, and
when the waves are of good size, but without a n y
white crests of foam. Rut this sea of lava is motionless,
and its great waves are petrified. In the process of
cooling the lava cracked, and in some cases the layers
of great basalt blocks look as if they had been prepared
and placed where they are by artificial means. In other
1 See Wetatein, Hauran, 6 8 ; Porter, Damarcus 321 x p J ;
Burton and Drake, Unexplored Sylin (1872), 1 zo;-qo ; V.
Oppenheim, Vom MitteZmeer zum Pers. G o y (1899), 1229.33
(with photographs).
In 1838,6000nruses defendedit successfullyagainst Ibrahim
Pasha, who lost 20,000 men in the attempt to force it.
5142
TRACHONITIS. BASHAN. HAURAN,GOLAN, ETC.

E,'.C'I'CLOPAE:IA 6,CLlCA 1333,

 INDEX T O NAMES I N MAP (E-Z)-continuedfrom~€rstharfof Map

el-Hm,Bz (HAZAR-ENAN)
derb el-Haj, CD2-6
umm el-Jind, D6 (BETHGAMUL)
Jordan, A3-6
shari'at-el ManPdireh, AB4, 5 (GOLAN) Sa'sa', C2 (PHARPAR)
jebel el-MUi', D2 Sauwarah, E3 ( T R A C H O N ~5 S3),
i
Halbiin, D I ( HELBON)
Hamad, DE6
Hammath, Ag
el-Hammeh, Ag
Jurein, D4 (ASHTAROTH)

H h , B3
b F r el-Hariri, D4
N. el-H+bXni, Az (A IN , z )
HX~bEyti,Az ( B A A L - H A M D N )
Hauran, DE4, 5
Hauran, DE4, 5
jebel Haufin, E5
el-Hazm, E3 (BASHAN,
HebrHn, Eg (TRACHONITIS,
Herrnon, Bz
HCyHt, E4 (BASHAN,5 3)
Hiexomax, Ag (G ADARA )
Hippos, Ag (G ALILEE , S EA O F , 5 7 )
Hit, E4 (BASHAN. 5 3)
kal'at e l - q q , Aq
ard el-HSeh, A3
bahret el-Htileh, A3 ( MEROM,W ATERS O F )
'IlmL, D4
Irbid, Bg
*Ire, Eg
Jabesh, A6
JaulBn, B3, 4
ej-JSdtir, C3 (GPWR)
tell ej-Jtna, Eg
beit Jenn, Bz (P HARPAR )
nahr ej-Jennsni, Bz ( P HARPAR )
tell el-KBdi, A3
jebel K a f k f a , B6 (G ILEAD )
el-Mq'adiyeh, Aq (B ETHSAIDA )
el-Maj, DE I , z
el-Merkez. C4 (ASHTAROTH)
Miryamin, A6
L Semachonitis, A3
W. semak, A4 (GBRASBNES,C OUNTRY
tUla eSh-SWb%t, E3
Sha@H, E4 (T RACHONITIS )
OF) i
jebel Kalamim, D i Mismiyeh, D3 (TRACHONITIS, 5 3) esh-Shari'a, A3, .4 (J ORDAN , $ I )
Kanata, D j (TRACHONITIS, $ 4) jisr el-MujHrni, Ag (J ORDAN , 5 6)
KanawXt, E 4 Mujeidel, D4 (T RACHONITIS , 5 3)
jebel qh-Sheikh, Bz
tell e&-Sheikha, B3 J
5 2)
I
dqir K a n m , C I el-Mushennef. F4 (T RACHONITIS , 4 ) tell S h - m , E4 (TRACHONITIS,
w. el-Karn, BCI el-Muzeirib, Cg Shuhbah, E 4 ( TRACHONITIS, 5 3)
sheriiat el-Kebireh, As, 6 (J ORDAN , 5 I) Siisitha, A4, 5
Kenath, E4 Nawa, C4 (PALSTINE, 5 12) Skiiyeh, Aq
$3) K e d , Dg Nej-, Dq (T RACHONITIS , 5 3) es-SuwaS, Eg (T RACHONITIS , 5 3)
5 3) Kersa, A4 (GERASENES, C OUNTRY O F ) deir Nileh, E3 (T RACHONITIS , 9 3) jebel belrrd e+-Suwet, BC5
urn K&., A s en-Nukia, BCz-4 ( DECAPOLIS)
ard el-Khanilfis, D3 T w t Fa& A6
Khisfin, B4 (C ASPHOR ) Palma, Aqueduct of, DES W Tabariyeh, A4, 5
Khubab, C3 (BASHAN,$ 3) Pella, A6 lower wady et-Teim, Az (S YRIA , 5 5)
Khiteh, D4 (T RACHONITIS , 5 3) Phaenae, D3 upper wady et-Teim, ABI, z (SYRIA,5 5)
el-Kubbeh, D3 et-Tell, Aq
jebel el-Kuleib, Eg beit er e, Bg (E DREI ) j e M eth-Thelj, Ba '
el-KunCfra, B4 Rhheyg, BI Sea of Tiberias, A4. 5
el-KunCtra, B3 er-Remtheh, Cg Tibneh, A6
Kureim, D3 (T RACHONITIS , 3) Roman Road, DEz-6 Trachon, D4
Kureiyeh, Eg (T RACHONITIS , § 3) nahr e r - R u W , B4 (GOLAW) Trachonitis, D4
sheikh S d , C 4 (ASHTAROTH) Tsil, B4
Lebanon, A I Saheni el-JaulXn, B4 (G OLAN ) et-Turra, Bg
el-Leja, D 3 (T RACHONITIS , 5 3) Sahn, D3 (T RACHONITIS , $ 3)
jebel LibnBn, AI Salcah, Fg Yarmiik, B4 (&LAN)
nahr L i t h i , A I , z (L EBANON , $ 6 ) Salchad, Fg
tell e l - E z , Fg samakhv AS Zeiziin, Bg
q - w a m t n , C3 jebel ez-Zumleh, Cg, 6 (BASHAN,5 I)
kefr el-Ma, B4 (ALEMA)

MAP OF TRACEONITIS, Etc.

INDEX T O NAMES I N MAP (A-Q)
'
Parewhses indicating orticks that refw to ticC place-names are in certain cases added to non-biblical names having no biblical equivalent. The alpAabctica1
arrangement usual& ignores pmJxes :ar@ ('land ' ), bahret ( Zake '), bcir ( ' house '), beldd ( towns '), &rb ( ' road ' ), &r ( monastery '), ed-, ej-, cr-, es-, esh-,
et-, e*- ( ' t h e ' ) , iklim ('district'), J. (jtbe2, 'mountain'), kal'at ('cast&'), kanrit ( ' c a n a l ' ) , kasr ('castle'),kcfr ('village'), metj ('meadow'),N. (nahr,
a river '), s . h i a t ( ' wateringplace:), slik (' market '), t d 2 ( I mound '), tullil mounds '), wmm ( ' mother'), W. (wddy, ' valky ').
( I

jebel el-'AEyeh, D3 tell el-Asfar, E3 Bosra, Eg (T RACHONITIS , 5 3) Edrei, C5

Abil, Bg tell el-'Ash2ir, F5 Bostrenus, AI 'Ediin, B6
Abila, C I tell el-Ash'ari, C4 ( BASHAN,$ 3 ) BurHk, D3 (T RACHONITIS , 5 3) w. el-EhrEr, BC4, 5 (ASHTAROTH)
Ahila, Bg tell 'Asht&, C4 (BASHAN,$ 3) Bureikeh, E4 (T RACHONITIS , 5 4) Ephron 2, Bg
Adra, Cg W r e t eL'Atebeh, E I , 2 B q r el-Hariri, D4 Ezra', D4 (BASHAN,5 3)
el-'i\fineh, Eg (T RACHONITIS , $ 4 ) 'Atil, 4 (T RACHONITIS , 3) Buthheh, E4
' A i b , Br Auranitis, DE4, 5 Fahl, TabakLt, A6
n a y el-'Ajam, CD2 (GOLAK) nahr el-A'waj, CD2 ( P H A R P A R ) Caesarea Paneas, A3 tell el-FXra, F 4
jebel 'Ajliin, B6 (JBZREEL) merj 'Ayiin, A2 (I J ON) Casphor, Cg el-Fijeh, C I (A BANA)
el-'& A4 (E LBALEH ) Filr. 4 (APHEK,3)
Alema, D4 B%ni@s, A3 (B AAL - GAD ) jebel e - p a h r , AB1 (L EBANON , 5 3) kanat Fir'aun, B j (C ONDUITS )
nahr el:AIkn, B4 (GOLAN) wady BaradH, C I (A BANA ) D h a , D4 (T RACHONITIS , 5 3)
mons Alsadamus, EFg s@ wLdy Barad%, C I (A BANA ) Damaxus, D I Gadara, Ag
&met el-'Aly&, D4 (T RACHONITIS , 5 3) nahr Barbar, Cz (PHARPAR) Dan, A3 Gerasa, A4 (GERASENES, C OUNTRY OF)
Aqueduct, Ancient, €45 n. el-BMik, A I (L EBANON , 5 6) Dathema, Cg k q r wHdy el-Ghafr, Bg
Aqueduct of Palma, DES Bashan, BC3, 4 Decapolis, A-Dg GharSret el-Kibliyeh, E 4 (T RACHONITIS ,
w. el-'Arab, Ag ( EPHRON) ard el-Bathaniyeh, EF3, 4 tell elfa'. E3 s4
el-A'raj, Aq (BETHSAIDA) el-Bafiha. Aq (G ALILEE , S EA O F , 5 3) Der'at. c g el-GhGr, As, 6 (J ORDAN )
Arbela, Bg iklim el-Belkn, Bz Dimashk, Dr Golan, B3, 4
nahr el-'Arni, BC2 ( P HARPAR ) Bosor, D4 jebel ed-Driiz, Eg. 6 (T RACHONITIS , $ z ) Golanitis, B3, 4

For continuation see back of other half Of Map.

la, __-
 TRACHONITIS
cases, the hillocks have split. lengthwise, or sometimes
into separate portions ; and thus seams have been
opened, forming great fissures and chasms which can-
not be crossed. Elsewhere again the lava bed has not
been broken into snch small hillocks, but has more the
appearance of what we call a rolling prairie. There are
between the hillocks, and also in the rolling parts, many
intervals of soil, free from stones, which are of surpris-
ing fertility’ (Merrill, E. of Jordan, I I ~ . ) . The soil in
these depressions is still cultivated in parts, and affords
pasture for flocks : remains of ancient vineyards have
also been found in them. At many points (idid. 14)
there are copious springs, though not, apparently
(Rindfleisch, IS), in the interior. Besides the seams
and fissures that have been spoken of, there are also
many caves, which have been occupied as dwellings.
Bands of robbers lurk in them at the present day (cp
how Porter was attacked, Damascus,P) 2 7 3 8 ) . Out-
laws from the settled portions of the country flee hither,
and are comparatively safe. In the vicinity of DBmH
(the highest point in the LejH) ’ so rough and rugged is
the country, so deep the gullies and ravines, and so
lofty the overhanging rocks, that the whole is a laby-
rinth which none but the Arabs can penetrate ‘ (Porter,
283).’
It is worthy of note how closely these descriptions
agree with Josephus. He says, in connection with the
order given by Augustus (see below, 5 4) to check the
depredations of the Trachonites, how difficult it was to
do this :-
‘For they possessed neithercities nor fields but lived together
with their cattle in subterranean retreats and caves. They had
however constructed reservoirs for water and granaries for
corn, a d being invisible could long resist a’foe. Theentrances
to the caves are narrow even for ersons entering one at a time
whilst within they are incredibly yargeand madespacious. Th;
ground above the dwellings is not high, but as it were a plain
The rocks are everywhere rugged and difficultto find a way
amonz. excent when a &de ooints out the oaths: for even
theseare not’straight, bEt hav; many winding;’ (Ani. xv. 10 I).
But, though this was the character of the population
of the Leia . in Tosephus’
- time, before long it changed
(see 5 5) : civilisation entered, and ci‘;ies
3*Cities and were built, the remains of which are in
many cases standing to the uresent
day. Thus on the N., just within &e Leja, &e have
Burlk (Porter,(2) 1 6 4 . 5 ) ; then (going southwards)
on, or a little outside, the E. edge, eS-SuwHrah
(P. 169),el-Hum, and (inside the Leja) Sahr (Heber-
Percy, 31-39, 4 3 3 : p. 32 ‘the track to Sahr winds
amongst the fissures, gaps, holes, and waves of the
lava, that now extends in a n undulating unbroken
sheet for a few yards, and then is cracked and broken
up into every conceivable form. Even the semblance
of a track soon faded away’), DEr Nileh ( H P 47),
and Shuhbah. between the Leja and J. HaurBn
(P. 1 9 0 8 ; H P 5 9 8 ); on the S., NejrHn and Busr
el-Hariri (P. 2 6 6 8 ) ; on the SW. Ezrd (P. 271 ;
Merrill. 2 6 8 ) ; on the W., Kirateh, Mujeidel, Khubab
(Chabeb), and Kureim (P. 2 7 9 8 ; M. 24-32); on
the NW., Mismiyeh (M. 16-22, with illustration of
temple: the ruins, according to Porter, 284, are
3 m. in circuit, and contain many buildings of consider-
able size and beauty); and in the heart of the Leja,
DBma (or DBmet el-‘AlyB, Wetzst. 25), the largest
town in the interior, with about 300 houses, mostly in
good preservation (Burckh. I I O ) . ~
Mismiyeh (the ancient Phrene) is interesting on
account of an inscription found there by Burckhardt in
1810 (TYuveL in Syria, 1822, p. 117 ; also Merrill,
p. 20, and Waddington, No. 2524), which demonstrates
the identity of the Leja with the Trachon. Julius
Saturninus, consular legate of Syria, under Alex.
Severus, issues a public notice informing the inhabitants
1 The soil of HaurSn mrfside the Leja, it should he remarked,
is singularly rich and fertile (cp BASHAN, 5 2).
a See further the list of places in HaurSn (including the Leja),
with explanatory remarks in ZDPY,1889, p. 278&
5743
TRACHONITIS
that, there being temporary barracks in the place, they
are not liable to have soldiers billeted upon them ; and
the inscription begins : ’IodXios Zarodpvtuos Qarvvuiors
~ ~ T P O K W , L70;L ~ ~T p d x w v o s Xaipeiv. Two other
pvrpoxwpiai, or capital cities, of the Trachon are also
known, viz. popeXa0. now Bureikeh (Wadd. 2396),
and Zorava, now Ezra‘ (Wadd. 2480, cp 2479).
It must not, however, be supposed that such cities
are peculiar to the Leja. The entire region, including
the slopes of the J. HaurBn, and the plains bordering
on the Leja, is studded with deserted towns and villages,
testifying to a once’flourishing and prosperous civilisa-
tion. Thus we have Hit, HEyBt, Butheneh, Shuka
(Shakka, ZaKKaia), E. of the Leja ; Suleim, KanawBt,
Si‘ (with an inscription on a statue erected to Herod
the Great: Wadd. 2364), ‘Atil, SuwPdB, Hebrsn,
‘Ire, Kureiyeh, and Salbad, with its great castle (see
S A L C A H ), on the W . and SW. slopes of J. HaurHn;
the important city and fortress of Bo?‘%, 20 m. S. of
the Leja,’ described by Porter (173-189, 2 0 0 8 , 218-
239, 2 4 8 8 ) and Merrill (32-58) ; Der‘Ht (see EDREI)
20 m. SW. of it ; as well as many other places (Wetz-
stein says there are 300 on the E. and S. slopes of
J. HaurBn alone). The general character of all these
deserted places is the same: the Leja supplied the
building material ; and this determined the style of the
architecture. The dwellings are constructed of massive
well-hewn blocks of black basaltic lava, with heavy
doors moving on pivots, outside staircases, galleries,
and roofs, all of the same material (see the descriptions
just quoted, and the photographs in Heber- Percy,
frontispiece’ 41’ 46’ 61’ 65’ 69’ etc’). Many Of
these cities are in such a good state of preservation that,
as Wetzstein observes (49), it is difficult for the
traveller not to believe that they are inhabited, and to
expect, as he walks along the Streets, to see persons
moving about the houses. The architecture of these
desertgd sites (which include temples, theatres, aque-
ducts, reservoirs, churches, etc. ) is of the Grzco-Roman
period, and is such as to show that, between the first
and the seventh century A. D., they were the home of a
thriving and wealthy population.
The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan followed b some
moderns as Porter, Akrrill, and Heber-Per&),identify ?mchon
with the ‘region of Argoh ’ (Dt. 8 4 qf:I K. 4 13). See, against
this view, ARGOBand BASHAN(col. 497), above ; also Driver on
Dt.$ 4 5, and ‘Argob’ in Hastings’ DB.
Trachon, or the Trachonitis,2 is mentioned frequently
by Josephus, chiefly in connection with the predatory
4. History. practices of its inhabitants. In 25 B.C.
one Zenodorus, a bandit-chief, held, on
payment of tribute to Cleopatra, the former domain of
Lysanias (see col. 2841); and he, to increase his
revenues, so encouraged the lawless Trachonites in
their raids upon the people of Damascus, that the latter
appealed to Varro, the governor of Syria, to lay their
case before Augustus. Augustus sent back orders that
this ‘ robbers’ nest ’ (Xnurljptov) should be destroyed ;
and Varro accordingly made an expedition against
them. Afterwards, in order more permanently t o
reduce them to order, Augustus placed the country
under the control of Herod the Great, who, with the
help of skilful gnides, successfully invaded it, and
secured, at least for the time, ’ peace and quietness for
the neighbouring people’ ( A n t . xvi. 101 cp 3 ; more
briefly, BJi. 204). The Trachonites, however, dis-
satisfied with being obliged to a till the ground and live
quietly.’ and finding also that it rewarded their labours
hut meagrely, took advantage of Herod’s absence in
Rome (about g B.c.) to revolt, and resumed their raids
’upon the more fertile territory of their neighbours.
Herod’s generals inflicted a defeat upon them ; but
about forty of the robber-chiefs escaped into ‘ Arabia’
1 Both Eus. (US268 269 298) and the Talm. (see Schiircr,fz)
1353,)!( 1426) speak of Trachon as in the neighbourhood of, or
horderlng on BosrZ.
a Josephu; uses both terms.
5’44
 TRACHONITIS
( L e . Xabataea, S. of H:aurHn), whence they raided both
Judaea and Coele-Syria. Herpd, upon his return to
Syria, finding himself unable to reach the robbers
themselves, invaded Trachon and slew many of their
relations there, in retaliation for which they still more
harassed and pillaged his territory (Ani.xvi. 91). In
the end, Herod threw 2000 Idumzeans into Trachonitis
(i6. 2), and placed a I3abylonian Jew named Zamaris,
a leader of mercenaries, in command of the surrounding
districts. Zamaris built fortresses, and a village called
Bathyra, and protected the Jews coming up from
Babylon to attend the feasts in Jerusalem against the
Trachonite robbers. The consequence was that, till the
end of Herod's reign, the country around Trachonitis
enjoyed tranquillity (Ani. xvii. 2 1-2).
Upon Herod's death, his son Philip ( 4 B.C.-34 A.D. )
received, by his father's will, the ' tetrarchy' of
Gaulanitis (Jaulan), Batanaea (the ' Bashan ' of the
OTj, Truchonitis, and Auranitis ('Haurgn'), as well
as a part of the former domain of Zenodorus (Ant.
xvii. 81 1 1 4 ; cp xviii. 46 5 4 BJxi. 63). Under Philip's
just and gentle rule ( A n t .xviii. 46) the same tranquillity
was no doubt maintained; for Strabo, writing about
25 A . D ., says (xvi. 2 2 0 ) that since the robber bands
under Zenodorus had keen put down, the country round
had, through the good government of the Romans, and
as a result of the security afforded by the garrisons
stationed in Syria, suffered far less from the raids of
the barbarians. After Philip's death ( 3 4 A.D.), as he
left no sons, his tetrarchy was attached by Tiberim to
the province of Syria (Ant.xviii.46). In 37 A. D .,
however, Caligula bestowed it upon Herod Agrippa I.
(Ant. xviii. 6 I O end; BJii.96), who held it-as an
inscription commemorating his safe return from Rome
( 4 1 A.D.foundat atel-Mushennef, shows(Wadd. 2211)-
as far as the E. slopes of the Jebel ed-Driiz. The rule
of Agrippa seems to mark the beginning of a new
stage in the civilisation of the entire district : Greek
inscriptions now begin to multiply, and we have many
records in stone o f the building of public edifices.
Agrippa I. died (Actsl223) in 4 4 A.D., and, as his son
was still a minor, Trachon and the neighbouring parts
were administered by a procurator under the governor
of Syria. From 53 to' 100 the old tetrarchy of Philip
TRADE AND COMMERCE
WITH TRADE ROUTES
CONTENTS
I. GENERAL CONDITIONS AND PROGRESS OF T RADE
Introductory (S I). No trading classes; tribal monopolies Barter, standards of value (( 20).
Conditions of trade in W. Asia (S 2). ($8 12-16).
Varieties of soil and fertility ((1 3-6). Trade of W. Asia with India and Europe Syrian commerce and industry ; Amarna
Distribution of stones and metals (S 7). (S ~ 7 J f .
Great empires and trade ; political effects Means of carriage by land and sea (D 19).
(§$ 8-11).
11. T RADE ROUTES OF W ESTERN ASIA 16s 28-ioL
Natural lines of traffic ; E v t (B 28). Egypt to Syria (%32).
Nile and Red Sea ; Indian cean (5 zgfi). Cross-routes : Desert of Tih, Negeb (D 33). Assyria and Babylonia (5 40).
Arabia (!j 31). Main and cross routes : Palestine (gg 34-
38).
111. H ISTORY OF T RADE
Periods (5 41). Early monarchy ; Saul to Solomon (89 48-
Early traditions (S 42s) 50).
Arrival in Palestine; trade under 'Judges' Aramzans; divided kingdom ($ 513).
a§ 44-47). Eighth and seventh centuries ($ 53J)
Iv. T ERMINOLOGY
General features (( 82).
Bibliography (S 84). Maps : Trade-routes-i.
When Israel settled in Palestine they came into touch
with lines and movements of commerce which had been
extant throughout Western Asia from a remote
antiquity. The economic development of the nation
1,Introductorp. -apart from their adoption of agri-
cultiire -consisted in their gradual
engagement in this already ancient, elaborate, and
world-wide system. Many of its consequences, as seen
TRADE AND COMMERCE
formed part of the kingdom of Herod Agrippa 11. (Acts
25 1 3 f l ) , inscriptions and buildings dating from whose
reign are numerous both in the Leja itself and in other
parts of Haur5n.l The most important step in the
history of the civilisation of this entire district, however,
was taken in 106, when Trajan created it into the new
province of ' Arabia,' with Bog% as its capital. Trajan's
agent in accomplishing this was Cornelius Palnia,
governor of Syria from 104 to 108, whose work in bring-
ing an aqueduct into Kanata (now Kerak) is com-
memorated in an inscription found at el-'Afineh (Wadd.
2296-2297 ; cp 2301, 2305). It does not fall within the
scope of the present article to pursue the history further :
it may therefore suffice to remark generally that the direct
influence of the Romans began almost immediately to
make itself felt : roads and aqueducts were constructed ;
during the second and third centuries basilicas, teniples,
theatres, and other buildings rapidly multiplied ; in-
scriptions, sepulchral, dedicatory, architectural, become
more abundant ; and a new and unique civilisation,
externally Roman, but including within it a strange
combination of Greek and Semitic elements, is the
result (see further details and references in GASm. H G
6248). A Roman road, it may be added, starting
from Damascus, runs through the Leja, passing
Mismiyeh in the N., and Bureikeh in the S. ; and going
on to Bo+, Philadelphia (Rabbath Ammon), Moab,
etc. (cp Rindfleisch, 2 4 ) .
Burckhardt, as cited above 18
(Hauran) r 1 0 8 (the Leja) .
J. G. Wetntein.. Keise6erirhj ibm Hauranh. die Trachonen:
1860 (epoch-making) especially pp. 2 5 8
6. Litemture. Porter(=P, $3),E.i~~YearsinDamas~-us(2) f
hferrill(=M, $3). E. ofJordan, and Heber-
Percy ( = H P , ( 3). A Visit to Bashan a d Argu6, 1896, as
referred to above ; the account of Stiihel's ' Reise with map in
ZDPV,1889,pp. 225.302 (important) 2; RindfleiGh, 'Die Land-
schaft Haursn in riimischer Zeit u. in der Gepenwart,'in ZDPV,
1898,.pp. 1-58 (on the 'Leja, 5-7 14f: 17 24 4)
; v. Oppenheim;
ofi. ctt. 1 8 7 8 (chaps. S 5 on Haursn generally ; chap. 4 on the
Druses). The standard authority on the archiirctrrre of HaurHn
is de Vogiie's fine work, Syrip Centraze, Architecture C i u i k
et ReZigieusc du ie au vi& si2cZe (1867), containing 150 plates
with explanatory descriptions (though little relating specificall;
to the Leja); see more briefly GASm. FfG 6298
For inscriptions (from Haursn generally, as well as the Leja)
see the works cited under BASHAN. S 5 ; and add Burton and
....
Drake, op. cif. 2 379-3". S. R. D.
IN WESTERN ASIA DOWN T O 1000 B.C. ($6
1-27).
Trade and Religion (99 21-24).
Letters (SS 25-27).
/YY ,
~ I
Northern Syria (5 39).
IN IsRAEL (66/"Y ,
41-81).
I
Exile and Persian period (8s 5542).
Greek period (58 63-67).
Roman Period (((68-73).
... Antipater, Herod. and later (81 74-78).
In NT literature (99 79-81). .--'' ' '
OF T RADE IN OT.
Detailed vocabulary ((i 83).
Hither Asia (opp. col. SI&), ii. Palestine (opp. col. 5164).
.in Egypt or Babylonia, repeat themselves in Israel;
indeed at some periods they are the only evidence we
1 For a list of inscriptions naming Herodian kings, see Wadd.
2365 end.
2 See also the ma of Hauran and Jebel, ed-Driiz accom
ing Schnmacher's .sa,' siiiiche Basan in ZD>V SO Gj
67-227. I n both these maps, however, there is an error in lat.
and long. : Damascus is placed correct1 but by a fault in t h e
triangulation the whole of HaurZn andYjurrounding parts are
 TRADE AND COMMERCE
have of the presence of commerce as a factor in the
national life. It is, therefore, necessary to review the
rise, progress, and fashions of trade in W. Asia-with
its relations to religion-down till the end of the second
millennium B. c . , or just as Israelite commerce began to
develop.
I. TRADE I N WESTERN ASIA
From the most remote epochs there were present
-
throuahont W. Asia the conditions not onlv of local
2, Conditions exchange, but also of a &de inter-
of trade. national commerce, viz. : ( a ) the
ereat differences of soil, fertility. and
animal and vegetable products (§§ 3-6) ; (6) the unequal
distribution of stones and metals (17) ; (e) the rise, at
the two extremes of the region, of empires of vast wealth
and culture ($5 8-11); ( d ) the specialisation of commerce
by particular tribes and nations (§§ 12-16); (e) the
central position of W. Asia between the Indian Ocean
and the Mediterranean-India and Europe (§ 17J) ;
(f)the existence of natural lines of traffic both by land
and by sea (§$ 9, 2 8 8 ) ; (g)the development of the
means of carriage (§ 19); and ( h ) the rise of common
standards of value (I 20). T o our survey of these it is
necessary to add some consideration of (i) the relation
of commerce to religion (1 21-24); as well as a sketch
of ( R ) those political movements which so powerfully
influenced the trade of Syria just before Israel settled in
Palestine (I§25-27),
( a ) W. Asia is unsurpassed in any quarter of the
globe for its extraordinary contrasts of soil and fertility :
3. soil and between the Syrian and the Arabian
desert on the one hand, and the river-
valleys and deltas of Babylonia and
Egypt, with the garden lands of Syria and S. Arabia,
on the other ; whilst most of the ordinary contrasts
-between sea-coast and Hinterland,' lowlands and
highlands, with very different temperatures and soils,
pastoral and arable regions-were also present through-
out. All these formed different grades and necessities of
human life, between which the currents of commerce
were as inevitable as the winds which pass between
spheres of differing temperature in the worlds atmo-
sphere. The various populations of W. Asia were
dependent on each other for some of the barest necessaries
of life, as well as for most of its simpler comforts and
embellishments, and such dependence was the beginning
of trade. At the same time, we must be careful not to
exaggerate either the amount of the trade, or its influence
on the minds of men at so early a period. Had
commerce then been a dominant feature of human life,
we should have found more traces of its influence on
religion than we shall be able to discover ( § 21).
The elements of early commerce between the deserts
and the fertile lands are easilv determined from the
4. Elements of conditions of to-day. There are still
nomads who live for months or even
commerce' vears on milk and flesh (Palmer. Desert
of the Erodus), varied by dates from the oases in the
centre of Arabia (Doughty, Ar. D e s . , passim). From
the earliest times, however, the need of cereal foods
must have drawn the Bedouins into commerce with the
agricultural populations ; and this need would increase
with the settlement of nomads from the interior of
Arabia on the borders of fertility. From Syria,
Mesopotamia, and Egypt the nomads would seek
grain, fruit (e.g., almonds), cloth, oil, and (after its
invention) pottery,' with (in course of time) weapons.2
shifted unduly S. and W., so that Bosri is 32' 30' 5 N.,and 36"
263' E., instead of, as it ought to be 2' 33F N. and 36" 32' E.
(see MiVDPV, 1899,pp. 12-14). Tdikerror has been corrected
in Fischer's Handkarte lion Pal. 189 and also in the map
in the present article (which is b a s e f u p o n the three maps
named):
1 As they do now from Gam and Damascus.
2 To the early Egyptians the nomads were the people of the
boomerang. But the story of Senuhyt proves that during the
5147
TRADE AND COMMERCE
In exchange they would give dates,' curdled milk,
wool, occasionally cattle, honey, salt, alkali (obtained
from the ashes of the Kilu and other plants),2 ' Mecca
balsam ' (B ALSAM ), and other medicinal herbs. Com-
merce between Syria and Egypt included oil, mastic
(B ALM ), wool, etc. (EGYPT, § 8), and (later) Syrian
manufactures ; whilst traffic between Babylonia and
Egypt was frequent even in pre-historic times (i6.
43). Trade in SALT (y...) was not only local-as
from the salt-pans N. of Pelusiuni, in el-Jof, and else-
where, or from the deposits at the S. end of the Dead
Sea ;-probablyalso rock-salt was exported to a distance
as to-day : e & , from W. Kaseem in Arabia ( Palgrave,
Centr. and E. Arab. 180 red. 18831).
The most isolated of the fertile lands of W. Asia lie4
on the S. of Arabia under the monsoon rains. Arabia
5. The incense Felix (Ar. ' el-Yemen ' -i.e . , ' the
south') has ever been famous for
countrgr. fertility, and was the seat of the
Minzean and Sabzean civilisation (below, 5 14). Its
chief repute, however, was for frankincense (see F RANK -
INCENSE, where its late appearance in the O T is noted,
and its probably earlier use in Egypt). Erman says
this was common under the Old Empire. Sprenger
calls the incense-country 'the heart of the commerce of
the ancient world' (Geog. A&. Arab. 299). Theodore
Bent (Nineteenth Cent., Oct. 1895,pp. 5g5fi)describes
' the actual libaniferons country,' Dhofar, as ' perhaps
not now much bigger than the Isle of Wight,' and
'probably in ancient days not much more extensive.'
It lies on the coast some 800 m. NE. from Aden,
about half-way to Muscat. 9000 cwt. of the gum are
exported annually to Bombay. Other products are
cocoanuts and cocoanut fibre (not yet identified under
any ancient Semitic name), myrrh, ghee, fruits, and
vegetables. Pasturage is rich. Dates and weapons
are imported. There is a fine harbour, perhaps
Moscha of the Perz$Zus (§ 32), and numerous Sabaean
remains. Camels are the animals used for carrying
purposes; horses are unknown. Cp SEPHAR. On
another incense country see § 8.
At times primitive commerce in the necessaries of
life must have been enhanced by local famines, though
in the less settled conditions of early history these would
result not so much in increased trade as in migrations
of tribes. Such migrations, however, would also stinlu-
late trade by communicating across the region a better
knowledge of its remoter parts, as well as familiarity
with the various routes thither. U'e shall see that most
of the great trading tribes had been immigrants to the
districts which became the centres of their flourishing
commerce.
The early distribution of woodland in W. Asia is
uncertain ; but from Syria into Egypt, as well as from
6. Distribution the wooded districts of Palestine, not
only to the treeless desert borders, but
of timber. also to Babylonia, there was always
some traffic in timber. Cedar was brought from ' the
West' to Babylonia in the reigns of Sargon I. and
Gudea (4th mill.), and rafts of other woods must have
descended the Euphrates and the Tigris.l Round the
~
Middle Empire the Egyptian weaponsmitbs carried their goods
on asse5 among the Asiatic nomads: W M M , As. u. Eur.
I, n. 2.
1 Still imported from Arabian oases to Baghdad, Damascus,
and Yemen (Palgrave, Cenfr. and East. Arabia [ed. ,8831,
4- 149, 364); also from oases in Turkish Arabia to Bushire.
Sge Consular Report on Trade and Commerce of the Persian
Gulf in 1901 by Lt.-Col. Kemball. Forder (With the Arabs in
Tent and Town, 119 [ I 021) describes caravans from Hauran
to Kaf taking wheat and garley to he hartered for salt and dates.
H e reports among the industries of the Jaf saddle-bags, carpets,
ahhas and other clothing ; cp 145 : imports-coffee, cooking
utensils, clothing from Damascus, etc.
2 Cp ZDPY 20 89 for present export of alkali from steppes S.
of H a u r l n to the soap factories of NZblus.
3 Lr+e in A n c Ec. (tr. by Tirard ; IS 4), p. 507.
4 Eg. under' Ur-nina of Lagash ( ~ A B Y L O N I A , 8 44); cp
Radau, kady Baby. Hisf. [I~oo], and Howorth, Eng. Hist.
5148
 TRADE AND COMMERCE
Persian Gulf there is said to be no timber for ship-
building. For the period between the Old and the
Middle Empire in Egypt see Erman, op. cit. 452.
( b ) The distribution of useful stones and metals
through - W. Asia is now tolerably clear. The marble
., of stones and alabaster found in early Babylonian
arrdmetals. deposits came from the Assyrian hills,
the diorite from Arabia (BABYLONIA,
$5 18, ZI).’ The basalt of HaurHn must always, as
to-day, have been wed for millstones for all Syria.
Egypt was without copper, which it brought from Sinai
and the Lebanons (COPPER). Gudea imported copper
from KimaS in N. Arabia (Hommel in Hastings’ BD
1 2 2 5 ; cp Gen. 1023, and see Eng. Hist. Rev. 1 7 2 2 1 ) .
Cyprus was a later source ; on bronze see below, 5 17.
Iron, copper, and lead were found in the hills W. of
Nineveh (see A SSYRIA , 5 6), and iron in parts of Syria
and Central and S. Arabia (Doughty, Ar. Des.). Iron,
however, except in Babylonia, does not appear till the
close of our period (see I RON ). There was a little gold
in the desert E. of Egypt and in Nubia (see EGYPT, 5 50) ;
but its chief sources were in Arabia, on the E. of Sinai,
and on the far S . coastz (see GOLD, OPHIR). Silver,
which was rare in Egypt till 1600 B.c., came from Asia
(EGYPT, $ 38). Precious stones (turquoises, etc.) were
found in Sinai. C p STONES. The love of ornqment is
one of the earliest motives to barter among primitive
peoples, and we may :assume that traffic in metals and
jewels had begun in W. Asia even before the rise of
the great civilisations in Egypt and Mesopotamia.
( c ) It is, however, in the growth and organisation of
these great civilisations that we must seek for the
8. The great most powerful of the factors of ancient
commerce. Trade always advances by
empires’ leaps and bounds where two great
states face each other (cp the sudden increase between
the Hittites and Egypt after their treaty in the reign of
Ramses 11. [Erman. 5371).
By the end of the fifth millennium B. c., both Baby-
lonia and Egypt possessed a developed civilisation, for
the groMth of which we must assume many centuries
if not some millennia ((seeB ABYLONIA , 5 46) ; both had
elaborate systems of writing, always a proof of and a
help to commerce. That between them there were
close communications, is proved by the strong Baby-
lonian elements in pre-historic Egyptian culture (see
EGYPT, 5 43). The rapid rise of their wealth, doubtless
largely due to discoveries of new sources of the precious
metals, must have increased trade throughout W. Asia,
and complicated it beyond previous conditions. The
monument (discovered at Susa by De Morgan) of ManiS-
tu-irba, ruler of Ki5 (4th mill. B .c.), records his pur-
chase of lands, grain, wool, oil, copper, asses, and slaves,
which were paid for i n silver ; and among the officials
mentioned are ‘ amariner,’ ‘scribe,’ ‘surveyors,’ ‘miller,’
‘jeweller.’ and ‘merchant‘ (Dam&ar).’ The growth of
wealth hastens the demand, not only for articles of
luxury, but also for better qualities of food-stuffs. For
example, both the N i k and the Euphrates valley produce
dates; but if then, as at the present day, the Arabian
oases, including Sinai, produced a special quality of
dates,4 these would be imported into Egypt and Baby-
lonia then as now (see above, 5 4, third note). The
records of the kings of Lagag (B ABYLONIA , 5 44) report
_______
Rev. 177. For Gudea’s imports see PSB.4 11, RPP) 2 7 5 8 ,
and Rogers’ Hisf.1370.
1 The diorite of Gudea and Ur-bau was brought from Magan
on the NE. coast of Arabia (Amiaud, RPP) 2 15 n. takes it to be
Sinai) ; but see note to E%g.Hisf. Rev. 17 211 for another source.
2 Burton, Land of Midian. 2 Ch. 36, speaks of ‘gold of
D-iiB, ’ which Glaaer (S.hizz~,2 347) identifies with el-Farwarri
mentioned by Hamdsni; cp Sprenger,AZt. Arab. 49-63. Gudea
brought gold-dust from NW. Arabia and KhZkh SE. of Medina
(Hommel in Hastings’ BD 1225 ; En<. Ffist. Rev. 17221).
3 Howorth, Eng. His.‘. Rev. 17 1 1 5
4 The fine dates of el-Hasa (E. Arabia) are still exported-to
Mosul, Bombay and Zan’zibar, Palgr. Cent. and E. Arab:, ed.
1883, PP. 3% 383.
5149
TRADE AND COMMERCE
the building of storehouses beside the temples, and the
construction of canals.
With the increase of wealth came the expansion and
consolidation of empire. It is not always possible to
decide whether objects of foreign origin found in early
Egyptian or Babylonian remains were fruits of conquest
(spoil or tribute), or of trade, though probably they ai-e
mostly due to trade ; even where the records boast of
tribute this is really the fruit of barter.l Even if any
of the early expeditions from Egypt and Babylonia were
for conquest (which is very doubtful ; see note), they
found their motives in a previous trade; and they
would open up rontes and increase commerce. The
expeditions of Sargou I. and Gudea to ‘ the west’ for
timber, and to Arabia for stone and metal (above 5 6f. )
were repeated by other monarchs BA BABYLONIA, 5 1 5 ~;)
and the various conquests of, and immigrations into,
Babylonia by fresh tribes must have powerfully developed
trade. T o the NE. lay Elam, a seat of culture by the
fourth millennium B.c., with avenues of traffic into
central and eastern Asia : and Elam overran Baby-
lonia. Again, the Canaanite supremacy synchronised
with a growth of commerce especially under Ham-
mnrHbi (see B ABYLONIA , § 5 4 3 ; though there was an
increase of trade preceding this, at Ur, 5 50 4 , ; while the
rapid subjection of the Canaanite dynasty to a KaSSite
is proof of the Iuxury consequent on commerce under
the former power. From Egypt expeditions were sent
in the earliest times to secure the copper and turquoise
mines of Sinai--e.g., Dyn. III., Zoser (E GYPT , 5 44);
Dyn. IV., Snefru(i) ($45 : about 3000 B. c. ; but acc. to FI.
Petrie, 3998-3969 B .c.), and Hufu (Petrie, Hist. of
Egypt, 142) ; Dyn. V I . , Pepy I. the founder of Memphis
proper’ (E GYPT , 5 47). There were also early expedi-
tions to Nnbia for gold, to the Sudan, the W. oases,
and above all down the Red Sea to Punt-either
Somali-land, or the coast between Suakim and Mas-
sowah).6 Erman (@. cit. 507) mentions the picture of
a native of Punt as early as Hufu (Dyn. IV. ) ; but the
4 earliest recorded expedition to Punt ’ was under Assa,
Dyn. V. (E GYPT , 48, F1. Petrie, 100); Pepy I.
(Dyn. V l . ) sent to the SudBn and farther (EGYPT,
5 47); Sa+-ka-re‘ (Dyn. X I . ) by Koptos, KosEr, and
the Red Sea to Punt : and several kings of Dyn. X I I . ,
the Amenemha‘ts and Usertesens, to Nubia, the SudHn,
and Punt. Under this dynasty (2800 F1. Petrie,
2100 W M M ) trade flourished exceedingly. The Hyksos
migration and conquest of Egypt must have developed
her Asiatic commerce ; but this, especially with Syria,
reached its height after the conquests of the New
Empire. For lists of the many Syrian products intro-
duced, see WMM. As. a. Eur. (chaps. 1, etc.), and
Ernian ( 5 1 6 8 ) , who remarks : ’ wealmost feel inclined
to maintain that really there was scarcely anything
1 See the instance given by Erman, 512; and cp Naville,
Deir el Bahari (Eg. Expl. Fund), Pt. III., I T . Referring to
the same expedition to Punt, W. E. Crum (Hastings’ DB
16.506) says : Queen Ha’tSepsut’s ‘fleet had, like its predecessors
from the 6th dynastyonwards, solely a commercial object. S?,
too Budge Hist. of Eg. (1902) 4 IT 144 158. Similarly in
Baiylonia &der Gudea, who accoiding to Hommel (Hastings’
DB12254, did not conquer the distant regions, but by treaties
secured passage for his caravans with their products.
2 En;anna-tuma I. of Lag& imported cedar ‘from the
mountain ’ . Radau, 72.
3 See ado L. 1%’. King, Letters and Znscr. of&faamnrura6i
about B.C. moo, ,i., Introd. and Text, iii.,,. Translation; and
G . Nagel ‘Die Briefe H.’s an Sin-idinnam in Bcitr. z. Assyr.
4 4 3 4 8 with notes by F. Delitzsch 483A:
4 On the favourable position of Ur for commerce, on the
Euphrates, near the W. Rummein (which connected it with
Central Arabia), and with a road to Sinai, see Rogers, Hirf. of
Bab. and Ass. 1 3 7 1 8
5 So Naville ( D c i r rZBahari, Pt. 111. I I : Eg. Expl. Fund),
who says that in any case Punt lay N. of the Straits of Bab-el-
Vandeb : ‘ not a definite territory,’ but a vague geographical
definition. Some include under the name both sides of the Red
Sea. ‘The region which produces frankincense is situated in
t h e rojecting parts of Ethopia and lies inland (Le., from Adulis
on tge Red Sea) but is washed by the ocean on the other side ’ ;
Cosmas, Christ. Tojog. Bk. 11, ET by M‘Crindle, 51.
5150
 * TRADE A N D COMMERCE
which the Egyptians of this period did not import from
Syria.’ Syrian slaves were a constant subject of traffic
(Erman, 517J, WMM, As. zl. Bur.). The New
Empire also opened up Nuhia, and elaborated the
trade with Punt, and that with Cyprus (see EGYPT,
Js 53-61). For the trade of Ramses 111. with fleets on
the Mediterranean and Red Sea see the Harris Papyrus
(end) and the summary in Budge, HiFt. of Eg.5 q g j ?
From the third millennium there is evidence of a
royal service of despatches into Asia (WMM, As. u. Bur.
’’Of
I J ); the regulation of imports by the
Security Egyptian government ; the making of
roads ; and the supply of desert routes-
e.$, that between Koptos on the- Nile and the Red Sea
(below, J 29)-with water (by Mentohotep, Dyn. XI.
[Erman, 506]).l It was easy and safe for even in-
dividuals to travel to tribes as far as Edom and the
‘ArBbah : witness the tale of Se-nuhyt, which, whether
historical or not (see EGYPT, col. 1z37), must have
been founded on a knowledge of the actual conditions
of travel.2 In short, by the third millennium travel
must have been frequent and tolerably secure (of course
with interruptions) from the mouth of the Red Sea and
the Sudan to the Euphrates; and the commercial
activity and wealth of Babylonia in at least the second
half of that millennium, can hardly have failed to create
similar conditions for much of the rest of W. Asia. C p
§ 26, end.
W e must not suppose, however, that all this pro-
duced, even for intervals. anything like a parallel to
what prevails in modern times, or even to what was
achieved under the Roman Empire. The roads of
W . Asia were never so secure as under the Pax
Romana, nor were they so well laid down. In the
period with which we deal there were frequent inter-
regna : the nomads of Arabia often burst the frontiers
of civilisation ; and even in peaceful times the well-
developed habits of traffic cannot have produced such
order or sense of safety as we find at the beginning of
the Christian era.
Before we pass from the influence of the great
empires on commerce, three other phenomena require
Trade and to be noticed. One is the effect of the
10. exigencies of commerce in the transfer
political of political power within the empires
from one site to another, and the rapid
growth of new capitals. Of this both Egypt and
Babylonia furnish instances. The centre of govern-
ment in Egypt came down the Nile, from positions
commanding the highways to the S. and the Red Sea, to
Memphis3 a t the neck of the Delta, where great trade-
routes converge from all quarters. W e find a similar
case under the New Empire, when the increase of trade
on the Syrian frontier drew, for a time, the centre of
the political power from Thebes into the Eastern Delta.4
On the Euphrates and Tigris the same causes worked
in an opposite direction-upstream. The central posi-
tion of U r with regard to commerce is well known;
how elaborate that commerce was is proved by the
titles of the third dynasty of Ur, and the number of
contract tablets from their time.5 The transference of
power from the lower Babylonian cities to Babylon
itself and the independence of that great centre from
about 2400 B. c . , was Probably assisted by commercial
influences, for Babylon proved its fitness as a centre for
trade by the extraordinary persistence of its commerce
and wealth, in spite of frequent political disasters, for
1 Also ‘it is probable that %ti I. caused a series of water
stations to be established from the Nile to Beerenice’ (Budge
NESio); and Ramses 111. built a fortified well between Mt:
Casius and Raphia (f67Z 159) : on Ramses IV. did 18,.
2 Under Dyn. xii. : cp ‘Travels of an Egyptian’ undef Dyn.
xix XX. ET in RP 2 r o 2 3
$’under Menes, 4500 or 4 o a , B.c., and his successors : EGYPT,
t g 44, 47 : M EMPHIS . See also FI. Petrie, HE, vol. i.
4 Cp Erman, 516.
fi Cp for references Rogers, Hist. ofBab. a i d Assyr. 1377.
5151
TRADE AND COMMERCE
nearly 2000 years (cp Is.47); and it is possible that
some memory of the city’s early fame as a gathering
place for men of all tongues may lie behind the Hebrew
story of the founding of Babel (Gen. 11). One has
only to look at the map to see how much more advan-
tageously Babylon lies for the trade through Elam into
Persia. than do the cities which preceded her in power.
The rise of Assyria was doubtless aided by her com-
mand, closer than that of Babylon, over the lines of
trade to the W.; the transference of the Assyrian
capital from .4Sur to Calah and Nineveh was, in fact,
one from a less to a more suitable centre for commerce,
both with N. and W. These are but instances, which
will doubtless be multiplied a s our knowledge of ancient
history is .increased.
Another phenomenon to be noted in the commercial
development of the Great Empires-we shall find some-
rl. Yercenaries : thing analogous in Israel-is the
royal traders. exchange of native militia, proper to
agricultural conditions of life, for a
mercenary soldiery, -which generally followed a great
increase in trade. The soldiers of the Middle Empire
in Egypt were such a militia; but after the great
growth of trade, especially with Asia under the
dynasties of the New Empire, the Egyptian armies
were mainly composed of mercenaries (Erman, 542).
The same thing happened in Egypt under Psamelik.
It happened also in Babylonia under ASur-bani-pal and
Nebuchadrezzar.
Again, it is to be remarked that the initiative of the
great commercial expeditions from Babylonia and from
Egypt is recorded on the monuments as due not to
private enterprise, but tO the reigning monarch.’ This
is no pretence of royal arrogance or of the court scribe’s
flattery. We see the same motive at work in the
great explorations and commercial expeditions of the
Middle Ages from Spain and Portugal.
( d )The earliest societies of men did not contain a
special class or profession of traders; farmers and
la. No trading manufacturers exchanged their own
classes. goods. In the story of Se-nuhyt the
weaponsmith himself carries his goods
to the Asiatic nomads. As we shall see (J Z I ) , trade did
not exercise any influence on the formative period of the
religions of W. Asia; a proof that it was not then
specialised as a separate vocation. There is no mention
of trade in the proverbs of Ptal-hotep (from the 4th
n~i!l.), and when they appeared in Egypt ‘sailors,
merchants, and interpreters of foreign origin were
despised’ (EGYPT, 5 31.); that is to say, the special
class was a late and a foreign upstart in that civilisation.
The rise of international commerce, however, and
the peculiar character of the deserts which separated
13. Tribal the centres of civilisation favoured-in
monopolies~place of the growth of special classes of
traders within those centres-the gradual
absorption of whole tribes outside them in the business
of trade and the carriage of goods. Especially was this
the case with certain Arabian nomads, whose familiarity
with the desert and possession of the means of crossing
it, furnished them with the price (in their trading services)
for purchasing the products of civilisation. Thus, in the
OT. some of the earliest names for traders are tribal :
Ishmaelite (Gen. 8 7 2 5 2 7 f: 391.-all J), Midianite (the
parallel E passages; Gen. 3728a 3 6 ) , and (later) Canaan-
ite, of which the first two were Arabian and the last the
inhabitants of that land which is well described as the
‘ bridge ’ between Egypt and Mesopotamia. This
evidence is confirmed by the Egyptian records. Part
of the contempt of the Egyptians for traders was prob-
ably due to the traders being foreigners. The Beni-
Hasan paintings represent thirty- seven Asiatics from
the desert, traders from near Sinai (see EGYPT, § 50:
1 Similarly the letters of Hammurabi (above, $ 8 n.) show
how that king personally superintends the i n f m l trade of
Babylonia.
5152
 TRADE AND COMMERCE
WMM, As. u. BUY.36). So. too, Hannu the leader
of the expedition to Punt under S'anh-ks-re' of the
eleventhdynasty (E GYPT, § 48) appears to have a Semitic
name (cp, however, Ekman, 506). Thus, by the third
niillenniuni B.c.,the Semites from their central position
betwcen the two most ancient civilisations, their com-
inand of the lines of communication, and their frequent
migrations, had developed those habits of trading which
distinguish them to the present day.l Among the
Semites, again, there were especially four families which
concentrated the racktl adaptableness and tenacity upon
commerce, and, not content with the share in that
which their central positions brought to them, devoted
themselves to the pursuit and organisation of many lines
of traffic, till they developed. in the case of one of them
at least, a wider commercial influence than the world
ever saw till the most recent epoch. These were the
Minreans, the Aramaeans, the Phenicians, and the
Nabatzeans, of whom the first three had begun to
develop their commerce within our period-the hlinzeans
and the Aranireans by land, the Phcenicians by sea.
It is only upon indirect and somewhat precarious
evidence (summarked bv Weber. Arabien VOY ZsZuant.
14. Mi&ans, ~ 2 f l ) ~ ' t h ato
t the Minzan kingdom
a date is assigned so earlv as the second
half of the second millenniuGi B. c. T h i centre of the
Minrean power lay in the S. part of Arabia-not in the
incense- bearing regions of Kataban and Hadramdt
(above, f 5 ) , though it commanded these, and by its
hold on the central Arabian routes (below, 5 3 1 ) and its
colony in MuSr2.n or MuSri (ie., Midian) and north-
aards (MIZRAIM, f 3 ) 3 possessed the Arabian land
traffic, and sent its (caravans by Ma'Hn and Petra to
Gam. The capital was Karnawu, the Karna of
E r a t o ~ t h e n e sin
, ~immediate connection w-ith the ports
of the S. coast. Thus Minzean trade extended at least
from the Indian Ocean to the Levant. But see 8 17.
After what has been said elsewhere (AKAM, A RAMAIC
L ANGUAGE : cp PHCENICIA, 5 7 ) it is only necessary to
16.Aramseans. say that in the second millennium B.C.
we find the Aramzeans succeeding the
Hittites in a country on the upper Euphrates which is
the meeting-ground ,of many trade-routes-from Syria,
Asia Minor, Armenia, and Babylonia (below, 5 39J).
They gradually extended over N. Syria, a land more
suited for trade than for agriculture or i n d u s t r i e ~and ,~
embraced Damascus, the principal Syrian ' harbour,' a
depBt of the Arabian Desert (Hist. Geqy. 642J). The
earliest notices reveal Aranizeans as nomads, perhaps
traders. in Mesopotamia ; in Syria the small states they
founded round cities were such as those founded by other
trading peoples. The strongest proof of their commerce
is the gradual spread of their dialect till it became the
l i n u a f m n c n of W. Asia. In Babylonia it was spoken
in daily life from ithe eleventh to the ninth century
(IVi. Vb'lker Vorderasiens, 1 1 ) ; by the tenth it had
1 The Syrians depicted on the tomb of Hui, about r q m B . C .
(see Budge, H E 4 144), are traders. Cp Strabo xvi. 4 23 on the
commercial qualities of the Arabs.
a None of the S. Arabian, so-called Himyaritic, inscriptions
are dated before secoiid century B.C. For a detailed argument
against the high antiquity claimed for the Minzzan kingdom, see
Budge, HE 6, Preface, x v i 8 His conclusioii is that Glaser's
Inscr. 1155 belongs to the time of Gmbyses and that 'the
hfinzan kingdom cannot he shown to be older than the sixth
century B.c.,' p. xxii.
3 The strong reasoning of Budge ( H E 6xxi 8 )against
Winckler's frequent identification of the biblical Mizraim with
the Arabian Rlugr is not conclusive against the existence of the
latter. For if, as generally admitted, Gharirat of Glaser's
Inscr. 1083 be Gaza. the Minaean caravans from S. Arabia would
scarcely pass throueh Egypt to Gam, or through Gaza to Egypt
(notwithstanding Budge's note on p. xxii). The mention of
Gaza, therefore, is, so far, evidence in favour of a N. Arabian
Musri. Cp also S I M OO N , B 6. Even if the Mu+ ofthe Assyrian
and.Min;ean inscriptions he proved to be Egypt, this only means
an extension of the Minzan trade.
4 Or Karnana : Straho (xvi. 4 2 ) who mentions besides the
Sahreans at Mariaha, the Kattahanians at Tamna, the Chatrama-
titai at Sahata.
5 >%'Curdy,Hisf. P ~ o p hMon.
. 1155.
5153
TRADE AND COMMERCE
taken the place which Babylonian held in Mi. Asia in
the fifteenth, and was used as far as Egypt as a com-
mercial tongue (\VA?M, As. u. Bur. 234). How long
and how far this commercial supremacy of the language
lasted is proved by inscriptions in Teima and Kabatzean
towns up to 100 A.D. It was the Aramzan trade, from
the Tigris to the Levant, which formed the temptation
to the Assyrian campaigns in the ninth and following
centuries (below, f 5 2 ) . Cp S YRIA , sf168
The commercial influence of the Phcenicians appears
to have risen at an earlier period than that of the
16, Phcenicians. Aramaeans: but how early it is im-
possible to say. The absence of all
reflection of trade not only from the names of their
earliest cities-these may have been named before the
Phoenician occupation '-but also from all except pre-
sumably late strata of their religion2 (see below, z z ) ,s
is significant. The coincidence between a great inRnx
of Canaanite population and religion into Babylonia
(about 1500 B.C. ), and the rise of a ' Canaanite ' dynasty
there, with a great increase of commerce and wealth, is
interesting as indicative of a racial capacity for trade.
On the whole, however, we may assign the rise of the
commerce of the Phoenicians to a period subsequent to
their arrival on the coast between Lebanon and the
Levant, somewhere in the third millennium B.C., and
therefore subsequent to the appearance of international
commerce in W. Asia; and we may trace it to the
central position of that coast, to the mines and forests of
the neighbourhood, and to the greater facility for traffic
by sea than by land, between the various Phcenician
settlements. Probably the Phmnicians did not invent
ships as the Greeks were led to suppose from their subse-
quent supremacy in navigation ; for the first boats must
have been invented by a people with long slow rivers.
But the Phoenicians. with their towns near to large
forests and disposed within a day's sail of each other on
a coast full of obstacles for land traffic, must have been
early forced to the improvement of the means of naviga-
tion ; whilst the harassing land march across the desert
to Egypt must have led to a speedy extension of that
navigation to the Egyptian delta. So great an adventure,
if it did not produce, amply proves the existence of,
those qualities of hardihood and enterprise, u-hich were
to lift Phcenicia to the command of the world's trade.
The less adventurous E g y p t i a n ~who
, ~ had in the earlier
periods of their history reached Punt by their own
merchants, had left the trade through Nubia to negroes
(Erman. 498) ; 4 and now might be easily tempted
to resign a commerce which they disliked (§ 1 3 ) to the
peaceful invaders of the Delta. The process may have
been hastened during the Hyksos supremacy. In any
case, from the beginning of the second millennium R . C .
the trade of Egypt appears to have been in Phcenician
hands. In the fifteenth century, according to the
Amarna Letters they had fleets of merchant ships, and
a fresco in a Theban tomb depicts them as importers
of goods from Asia (Budge, HE 4 163)
( e ) The ancient trade of W. Asia, however, was not
confined within that region. W. Asia lies between the
l,. Foreign Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean ;
trade: with both of which, the one by its regular winds
the other by its islands, offer easy access
India. to sources of wealth beyond them. In
the later Phcenician and the Greek epochs of trade both
seas were regularly navigated, and the far East united
with the far West ($5 63, 7 1 ) .
1 Sidon, usually understood as ' Fishertown ' (%ut see PH(E-
NICIA I 12) ' Tyre = rock ; Beyrout = springs etc. Contrast
the Philistin; Ashkelon and the Canaanite K h h - s e p h e r , the
former of which certainly, and the latter possibly, has a com-
mercial origin.
2 The chief Phcenician aods do not differ from those of other
Canaanites.
3 Cp the commercial superiority of Syrians at the present day
t o Egyptians.
4 Cp inscription of Pepy of the sixth dynasty.
5154
 TRADE A N D COMMERCE
Whether in the period we are now treating there was
already a trade with India is a question to which we can
get only probabilities in answer. It was quite possible.
ThePeripZus of the Erythraean S e a l (1st Christian cent.) lays
down the line of a coasting voyage along the S. of Arabia, across
the mouth of the Persian Gulf, and so (in the direction o pogite to
that taken by Nearchus, the admiral of Alexander) to txe Indus,
and thence down the Malabar coast. It adds (( 39), however,
that a speedier, though more dangerous, voyage may be made by
those who set out to sea from Arabia with the Monsoons 0.d
T ~ V'IVBLLGYsc. ;q&w). These winds blow across the Indian
Ocean from the SW. from April to October, from the N E . from
October to April, and make the voyage possible for vessels even
of a primitive type.
By the seventh century B. c., if not long before, there
was in India a developed and organised trade; great
ships were already built, and long sea-voyages under-
taken. From the very earliest times merchants had
been held in high repute (Lassen, Znd. A Iterthumskunde,
2573576779). The island of Sokotra has a Sanscrit
name ( t b . 580). The Babylonian Nimrod epic reflects
a journey through Arabia to Sabaea ; and Sokotra has
been suggested as the island which was its goal (Hommel,
Hastings' D B 1216a). On the reliefs of Deir-el-Bahri,
Punt is pictured as a place of barter where several
nationalities meet and deal with the Egyptians in differ-
ent sorts of goods. It is, therefore, more than possible
that Indian traders met those of W. Asia at the mouth
of the Red Sea and the ports of S . Arabia during our
period. Weber indeed (Arad. nor ZsZmn, 22 ; cp 23)
calls the Minaeans the intermediaries of the Indian as well
as of the S. Arabian trade, and dates the origin of this
trade before 1 3 0 0 B.C. (more than a millennium before
the later Ptolemies). But see 5 14. It is remarkable that
no Indian faces or goods are found pictured on the reliefs
of Deir-el-Bahri (Naville,op. cit. I Z ~ ?and the correspond-
ing plates), nor have any Indian products been discovered
in Egyptian remains. As for Babylonia, the earliest
Sumerian deposits (BABYLONIA, 5 18) contain both ivory
ornaments and bronze. The ivory may have been
taken from elephants which were extant on the Euphrates
till towards the close of our e n a But for the tin, needed
to make the bronze, no source is known at that time
sxve India,3 and some have derived the Phenician name
for the metal from the S a n ~ c r i t . ~This, however, is a
precarious ground on which to found a conclusion with
regard to so early an epoch ; for reasons for the opposite
view-that there was no sea-trade between W. Asia and
India till the seventh century B.C.-see INDIA and
O PHIR . 5 2 ; cp also Sprenger, AZt. Geog. Arab., $5 51-
60, 139. We must not forget the possibility of land-
trade between Babylonia and India through Elam and
Persia5
As for the trade of W. Asia with Europe in this era,
that is much less problematical. Cyprus, which lies in
18. with sight of the Syrian coast (HG, pp. zz 1 3 5 ) ,
Europe. y reached by some of the earliest Baby-
nian monarchs ; and in the course of the
second millennium B. c. was in frequent communication
both with Egypt and with Syria (Budge, HE 4 167J ) ;
and Cyprus can hardly ever have been out of touch
with the islands to the W . Evidence of an extremely
early knowledge of Europe in Egypt is given in WMM,
As. u. Eur. ch. 28.6
1 TIepirrAovo $9 'EpvBpSs BaAdvqo. Anonymous, but attri-
buted to an author named ' A p p ~ a v 6 ~Gcogr.
. Grr~ciMinoyes by
C . Miiller, ed. Paris, 1882,vol. i. 257fl, cp p. xcv.
2' Thotmes 111. killed elephants on the Euphrates: Naville,
o j . cit. 17 ; Budge, HE44048.
3 The islands of the Persian Gulf were visited by Babylonians
at a very early period ; and thence the coasting (?) voyage to
India was not difficult.
4 GStz Dit Verkehrswege im Dienste des WeZthandeZs, 1 0 3
A? This' is not certain : CD 0. Schrader. Handelweschichte.
NipPur, 2 133J) some evidence of trac
was found in remains of the fourteenth century B.C. ; cp Budge,
HE41683 177.
5'55
TRADE AND COMMERCE
(f)For the natural lines of traffic and trade-routes,
see below, Part 11. of this article ($5 28-40).
(9) The various means of carriage in the ancient
world having been for the most part dealt with else-
19. lYIeans where, the treatment here may be brief.
Porternge, the employment of human
Of carriage' beings for the camage of burdens both
D 0
~ ~~~ ~ ~
for building purposes and for trade (as we find it still in
Central Africa), was common in early Egypt according
to the monuments. It was not altogether confined to
local traffic. Under one of the Amenemha'ts (middle
of 28th cent. according to F1. Petrie : but 2100 accord-
ing to W. M. Muller) zoo men with only 50 animals
were employed for carrying stone through the desert.'
From the earliest times, however, the ass and the bullock
were in common use, and (especially the ass) consti-
tuted the principal means of conveyance. The ass was
employed for distant desert journeyings ; cp the &ni-
Hasan pictures (under the 12th dyn.). The camel was
apparently unbred and unused even to a late date in
Egypt, but must have appeared early in Arabia. The
horse and the mule came much later ; the horse not till
the time of the Hyksos and then, for long, only for
fighting and hunting; the mule from Pontus not till
towards 1000 B.C. (see Ass. C AMEL , H ORSE, MULE,
C ATTLE , 5 8 ; B ABYLONIA , 5 5 ; E GYPT , 5 9). The
carrying power of these animals was increased by the
invention of pack-saddles, open litters (already during
the 4th dyn.), sleighs or draw-boards, and carts-first
with solid, and then with spoked, wheels. A luxurious
chariot with horses appears in the Izdubar legend
(Tab. 6) about zoo0 B.C. Still less, however, than at
the present day, were the wheeled vehicles suited for
distant carriage, which was mainly performed on the
backs of animals (C HARIOT , 5 2). There were practi-
cally no international roads for carriages till the Persian
Empire. Carriage by water arose first in timber
rafts or constructions of reed coated with bitumen,
on rivers, especially the Euphrates (B ABYLON , 5 6 ;
early legends). From these developed rowing and
sailing boats, with which ventures were made through
river-mouths into the sea ; and so arose coasting voyages
in the Persian Gulf, the Levant, and the Red Sea (S H IP ).
By the time of Thutmosis I. (about 1560 B.c.) and
Queen Ha'tSepsut (E GYPT , 5 53) the Egyptians had
developed elaborate ships with oars, rigging, and sails
for the Punt voyages (cp SHIP). The ships of this (18th)
dynasty were not mere fighting galleys ; they were trans-
ports carrying considerable cargoes (Naville, Tem$Ze of
Deir e l Bahari, 3, with plates).
( h ) Early trade consisted of barter, in which various
communities or states of culture exchanged the neces-
ao. Barter saries or embellishments of life. a When
a superior civilisation met an inferior it
value. paid for solid goods, as at the present day,
with gaudy trinkets and ornaments, as for instance
the Egyptians in their commerce with the negro and
other tribes whom they met in Punt (Naville, op. cit. ).
Gradually, however, there arose common measures of
value: e.g., cattle, slaves, or metals, especially the
precious metal^.^ As among other early races orna-
1 For porterage in Babylonia, cp a letter of Hammurabi,
Bcitr. e. Assyriologie, 4 474.
2 In the East barter has always survived alongside well-
developed systems of money and finance. Cp under Cambyses
Beitr. e. ~ s g v r4. 429.5 9. Palgrave (Central an? E . A&
ed. 1883, p. 368) found barter more common throughout
Arabia .. . among the villagers, and even the poorer towns-
men, than purchase.'
8 For an account of curious methods of barter in this region
in Greek times, cp Cosmas Indic., Christ. T o j u p . , Bk. II., E T
by M'Crindle, 5 2
4 In the 4th mill. silver was used as currency in Babylonia.
Cp above, 5 8, on Maniz-tu-irba. In the time of Hammurahi
hoth barter and money were extant : cp his letters-above, $ 8,
fifth note. For electron in Egypt and silver see EGYPT, 38,
and n. 2, col. 1229.
6 Babelon Les Origines de In Monnaic; W. W. Carlile,
The EvoI. o)Modevn Money, Pt. 11. especially chap. 2.
5'56
 TRADE AND COMMERCE
ments and the material for ornament displaced the useful
metals and other commodities as the favourite media
of exchange and standards of value. In aid of this,
there was not only the common and universal passion
for ornament, but also its convenience for honrding,'
the family's wealth being most easily 'saved' in the
form of its women's ornaments, even after money
proper came into existence; and in W . Asia the
process would be further hastened by the prevailing
custom of purchasing a wife, for an instance of which
in Israel, cp Gen. 24, and see below, 43. These
primitive ' moneys,' however, were not always actually
given in exchange for goods; but the value of the
goods exchanged was reckoned in terms of them. For
this usage in the case of copper wire2 see Erman
( 4 9 4 8 ) , and later of silver and gold, EGYPT: $j 38.
Stamped weights of the precious metals were in early
use in Babylonia; but money proper appears in w.
Asia first in the Persian period. For further details
see MONEY, and the articles and books quoted there.
(i) The most interesting of all the questions arising
in connection with ithe commerce of W. Asia during I
21. Trade and this early period is that of its relations
religion. to religion. So far as is known to the
present writer there exists no adeauate
ti-eatment of thi;, nor even a full appreciation df its
significance. The hint has already been given (@ 12,16)
that trade appears to have exercised no influence on the
human mind during the formative period of the different
religions. In Egypt and Babylonia, or among the
Syrian and other Semites, there were gods who reflected
or sympathised with every other human activity. The
memory of the various peoples went back to divine
or semi-divine king!<, lawgivers, physicians, teachers,
hunters, and fishers ( P H ~ N I C §I A , artisans (cp the
IZ),
Egyptian Ptah and the attribution of the invention
of pottery and metal-working to various gods), and
musicians. But, except for certain isolated and ap-
parently late instances, to be noted presently (5 z z ) , there
seems to have been no god or hero who was a trader.
This cannot have been due to dislike of trading habits,
such as prevailed in Egyptian society (0 13); for the
want was not confined to Egypt ; nor was it due to any
of the moral objections to trade, which are so common
in modern times. There is only one explanation : in
the formative period of the religions of W. Asia,
commerce was not yet specialised as a separate vocation3
(§ 12). Perhaps thme most striking proof of its want of
religious influence a t an early period is found among
the Phcenicians. Their most ancient deities were practi-
cally identical with those of the general
22. In
Canaanite stock (Pietschmann, Gcsch. der
Phcenicia9 Phon. 190). When at last the Phcenicians
Egypt* took to the sea they invoked for their new
occupation the blessing of their accustomed deities, and
principally of the various local forms of 'Astart. The
other divine beings, who appear connected with
Phoenician ships, and in later times were credited with
the discovery of navigation, the Kabiri, were of
secondary rank in the Phcenician pantheon, and had
been originally connected with the mining and working
of metals ( I b . 188, 1.90 ; but see PHCENICIA, § 11, col.
3774, with footnote). The legends which attribute
distant travels to the Tyrian Herakles and divers gods
are of late origin (Pietsch. 191). The only other
possible instance of a trading Canaanite deity is that
concealed under the ambiguous name '13013 (P HCENICIA .
s 12, I SSACHAR . $8 3, 6). Similarly in Egypt the
expeditions to Punt under the eighteenth dynasty were
commended to the patronage of Anion of Thebes, who
1 Carlile o#. cit.
2 As in 'Calahar and other parts of Africa, probably for
ornament. Carlile op. c i f . 240.
8 For 2n illustration of the very opposite take Buddhism,
which was a merchant religion par excellence ; there are few
parables 91 birth-storks in which a Buddhist merchant does
not figure ; J R A S , 1902, p. 387.
5157
TRADE AND COMMERCE
gave the conquest and tribute ( ; . e . , as we have seen,
§ 8 n. 3,the trade) of that distant land to his own people,
and was thanked by them for help in the exploration
and opening up of roads (Naville, Dei? el Bahari, pt.
iii. 14, 193). We may assume that other nations of
W. Asia when they took to trade also dedicated it each
to their own tribal deity. But once this was done, the
reaction upon their conceptions of their deity must have
been one of the most Eonsiderable
23. Reaction forces in the transformation of the
of trade
on religion. primitive religions. The deity, origin-
ally local and identified with purely
local phenomena (PHCENICIA, 11), must, when carrieh
abroad by his people, have expanded in their belief to an
identification with the principal cosmic forces, especially
those of the sea and the heavens. It may, therefore,
be to trade that the religions of W. Asia partly owe the
association of their gods with the stars-always the
guides of travellers-as well as their identification with
the natural forces, or even with the gods, of distant
lands.' But besides thus enhancing the power of native
deities, the foreign trade of their worshippers brought
back the cults of other gods. This is very evident in
Egypt. X number of instances are given by Erman.
Usertesen 111. (Dyn. xii.) dedicated a temple on the
S. frontier to the Nubian god, and only in the second
place to Hnum the Egyptian ( 5 0 0 ) ; Besa, honoured
by the New Empire ' as a protecting genius,' probably
owed ' his introduction to Egypt to this (incense) trade '
(514); and consequent upon the great increase of Asiatic
commerce under the eighteenth and the nineteenth
dynasty a number of Syrian divinities were admitted to
the Egyptian pantheon (517). Similarly there was an
export of the gods of W. Asia to Europe by Cyprus :
' merchants of Citium brought the cult of their goddess
with them to Athens' (P HCENICIA , 11), and the general
influence of Phoenician traders on the religion and
mythology of Greece is notorious. Again, gatherings
24. sanctuaries to religious centres, great or small,
have always been convenient for trade
and markets. -as u-e see even in medizeval and
modern times. Stated and famous markets grew about
the sanctuaries of W. Asia and festivals became fairs.
Where trade, as in N. Syria and Arabia, had to pass
through many tribal territories, treaties were necessary
and were accompanied by religious rites at border (or
other) sanctuaries, at which it would be natural to ex-
change goods. In our period and that which followed
it, Babylon, Carchemish, Bethel, Sinai (perhaps), Mecca,
and various Egyptian towns are instances. Exchanges
were effected under religious direction; it was the
interest of the guardians of the sanctuaries to prescribe
forms, and fees to the temple were ~ h a r g e d . ~The
supervision hy priests of Babylonian commerce is evident
from a multitude of contract tablets ; and the rise of
priestly families and castes to kingly power, both in
Babylonia and in Egypt, was made possible by the
wealth which accrued to them from their direction of
commerce.
Before we proceed to Israelite commerce one other
study is necessary. W e have seen that during the
New Empire and especially under the
25.
eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties there
was a great increase of trade between Syria and Egypt,
in which Syrian products and manufactures played a
very important part (above, § 8). We are now to
examine the details of this, happening as it did on the
eve of Israel's settlement in Palestine. The first evidence
1 For an identification of Hathor with the deity of the anti
3r incense of Punt, see Naville, ob. cif. 20.
2 For another cp ISSACHAK, $ 2 ; Dt. 33 18
3 WRS, ReL keem. 441.
4 Delitzsch in a note to No. 28 of Nagel's translation of
Hammurabi's letters to Sin-idinnam (Bcitr. z. ASS^. 4458 493)
iflustrates the Babylonian custom of making valuations 'before
God'-;.e., in presence of the priests-and compares Ex. 216
2 2 ~ 1 ~ 1 ~
5158
 TRADE AND COMMERCE
is found in the records of Thutmosis 111. (1503-144g).~oils, wine, woollen cloths, and embroideries. The
Coats of mail do not appear in his reign till he takes
zoo from the Canaanites at the sack of Megiddo. The
Syrian chariots are the finer, and generally Syrian
artisans appear more skilful and artistic than those of
Egypt. Large numbers of them are transported to
Egypt. In the same reign there are records of importa-
tions of grain into Egypt ; these cannot all have been
tribute (above, § 8 n. 3); also of oil, wine, honey,
dates, incense, timber for masts and beams, and cattle.
It is in the period after Thutmosis III., however, that
we obtain our fullest evidence of the commercial condi-
tion of Syria before Israel entered it. The
26*
Amarna Letters (1400 onwards) reveal,
if by no mnre than the cuneiform script
in which they are written, the already prolonged and
close commercial intercourse between Babylonia and
Egypt across Syria. Their contents are still more sig-
nificant.z The kings of Babylonia and Egypt propose
a n exchange of the products of their lands. Gold is
sent from Egypt to Babylonia, ' painted wood,' golden
and wooden images, and oil. From Babylonia to Egypt
come manufactured gold, precious stones, lapis lazuli,
enamel, skins, wooden chariots, horses, and slaves.
Some of these, of course, pass as presents between the
kings : but that they are also articles of commerce is
proved by the complaint of one of the Babylonian kings
that his merchants (dam-gam, danz-karu or famkarza : Indian Ocean to the Levant. The many routes created
c p Del. Ass. H WB, Aram. taggzr, whence Arab. tdsir, along and across these natural lines we shall take in
trrggdir) had been plundered in the territories of the
Pharaoh. Letters from AlaSia, either Cyprus (Winckler)
o r the extreme N. of the Syrian coast (Petrie, WMM),
tell of the exportation from that country of copper,
bronze, ivory, ship-furniture, and horses to Egypt, and
the receipt of silver, oil, a n d oxen. Merchants go from
AlaHia to Egypt by ship ; a writer begs the king of Egypt
not to allow them to be injured by his tax-gatherers (no.
29). The king of Ala& complains of the Lnkki, a pirate
people who disturb the Mediterranean, and invade his
land (28). A prince of N. Syria sends slaves and begs
for gold (36). The letters from Egyptian tributaries
and officials in Palestine, during its invasion by the
Hatti and Habiri, ask for wheat from Egypt for be-
sieged towns and districts that have not been able to
grow their own corn (cp the story of Jacob and Joseph);
or report the sending of timber, oil (cp Hos. 122 [ I ]),
honey, cattle, and slaves. One letter (122)asks for
myrrh as a medicine. Another (124),but obscurely,
speaks of purple (?). Abd-hiba of Jerusalem complains
that he cannot prevent the plundering of the King of
Egypt's caravans in Ajalon (180). Horses and asses
are supplied to travellers (SI), and provisions to the
royal caravans (242)and troops (264,270). One letter
reports payment of ' 300 pieces of silver to the Habiri,
besides the 1000 into the hand of the king's officer'
(280). We read of no passage of glass either way,
though glass had been known in Egypt from 3300 B. C.
and was also made in Phcenicia from an early date. It
was immediately after the period of the Tell-el-Amarna
Letters-ie., in the fourteenth century B.C. -that
KadaSman-Harbe (B ABYLONIA , § 57) of Babylon, being
shut off from Harran and the upper Euphrates by
Assyria, opened a direct route across the desert to
Phcenicia (Wi. Politische En&m'ckeZ. Ba6. u. Assyr.
15).
Egyptian records confirm the frequent importation of
27. Other slaves from Syria into Egypt, where the
Egyptian girls were prized in the harems, and, in
records. addition to articles mentioned in the Amarna
Letters, indicate that Syrian pottery and
metal work were prized ; also ointments for embalming,
1 WMM As. u. Eu7.24; Flinders Petrie, H E 2 1 4 6 s
2 The foilowing facts are taken from the German translation
'(with transliteration of the original into Roman characters) by
Hugo U'inckler, Die Thonfafeln Don Tell PI-Amama Berlin,
1896: for some corrections see Knudtzon in Beif7. eur
Assyriolopk, iv. 2 3.
5159
TRADE AND COMMERCE
characteristics of Syrian clothing as depicted on the
monuments were embroidery, tassels, and fringes. There
is an extremely interesting account of an expedition
sent about I IOO B. c. by Her-heru of dynasty twenty-one
to Lebanon for cedar in one of the Golenischeff Papyri
(Recueil de Tmv. 21 7 4 8 ; cp WMM, As. u. Eur. 395 ;
Budge, f l f i 6 1 3 8 ) .
11. T RADE ROUTES I N w.' ASIA
W e may now indicate the physical facilities for com-
merce in W. Asia, and trace the main lines of trade and
cross routes by land and sea. On the
28. Lines of
trade : Egypt. map the eye at once marks the follow-
ing natural directions of traffic : two
long and navigable rivers, the Nile and the Euphrates ;
two long narrow seas with more or less harboured
coasts, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf; whilst froin
the most westerly point touched by the Euphrates, a
fertile and well-populated country, passable on several
lines through Syria, stretches to the Nile Delta, with
one break of desert about six or seven days' march
from Gaza to Pelusium. Inside all these lie the great
Arabian deserts, isolating the fertile Arabia Felix from
W. Asia ; but even across these deserts, lines of oases
and valleys, in which, though there is no cultivation, water
is procurable, render passage possible by land from the
order as they lie from the south northward, and we shall
include the directions of traffic with India.
Egypt's inland trade, and her traffic with Nubia. the
SudBn, and farther south, went up the Nile by YCbu
(Elephantine, ' ivory island ') and Suenet (Syene,
AswHn: 'commerce,' Erman, Op. cit. 498J), at
which exchanges were made with the barbarians. ' It
is difficult,' says Erman (479), ' to find a word in the
language which nieans to tmvel; the terms used were
&nt=to go up stream, and &&=to go down stream.'
The river flow northwards ; but, as if in compensation.
the prevailing winds are in the opposite direction.
From Memphis by the Fayoum, or from the present
Assiont and other Nile- ports, caravans reached the
western oases ( h o t s from Eg. uab=station).
So far as concerned the trade with Punt, the Nile
and the Red Sea, running nearly parallel for some
29. Nile and thousands of miles, and at one point only
90 m. apart, wonderfully supplemented
Red sea. each other's defects. As on the Nile,
the prevailing winds in the Red Sea are from the north :
in the upper half the N. wind seldom flags, and the
Gulf of Suez is often stormy. The Egyptians, therefore,
divided their route from the Delta to Punt and back
again between the river and the sea. Their trafic
southward was borne on the Nile' as far as Koptos,2
and then struck E. over the desert about 90 m. to
Sauu. at the mouth of the W. a little to the
N. both of the later Greek harbour Leukos Limen,4
and the modern el-KosEr (Erman, 586).
1 Naville (o$. c i f . 16) points out that the pictures of Ha't-
Zepsut's Punt expedition on Deir-el-Babri, which show the
Punt goods arriving at Thebes by ship, suggest that there was
'an arm of the Nile in communication with the Red Sea,' at
that time ; and that the same ships carried cargo all the way.
But the picture may only intend the short passage from Koptos
to Thehes.
a To-day not Kaft (Koptog) hut the neighhouring Keneh is
the starting-plac; for el-Ko$r.
J The way is almost waterless (cp above, 9), but the
present writer knows it for only a day E. from Keneh. This
road was supplied with reservoirs by many Pharaohs (above,
$35 Q 19 n.). It was much used for trade in the reign of Xerxes
(Budge, H E 7 75) and in Roman times. It is of interest that in
1801 Major General Baird and his army took 16 days from
el-Kodr to Keneh (Anderson, Journ. of Secr. Exjed. to
Medif. and Ei., London, 1802, p . 357).
.I Also called Myos Hormos by the Pe~&+lus, r , and b Straho
(xvi. 424 xvii. 1 4 9 , apparently through confusion wit1 Myos
Hormos on the Gulf of Suez. Cp Agatharchides, De Mu+
E7yth7, in Geogr. Gr. Min. 1 1 6 7 8 wlth Tab. VI. in Atlas.
5160
 MAP OF TRADE-ROUTES OF HITHER ASIA
INDEX TO NAMES

Aden, C4 (T RADE , 5) Hii'il, C3 (T RADE , 5 50) Memphis, B3 (E GYPT , 5 47 ; T RADE , 8 IO) Rhagae, D2
Adulis, B4 ( T RADE , 5 29) Haleb, Bz Mew, Ea (T RADE , 5 58) er-RiiId, C3
'Alpha, B3 ( E LATH ) HamadHn, Cz (T RADE , 5 58) Meshed, Dz
Alexandria, Bz (E CYPT , 5 72) Hamath, Bz (T RADE , 5 39) Moscha, Dp (T RADE , 30) Sabbatha, C4
'Aneyzah, C3 (T RADE , 5 31) Hebron, Bz Miiltan, Fz Samarkand, Ez (T RADE , 3 58)
.4ntioch, Bz (T RADE , 5 80) Hecatornpylos, Dz (T RADE , 5 58) Mu+vwa', B4 (T RADE , 5 8) Samosata, Bz (C APPADOCIA ; T RADE , 5 69)
Astarabad, Dz Hediyah, B3 Muskat, D3 (T RADE , 5 5 ) Sank. C4 (HADORAM)
Herat, Ez (T RADE , 5 5 8 ) Muza, C4 (T RADE , 5 z g ) Seleucia, Cz
Babylon, Cz Hermuz, D3 Myos Hormos (A LEXANDRIA , 5 I ; T RADE , Sokotra, D4
BaghdHd, Cz ( B ABEL , 5 7) el-Hijr (T RADE , 5 31) $29) es-Soleyil, C4
Balkh, Ez HofhQf, C3 Suppara, F3
Baroch, F3 Susa, Cz (CURUS, 5 I ; T RADE , 5 58)
Nag=, C4
el-Basra, Cz (B ABYLONIA , 5 14) Syagros Prom., D4 (T RADE , 5 30)
Berenike. B3 (T RADE , 5 29)
Ispahan, Dz (T RADE , 5 58) R. Nerbudda, F3
Nineveh, Cz
Boys: Bz ( B A S H A N5, 3) Nishapur, Dz e!-TH'if, C3 ( N AZIRITE , 5 z )
Jiddah, B3 (T RADE , 5 ag)
BukhHra, Ez Nisibis, Cz (D ISPERSION , 6 ; T RADE, 5 40) Tanna, F4
Jerusalem, Bz
Tarsus, Bz
Calicut, F4 el-Jbf, Bz (I SHMAEL)
Okelis, C4 (T RADE , 5 ag) Tebriz, Cz
Charax, Cz ( T RADE , §S 63, 69) Teirna, B3 (MIDIAN; T RADE , 5 31)
G. of 'Oman, D3
Kabtil, Ea
Ormuz, D3 Thebes, B3 (E GYPT , $9 56f:)
Damascus, Bz
Kaf, Bz Thomna, C4
Fofar, D4 ( T R A D E , 5 5) Kane. C4 Tiflis, C I
Katif, C3 Palmyra, Bz 5
(ARAMAIC LANGUAGE, 2 ; Tiphs&, B~ pRADE, 5 39)
Edessa, Bz (A RAMAIC , 5 11)
Kheybar, B3 T RADE ) Trapezus, Br
Math, B3
Erzeroum, Cz
Koptos, B3 (E GYPT , 5 1 4 : T RADE , 5 29) Peshawar, Fa . Trebizond BI (T RADE , 5 6g)
el-KoZeir, B3 (T RADE , 8 8, 2 9 ) Petra, Bz (T RADE , $? 14) Tyre, Bz (T RADE , 5 70)
Phasis, C I
Garad, C3
MdHn, Bz (T RADE , 5 14) Ptolemais Theron, B4
Gaza, Bz (T RADE , 5 70) Yenbd, B3
Gerra, D3 (T RADE , 5 31) Mariaba, C4
Mecca, B3 (G AZELLE ) Rabbah, Bz (MOAB, 5 9) Zeugma (S YRIA , 56 T RADE , 5 69)
Hadrarn6t, c 4 , D4 (HAZARI\IAVETH) el-Medina, B3 ( T R A D E , 5 31) Regma, D3 Zofar, D4
 TRADE A N D COMMERCE
Other harbours on the S. coast of the Red Sea were Rlyos
Hormos a t the mouth of the Gulf of Suez about IZO m. from the
Nile,l probably used in the early perioh for sea traffic, more
frequent than the land traffic, with Sinai ; the Ptolemaic Bere-
nike due E. from Syene hut usually reached by caravan from
Koptos-twelve days' journey according to Pliny (HN, 6 26);
Ptolemais (47;" OqpSv ~ a h o u p i v q: Prripl. B 3) near the modem
itlassowah ; Adulis2 (id. § 4), etc. ; with Muza and Okelis on
the Arabian coast j J s t inside the Straits of LXib-el-Mandeh
,(id.$5 2 1 8 2 5 ~ 9 .
If we reckon by the voyages of A r a b d h o w ~ it, ~would
take the Egyptian ships about a month to sail from
el-I$ost.r to the Straits of BBb-el-Mandeb. Pliny (Z.C.)
gives thirty days from Rerenike to Okelis, but Hero-
dotus (211)only forty for the voyage down the whole
Red S e a J
In the Indian Ocean the routes down the E. coast of
Africa and up the Arabian coast were known and
30. I n d i ~mapped in Greek times. For the African
coast see the Atlas to Geozr. Gr. Min. xii.
Ocean. The Arabian coast route i s described
in the PeripZus. From Okelis to Arabia Felix (Aden),
to Moscha (Zofzir) and the Syagros promontory
(RHs Fertak) would take at least a month, with probably
twenty days more to the mouth of the Persian Gulf.
Thus the whole voyage from 'Akabah or Suez to the
mouth of the Persian Gulf cannot have occupied less
than three months. Thence to the mouth of the Indus
and down the Malabar coast the ports and distances
are described in the Periplus. For the voyage direct
from Okelis, ' a d primum emporium Indize, Muzirim,'
Pliny ( H N 6 2 6 )gives forty days, and adds that a ship
leaving Berenike about the end of July reached Muziris
about the middle of October, and leaving again in the
end of December or January returned to Egypt within
the year. The coasting voyage from Babylonia down
the Persian Gulf, and so to the Indus, may be followed
in the PenPZus (@ 35fl), or in Arrian's Hist. Indica
(IS 2 0 f l ) . G
Coming now to Arabia, we find in the Minaean
31. arabia. inscriptions hints, and in the Greek
geographers data, of the long trade
routes, which traversed the peninsula
Sprenger (Alte G e q w Arab. chap. 2) describes nine of these
routes, with Ptolemy's map of A k h i a ; and Wiistenfeld (Die won
Mpdina ausZaux HaqWstrassen, and Die Strasse won B a y a
rrach Me&ka; Giitt. 1862 and 1867 with maps) has laid down
the routes in the I
S.half of Arahia from the data of the Arabian
geographers.
The principal roads were those by which frankincense
was brought to Syria and Mesopotamia from the
Sabzean country. . able in the early Mohammedan period, and the same
Pliny ( H N 1 2 33 Cd. Delph.) gives the distance from Thomna
to Gaza as sixty-five daily marches for camels.? T h e route
held to Mecca, from remote antiquity a great centre of trade.
There it divided. One hranch turned N E . through Nejd (a
present pilgrim-route) and again divided, one arm E. through
el-Hasa to the ancient Gerra, or other port on the Bahrein Gulf,s
the other NE. towards Basrah. The main branch from Mecca
continued N. to Medinah (whence a tolerably watered road
1 At Keneh. For the route, past granite and p r p h y
quarries with Greek and Roman remains. see Baedekcr's 8 g . x
348. Myos Hormos. now Abu Sar el-Kibli, lay in the lat. of
Manfaluc, and from there or Assid: was ahout 1 5 0 m. distant.
2 Or A d d 6 (near .4nnesley Bay) the port for Axum, I Z O m.
distant ; in the Gk. period the market for trade with Central
Africa. 'much freoumted hv traders from Alexandria and the
Elanit& gulf '-Cosnias Indicopleustes, Christ. T u p u p . (6th
cent.), Bk. 11. E T by M'Crindle, 54.
3 Cp Burton Pi/grinare to Al-Med. andMecca chap. 11.
4 This appeirs also to have been the datum of 'kmosthenes
the Ptolemaic admiral, in Pliny, HiV633 ed. Delph., wher;
for guatridui read gxadraginfa dierum.
5 Muziris, on the Malabar coact, either Calicut, or more
probably, Manxalore ; see the Periplus and Ptolemy. For
voyages to different ports in India, cp Sprenger, A&. Geu,.
Arab. 9 8 8
6 Geogr. G r . Min., ed. Miiller, Paris, 1882, vol. i., 2 8 4 8
3 3 2 s with Tahh. XI. and XII1.-XV.
7 Palgrave (144) gives his day's march ac twelve to fourteen
hours, a t about 5 m. a n hour, ' t h e ordinary pace of a riding
camel.' This seems even for such rather much, and freight
camels certainly go more slowly.
8 Palgrave (369) gives the time for the Persian pilgrims from
Ahu-Shahr (Bushire) across the gulf and through Nejd to
Mecca as two months.
5161
TRADE A N D COMMERCE
strikes N E . by 'Aneyzal and the Lower Kaseem to Basra on
the Euphrates) and Hijr (Egra),m where it divided into one N&.
by el-Teirna (Thairna), round the northern Neffid and along the
WLdy Sirhan to Bogra for Damascus3 (or to 'radmor), a i d
another NNW. to Ma%, Petra, and Gaw; with a branch
doubtless to Elah on the Gulf of 'Akabah. A Minaean inscrip-
tion (Glaser, 1155; Halevy. 535) mentions a caravan route
from Ma'an to Ragmat, probably the O T R AA M A H (p.~.), either
'1'~ypa on the Persian Gulf or the seat of the ' Y a p p a v ~ r o i
of Strabo (xvi. 4 24) near Yariaba in Sabaea. From Gerra
(Ger'a), on the Persian Gulf, one route swung round by 'Oman
to the incense country on the S. coast ; another crossed proh-
ably by el-HaSa Nejd, and Lower Kaseem to Kheybar and
'leyma for Syrii (or from Kaseem crossed more directly hy
Hl'il and el-JBf to Ma%; Palgrave [p. 21 gives the distance
from the JBf to Ma'ln a t zoo m. as the crow flies). Forder (145)
gives the present population of the JGf a t 40,000 (!). The towii is
a
z m. long, m. wide; three rainfalls annually; water-supply
good from deep springs ; warm sulphur springs ; clothing,
cooking-utensils, coffee, etc., hy caravan from Mecca, Baghdad,
and Damascus. Another route across N. Arahia, probably
used by Babylonian expeditions to Musri and Sinai, led from
the Euphrates to the JBf and so by Ma'& to 'Akabah ; hut the
longer route given ahove-B~n-'Aneyza-Teyma-'Akabah-
was easier and less dangerous. On the S., easy routes connected
the interior of the Min;ean territory with the ports on the Ked
Sea and the Indian Ocean. So much for Arabia.
W e have now to trace the routes from Egypt across
Syria towards Damascus-for the
32. Egypt Of these there are in
through Syria. the Euphrates:
main four.
I. E. of Jordan.-The first, from the E. westward,
left the Delta by Suez for Nakhl, on the plateau pf TIh,
and thence reached Elath at the head of the Gulf of
'Akabah,4 where it joined the routes S. and E. through
Arabia. From 'Akabah it turned up the W . el-Ithni to
the E. of Edom (Israel's track) and struck Ma'an (where
it crossed the route Mecca to Petra). From Ma'Xn it
is ten journeys to Damascus (Doughty, Ar. Des. 148) ;
the present Hajj route keeps to the E. of Moab, to
avoid the deep cafions (for routes through Moab, see
MOAB,5 8 ) to Kal'at ez-Zerk&,on the upper waters of
the ZerkH, the biblical Jabbok. Thence it holds due
N. to Rimtheh and el-Muzerib, thence upon the west of
the Lej& to Damascus. An older branch struck from
the Zerk2 NE. to Bosra (to which other routes came
up from Arabia), Kanatha, and so by the E. of the
Leja to Damascus.
2. Up the 'ArZBah.-The second route, frcm Elath to
Damascus, followed the great trench of the 'ArBbah by
the foot of Mt. Seir to the Dead Sea, and then up its
west coast and the Jordan valley. This has great disad-
vantages in heat and want of water ; but the traffic
along it (at least as far as the Dead Sea) was consider-
stretch of it may have been used by Jewish trade with
Blath in the days of the kings.
3. By Hebron.-A third line of road from Egypt
through Syria-perhaps that called the way of SHL~R
(4.z.. Gen. 167)-started from the middle of the
Isthmus, struck E. through the desert till it crossed
Jebel MaghHrah,5 turned N. round J. Held, crossed
W. el-'Arish (from which onwards there are not a few
wells and waterpits), passed el-Birein, Ruhaibeh, and
K h a l q a to Beersheba and Hebron (P ALESTINE , 5 20).
4. By maritime pZain.-The fourth route left the
Delta at Pelusium or some station near the present
el-Kantara on the canal, for Rhinokolura (el-'Arish),
Raphia, and Gaza-six to seven marches from the
Delta.6 Thence by Ashdod up the Maritime Plain.
I So Doughty. For the mercantile qualities of the inhahit-
onts, see Palgrave, 117(Oneyza ; v. Oppenheim [2 541, 'Oneze).
2 Or Medain Salih.
3 Palgrave. A description of the route between the Jbf and
BoSra, along the W. SirhPn is given by Forder (WifhArabs zn
Tent and Tmn, chaps. 5-8). I t is apparently sb davs from
h e J6f to Ithera; thence four hours to-Kaf. thence 6 davs to
3rman, thence I to Bosra.
4 Palmer, Desert of d e Exodus; Trumhull, Kadesh Barnea;
:onsult Palmer also for routes from Suez to Sinai.
5 To the N. of Jebel Yeleg : see Drake Holland's Map,
PEFQ 1884 p. 4.
6 NLpoleoh G74prre JOricnt: Campagnes a"&g$fe et de
Syrie, vol. ii.'; Wittmann's Trawls, 128 j ? Archduke Sal-
5162
 TRADE A N D COMMERCE
These four roads from Egypt to Syria were crossed by
others from Arabia to the Levant and S. Palestine.
33. Cross- The direction of these, across the
routes: Tih, desert of Tih and the Negeb, must
have varied according to season and
rainfall. This desert, so important
both in the wanderings and in the trade of Israel, is in
the main a high, hard plateau, the Plateau of Tih,
bearing short, irregular ranges of hills, and is niostly
barren. but its valleys contain alluvial soil. The rainfall
in January and February is considerable, and then there
is much grass. Perennial springs are infrequent ; but
in the longer wHdies water can nearly always be had by
digging. Horses may he taken everywhere, provided
camels accompany them with water-skins for the long
intervals between wells (Wilson, PEFQ, 1887,pp. 3 8 8 ) .
The ruins of vineyards and villages, with forts, in the
N ECEB (4.w.) prove that it was once easy of traverse.
The most inaccessible portion is immediately W. of the
‘Arabah and S. of the Palestine frontier-some 60 m.
N. and S. by 50 E. and W. - steep ridges, the
v m e of the wildest of the Arabs of this region, the
AzZzimeh. This part throws the roads between Pales-
tine and the Red Sea to the W. and E. of itself. These
naturally bend to the best sources of water, of which we
may note the following :--‘Ain el-Weibeh’ in the Arabah,
about 80 m. from Elath. and 30 from the Dead Sea ;
15 m. N., ‘Ain Hasb ; S. of the ‘Azaziineh country,
well-watered wHdies round the famous ‘Ain Kadis
(K ADESH , I ) ; hut this district is so shut off by Jehel
Magrah and other hills that it is not visited by
through roads ; wells a t Hathirah, Birein, el-‘Aujeh, and
elsewhere afford a well-watered line of travel N. and
S . on which most of the routes converge; N. of the
‘AzHzimeh country, ‘fin el-Mureidhah, W . el-Yemen,
and Kurnub. Taking these facts with the evidence of
the ancient geographers and of travellers like Robinson,
Palmer, Clay Trumbull, Holland, and Wilson, we can
determine the following lines of traffic across the desert
of Tih and the Negeh.
I. The chief line of traftic is that which from the
head of the Gulf of ‘Akabah strikes NW. over the
plateau of Tih to the conspicuow mountain ‘ArHif
e ~ N % k a hand, ~ bending N. coincides near Birein with
the trunk road from the middle of the Isthmns of Suez
to Hebron. It leaves the trunk road again near
Ruhaibeh and strikes NW. on Gaza. For camels it
is about eight days’ journey by this route from ‘Akabah
to Gaza. To the E. of the S. half of it, hut coinciding
with its N. half, are several pilgrim routes between
Sinai and Gaza much used in the Middle Ages ;4 it is
ten days from St. Catherine’s Convent to Gaza.5
2. The route from Ma‘Hn and Petra to the Negeb
?ds by Petra and the W. el-Abyad, crosses the
Arabah NW. to ‘Ain el-Weibeh, and thence strikes
up through the hills by several branches, the best
known being that which leaves the ‘Arabah a little to
the N. of ‘Ain el-Weibeh, passes ‘Ain el-Mureidhah
and ‘Ain el-Khuran to the great mountain barrier,
pierced by the Nakb el-Yemen, Nakb es-Sufah (thought
by some to be ZEPHATH or H ORMAH , through which
Israel attempted Palestine from the S., Nu. 1445 213
Dt. 144 Judg. 1 1 7 ) and Nakh es-Sufey.6 Still another
pass to the W. of Nakb el-Yemen is said to carry a road
to Gaza. On the high region to the N. of these passes
the routes reunite, and, passing a little to the E. of Kur-
vator, Die Karawanemtrasse von &. rrach Syr. (Prague,
1879; E T London 1881).
1 Robiison BR h 5 8 0 8
2 V. RaumLr, PaZasiina, 4 8 0 8 ; Clay Trumbull, Kadesh
Barnea, 207 etc.
3 Another branch strike3 from ‘Akabah up the ‘Arabah,
ascends the plateau hy the W. el-Beyineh and joins the main
road near W. el Ghudnghid (Robinson), S. of J. ‘Arnlf en-
Nakah.
‘For a list see Robinson BR 1 $ 6 1 8
Felix Fabri Euagaior&um and other mediaeval travellers.
6 Large Map)to Clay Trumdull’s Kariesh Barnea.
5163
TRADE AND COMMERCE
nub and ‘Ar‘Hrah, the road divides into two, one N. of
Beersheba to Gaza, the other by Kh. el-Milh to Hebron.
By this road from Ma‘Hn to the Negeb pilgrims and
supplies from Gaza and Hebron meet the Hajj at
Ma‘Hn, and it is probable that from Hebron to ‘Aiu
el-Weibeh and thence down the ‘Arabah the same road
carried the trade of the kings of Israel to Elath or
Ezion-geber.
3. Finally, there was a less important line of traffic
from Gaza along the S. frontier of Palestine and round
the S. end of the Dead Sea to Kerak.
For the main and cross routes through Palestine
34. Palestine. itself, see P ALESTINE , § 20, to which
may be added the following :-
I. From Dead Sen.-The great ‘Arabah road and
the salt deposits at the S. end of the Dead Sea were
connected with Jerusalem hy a route through el-Milh and
Hebron, by another which left the Dead Sea at Engedi
and deployed np the W. HuSHsah to Jebel Fureidis
(Herodiuni), or crossed W. Ghuweir and ascending
W. J e r f h struck NW. to Jerusalem. The second of
these is a very bad road. To-day the salt-carners, in
preference to both, follow the Dead Sea coast to a
point N. of Engedi before striking up to Jerusalem.
2. Across W. range.-N. of the Dead Sea the routes
across the W. range were two :$+st, that mentioned in
PALESTINE, § 20, by the Beth-horons, past the great
sanctuary and market at Bethel, down to Jericho ; ‘Ain
ed-Dilk on one branch of this route is probably a
Philistine station (D AGON , Docus) of the days when the
Philistines commanded the traffic on this line (it was
also used by the Crusaders, who did not hold Gaza,
for their traffic with Moah. Edom. and ‘Akaba ; Key,
Les Colonies Franyucs dans Zes XZZ. et XZZZ. Sit?cZes:
ch. 9 ) ; second, the road which, ascending NW. from
Jaffa, crosses the watershed at Shechem in the pass
between Ebal and Gerizim, and descends the wHdies el-
KerEid and FHri‘ah to the ford at ed-DHmieh. That the
trading Philistines also used this route is certified by
the presence to the E. of Shechem of a Beit Dejan-
i.e., Beth-Dagon. So also Vespasian marched (B/
iv. 81).
Carmel was turned by four routes N. from Sharon.
(,I ,) The most westerly follows the coast ; it connected
36. Sharon to the Phoenician settlements S. and N.
of Carmel, and in later times Caesarea
Eadraelon. with Ptolemais. ( 2 ) A road leaves
the K. end of Sharon and strikes N.’by Subbarin and
E. of Carmel to TeIl KeimCin; it is the shortest line
from Egypt to the Phcenician cities. ( 3 ) Another
leaves Sharon at Kh. es-Sumrah, strikes NE. up the
W. ‘Arah to ‘Ah Ibrahini and enters Esdraelon at
Lejjfin (Megiddo), from which roads branch to Naza-
reth, Tiherias, and, by Jezreel, to Beth-shan and the
Jordan. (4)The fourth leaves Sharon by the W. Abu
Nbr, emerges on the plain of Dothan, and enters
Esdraelon at Jenin (En-gannim) ; for the Jordan valley
and the road to Damascus across IJaurHn it is shorter .
than the route by LejjCin (cp Gem 3825). On these
roads and their significance see HG 1 5 0 8
The valleys of S. Galilee, disposed E. and W., carried
some of the most famous roads of Palestine. These
36. s. Galilee. started from Akko ( PTOLEMAIS). ( I )
One struck SE. bv another Beth-
Dagon,3 clinibed to Sepphoris, passed nenr Nazareth,
and descended by the W. esh-Sharr8r to the Jordan a t
the Roman bridge, Jisr el-MujHmi‘, the main Roman
road to the trans- Jordanic provinces. ( 2 ) Another
crossed by the valley N. of Sepphoris and descended
on Tiberias. (3) Another climbed E. probably by
W. Wasriyeh, held along the foot of Upper Galilee to
Ramah, from which one hranch descended to join a
1 The biblical Tamar. See 5 50.
2 So too, perhaps, ran one of the Roman roads between
Hebron and Elath.
3 Dok of the Crusading Chronicles (e.e., L’Estoire de Za
Guerve Sainte, 1897,11. 3987, 4071); now Tell Da’ouk or Dauk.
5’64
 Walker &Cockerell sc.
EECYCLOPAEOIA BlBLlCA 1903.
 TRADE A N D COMMERCE
N. and S. trunk road at Capernaum, whilst a second
proceeded by Safed to the present Bridge of the
Daughters of Jacob across Jordan. These are probably
the roads reflected in the parables of Jesus ( H G 4 2 5 8 ) .
The most northerly is the most natural (or easiest)
route for traffic 'from the sea-coast to Damascus
(PTOLEMAIS, 3).
More difficult roads, however, crossed the highlands
behind Phcenicia :-(I) from Tyre, by Burj el-Alawei
3,. Tyre and through the valley near Abrikha (where
pavement is still found) down to the
sidon. N. of Rubb ThelHthin, across the
HHSbHny to BBniHs ; (2) from Tyre, or (3)from Sidon,
to the elbow of the Litany and so down to the HSbHny
bridge and BBniBs. The importance of these roads is
testified by the lines of crusading castles upon them.
On the E. of Jordan (N. of Moab) the cross-routes
are best illustrated by the Dosition of the cities of
38, E.ofJofdan. DECAPOLIS ( P . v . ) . From the Jordan
opposite Scvthouolis (Bethshani start
three roads :-(I)one'to the S.*by Pella (with a vaAation
a little to the N.) and thence SE. over the hills of
Gilead (by the lost Dion) to Gerasa and Philadelphia
(with branches). ( 2 ) A second climbed to Gadara,
and thence along the ridge to Abila of the Decapolis,
and by Abila to Kanatha or by Edrei to Bosra and
Jebel HaurBn. (3)A third climbed from the E. coast
of the Lake of Galilee by Hippos (Siisiya opposite
Tiberias) and crossed JaulHn and HaurHn by Naw-a
(with variants) to Damascus. T o the N. of these ran
other two : ( 4 ) from the Bridge of the Daughters of
Jacob by el-Kuneitrah, and (5) from BHniLs by Kefr
Hawar-both to Damascus.
The lines of trade through N. Syria from Damascus
and Phcenicia to the Euphrates are determined by the
desert, the long parallel lines of hills,
39. N.
and the Orontes valley. The shortest
route from Damascus to Mesopotamia is NE. by the
Palmyra or T ADMOR oasis ; but its difficulties, due
to the want of water and the wild character of the
nomads, diverted the main volume of traffic through
the settled country to the E. of Jebel AnSaiya Here
the road from Damascus struck due N. on the E. of
Anti-libanus, by Riblah, Hemessa (Horns), Hadrach,
to Hamath (Hamat). where it was joined by a road
from the Phoenician coast u p the Leontes and down the
Orontes valleys. From Hamath the routes were two :
one NE. to Tiphsah (Thapsacus), the ford,' on the
Euphrates; the other, and more frequent, N. by
Halwan (Haleh, Aleppo) and Arpad (Tell Arfad) to
Carchemish (Jergbis), a great sanctuary and market.l
From this rafts descended the Euphrates to Babylon,
and a road travelled E. by HARANrq.v.1 -- - IHarrKnn).
,.
40, assyrb : again a famous sanctuary and market,
and Nisibis (Nasibin) to the Tigris at
Babylonia. Nineveh. On Carchemish and Harran
converged routes from Asia Minor and Armenia ; upon
Nineveh from Armenia by the Upper Tigris and from
the Caspian by the Greater ZBb and other valleys.
On the Mesopotamian routes with their extensions into
Asia Minor, Persia, and farther E., see below §§ 58
(Persian Imperial roads), 63 (Greek), and 69 (Roman).
The Euphrates is navigable for 1200 m. from its mouth,
and is said to be, as high up as its junction with the
KhBbClr, 18 ft. deep, a depth that sometimes falls,
lobier down its course, with the dissipation.of its waters,
to 12 ft. (Rogers, Nist. of Bab. and Ass. 1271 8 ) .
The Tigris, much more rapid, and of more uncertain
volume, is less fitted for navigation ; but to-day small
steamers proceed as far up as Baghdad, and boats even
to M6yd (Nineveh).2 The convenience of Babylonia
1 See map to ASSYRIA between cols. 352 and 353.
2 From Masul to BaihdZd. by raft down the Tigris, takes
from five to s& days according to the state of the river: from
Baghdad to Masul a caravan takes twenty to twenty-two days
(The Pioneer, M a y 29, 1902).
5167
TRADE A N D COMMERCE
for trade through Elam with the interior of Asia has
already been noticed. For the land routes from India
to Babylon, see Lassen, Zndische A Zferthumskunde,
2 5 2 9 ; for the ancient sea route, Arriau's * I Y & K ~55
,
208 For both under Babylonians, Persians, Greeks,
and Romans, see below, $5 56, 58, 63, 71.
111. HISTORY OF T RADE I N ISRAEL
In Part I. ($I 1-27)we have surveyed the vast and
intricate system of commerce which prevailed throughout
41. Periods. W. Asia by the close of the second millen-
nium B.C. Ontheirsettlement in Palestine,
between 1300 and 1150 B . c . , Israel came into contact
with this system upon two of its most ancient and
crowded pathways through Syria : between the Euphrates
and the Nile, and between Arabia and the Levant.
Before we follow the details of their gradual engage-
ment in this system, we have to examine ( I) the tradi-
tions which they brought with them, or adopted from
the Canaanites, in order to discover what reflection of
trade these may contain ( 5 42 5). We shall then
($5 4 4 8 ) treat of the history of Israel's own trade under
( 2 ) the Judges (§ 46J) ; (3)the early monarchy (Saul
to Solomon, 48-51) ; (4)the divided kingdom till the
end of the ninth century (5s 51-53); (5) the eighth and
seventh centuries till the fall of Jerusalem in 586 (5s
53-57) ; (6)the exilic and Persian Period till 332 B.C.
(5s 58-62); (7) the Greek Period (1 63-67); and (8)
the Roman Period till the destruction of Jerusalem
by Titus (§§ 68-81).
It is interesting that the earliest Hebrew traditions of
primitive man are-with a few doubtful exceptions-as
42. Earls destitute of references to trade, as we have
traditions. found those in W. Asia in general to be.
According to J E passages in the early
chapters of Genesis, the founders of civilisation were
hunters, shepherds, tillers of the soil, inventors of
weapons and musical instruments, and builders of cities.
There is no recognition of a special class of merchants ;
nor is there any reflection of such in Israel's earliest
conceptions of the Deity. This agrees with the results
of an examination of other religions ($5 23-27), Certain
of the stories, however, appear to take for granted the
existence of commerce among early men. As in early
Egypt the weaponsmith himself carried his goods abroad
for sale (§ IZ), so the Kain of Gen. 4, perhaps the
'forger,' is the founder of the first city-ie., market or
ceutre of trade (see CAINITES, § 5 $)-and it is
possible to trace the mixed story of the Kairi of Gen. 4
-an agricultnrist who became a wanderer-to (among
other sources) an attempt to describe the origin of
commerce ; for, except for commerce, agriculturists d o
not take to travel (but see CAIN for other explanations).
Again, some reflection of Babylon's early position as a
world market has already ( 5 I O ) been suggested in the
story of the tower of Babel. Whatever significance in
this respect we assign to such traditions-the very
doubtful exceptions alluded to above-we may see in
the fate imputed to Babylon a symptom of that horror
of building and of cities which marks the unsophisticated
nomad, and is observable among the desert-bred portions
of Israel to a comparatively late period (e.& in Amos).
The tales of the fathers of Israel assign to the people
an Aramaean origin-that is to say, among a people, and
43.patriarchs. in a land in which trade flourished
from an early period (§ 16). N O
mercantile pursuits are imputed to the patriarchs by
the J E passages ; but these take for granted the exist-
ence in their days of a developed commerce (e.g.,Gen.
20 16, ' 1000silver pieces' ; 24 22. ' shekels ' as weights ;
and the position of the a cities of the plain ' on a well-
known knot of traffic at the S. end of the Dead Sea ;
cp the importance of Zoar as a trading centre in early
Mohammedan and crusading times : MOAB, 9)-an
assumption which the data given in Part I. (esp. $§
2-20) assure us is not anachronistic. A price paid to
5168
 TRADE AND COMMERCE
Abraham is estimated in the most primitive forms of
currency, cattle and slaves (,Gen. 20 14 ; cp 31 77,
perhaps as blackmail). A wife is purchased wlth
precious metals, in the form of ornaments (24) ; a kid
is given as a hnrlot':; wage (3817) ; and silver is paid
by Jacobs sons for corn in Egypt, and also by the
Egyptians till it fails, when the price is paid first in
cattle and then in land (47148): Thus the JE stories
of the Patriarchs present us with instances of practically
every stage in the primitive evolution of money.
The passage of Israel northwards to Palestine
brought them along and across ancient and much-
44, Arrival frequented lines of commerce (§§ 31-34),
whilst the traditions of their early con-
of Israel. quests and settlements in Palestine relate
their inheritance of the fruits of the rich Babylonian-
Egyptian trade which, as we have seen (§$ 25 27),
filled Syria on the eve of their arrival. Cp ' the goodly
Babylonish mantle,' ' zoo shekels of silver,' and ' the
gold ingot of 50 shekels ' among the spoil of Jericho
(Josh. 7 21, J E ) , and the Dt. tradition that besides the
fruits of the long-developed agriculture of Palestine the
incoming Israelites inherited ' houses full of all goods '
(Dt. 6 I O J Josh. 2413 Neh. 9.5).
Yet these accounts abstain from asserting that Israel
at the same time entered on the carrying trade of
Canaan. Isrdel was confined to the
46' Distance hills. None of the tribes reached the
from sea' sea coast except Asher, and the probably
sarcastic reference in Deborih's song (Judg. 5 ;7) to h&
' creeks ' (AV ' breaches ') is borne out by the harbour-
less character of the coast between Accho (held by the
Phcenicians) and KSLS en-NHkCirah. The fact is that,
down almost the entire length of Israel's history, a belt
of foreign territory separated the people from the sea :
nor did the spectacle of the sea, breaking on what was
generally a lee shore, and entirely without natural
harbours, excite any temptation to reach it. The first
coast town taken by Israel was Joppa, and that not till
144 B.C. In Hebrew literature down to exilic times
and even later, the sea is only used ( I ) for the W.
horizon, ( 2 )as a symbol of arrogance against God (Is.
17 Z Z $ and Pss.), and ( 3 ) as a means to attempt
escape from him (Am. 9 3 ; Jonah). The word for
harbour in (the late) Ps. 107 30 is a general term for
' refuge ' : in Hebrew there is no word for ' port ,' and the
later Jews had to borrow one from the Greeks-Limen
(see H G ch. 7). El-en if Ps. 107 refers to Israelites,
it describes merchants, not sailors. It is remarkable
that even to this day Jews, who have risen to eminence
in every other department of the life of nations among
whom they have settled, have never been known to
fame as admirals or .ship-captains, and are very seldom
found a s sailors (so far a s the present writer knows,
only in the Black Sea.).l
Inland waters.-As for inland waters : the Dead Sea
was not navigated till the time of the Romans ; there
were only fishing boars on the Lake of Galilee ;a and on
the Jordan only a ferry ( 2 S . 19 19 [IS]) or two [cp FORD].
Boats on the Jordan are not mentioned till the Talmud.
Early Israel was not so wholly shut off from the lines
of land traffic which traverse Palestine. The Canaan-
46. Land ites contlnued to hold positions command-
ing these-like B e t h ~ h a nand
, ~ even others
traffic. (sometimes in a line) across the Western
Range (Gezer, Gibeon, Jerusalem) ; while the Philistines
entered on possession of Gaza and the S . end of the
maritime plain. Still the connubium which Israel
indulged in with Canaanites (Judg. 35f: ' substantially
J,' Moore) and Philistines (Samson) certainly proves
1 Jos. (87 iii. 92) mentions Jewish pirates at Joppa. There
was a Jewish naval officer in the U.S. civil war; Sjectator,
Jan. 3, 1903.
a And in Greek times galleys. Cp the galley on some of the
coins of Gadara.
S The list in Judg. 1 c:ontainsa number of towns on the main
routes.
5'69
TRADE AND COMMERCE
commerce. The possession of old Canaanite sanctuaries
on the cross-routes would carry with it the superiority
of the markets connected with them (5 24) ; thus we find
Ephraim at Shechem?or the neighbouringGilga1 (Juleijil),
Benjamin at Bethel, and Judah at Hebron-one of the
great markets for the desert. But other tribes gradually
settled across the chief lines of through traffic-Issachar,
Zebulun, and D a n ; and these are the only tribes to
whom any portion of O T literature that can be called
early. appears to assign any international trade.
Issacbar, on Esdraelon, is described as the guardian
of some great fair (Dt. 3318 f: : I SSACHAR, 2):
and Zebulun farther W. as commanding the coast-
trade (Gen. 49 73 Dt. 35 19 ; Z EBULUN ) : while some
interpret Deborah's reference to Dan of their con-
nection at Laish with Sidon (cp D AN , § 3). However
that may be, Dan's position there commanded one
great line of traffic N. and S. and another E. and W.
Further. it is interesting that some of the battles and
expeditions under the Judges were on the line of these
and other ancient lines of traffic-Esdraelon, Dan,
Jericho ( 3nz), and theroute from Jordan into Arabia,
Succoth, Jogbehah, on which it is Ishmaelites with
ear-rings of gold (in other words traders) whom
Gideon defeats (8 : cp v. 24). There is, too, a possible
mention of pearls (nryo>n,ZJ.26 ; cp Moore's note, p. 233).
as well as one of purple (?). In 10 12 are mentioned the
Maonites, probably the Minzans: even if we should
read with &$Midian, it is traders who are meant.
Along with these, the reference to the disturbance of
travel in the land in Judg. 5 (v.6f:) must not be over-
looked. It is interesting to note the distinction already
observed between trading and non-trading communities
in the case of Laish ( 1 8 7 ) . Laish on a small scale
illustrated the military carelessness which rendered (..E. )
the great trading dynasties of Babylonia so easy a prey
to the nomadic hordes who conquered them.
The elements of trade in the period of the Judges
must have been simple ; still, we are not warranted by
the data in minimising them. Salt would
47* The, come from the Dead Sea, and asphalt ; fish
'Judges* from the coast towns. That the useful metals
came from the outside is clear both from their absence
from Israel's earlier possessions and from the Philistine
policy ( I S.1319) of banishing from among them the
smiths. That is to say, metal-work was not familiar to
the Israelites themselves ; it was probably pursued. a s
in so many parts of Syria and Arabia at the present
day, by certain nomadic families. A little gold, prob-
ably in the shape of small rings and other ornaments,
would be bought from the Arabian caravans (Judg. 8
and 10 as above) ; and silver pieces are mentioned
(94 1 6 5 17z$ I O ). In exchange, the Hebrews could
give their surplus wool and oil, figs, raisins, and perhaps
wine (Judg. 9 13 ; cp the early use of the phrase ' every
man under his own vine and fig tree' : I K. 55).l
But the foreign character of the international trade of
this period is seen in the use of gentilic names for
merchants alluded to above (5 13) and in the meaning
of the earliest Hebrew terms for trader (,no and ~ J Y =
traveller) .z
It is usually assumed by modern writers that Solomon
was the real father of trade in Israel ; yet the conditions,
actual symptoms, and consequences of a
48.
monarchy. considerable commerce are present from
the very beginning of the monarchy-
which by all W. Asian analogies, would itself be suffi-
cient proof of the organisation and rapid increase of
Israel's trade. The Philistines not only held the main
line of commerce between Egypt and Phcenicia-
Babylonia : their encounters with Israel at Michmash
and Gilboa (cp Bet Dejan E. of Shechem, and Dagon
near Jericho, 34) appear to imply a struggle for the
1 C Buhl, Die socialen YevkZZtnFrSeder lsvaehten 12.
a &,e the sanctuary as the treasury, and the hire' of mer-
cenaries (Judg. 9 4).
5170
 TRADE A N D COMMERCE
cross-routes to the E. as well. In connection with
Saul's earlier successes over the Philistines on one of these
routes, David's praise of him, that ' h e brought up
adorning of gold on the garments' of the daughters of
Israel ( 2 S. 124) is very significant.
In W. Asia the rise of a power like David's always
means an intentional increase of commerce, of which a
very good illustration is found in Palgrave's description
of the policy of Tela1 ibn-Rasheed of Hay& who by
the security of his dominions and the surrounding desert,
by liberal offers to merchants at a distance, and the
introduction of good commercial families, created a
considerable external trade among his people (Central
and E. Arab., 93 IIZ 133 [ed. 18831). David united,
pacified, and partly organised all Israel ; finally threw
off the Philistine yoke (and perhaps carried his power
into Philistia itself) ; subdued the Canaanites who had
hitherto held several of the towns in Hebrew territory ;
and founded a capital whose population must (as Buhl
points out, p. 16) have been dependent on commerce
for their livelihood. He stamped shekels used in
weighing ( 2 S. 1426), which we may take as evidence of
other regulations of commerce. The considerable
number of foreign names among his servants is partly
significant of trade; but if they were all military
mercenaries, we have seen (J 11) that in W. Asia the
substitution of such for a native militia (A RMY , J 4)-
and this is the first appearance of mercenary troops in
Israel (yet cp Judg. 94)-was always the consequence of
an increase of trade. David subdued Moab, Ammon,
and Edom (with command of the SE. trade routes) ;
extended his influence as far N. as Hamath (D AV ID ,
7-9) ; and made an alliance with Hiram of Tyre,
with whose help he built a royal house of stone and
cedar. On these data, some of which are conclusive,
we may assume that in David's reign trade in the real
sense of the word had already begun to grow in Israel.
It was under Solomon, however, that, as in the
building of the temple so in the organisation of a con-
siderLblecommerce, the full consequences
49.
trade. of David's pdlicy were first realised. The
mixed and much edited records of the
reign of SOLOMON [ 4 . v . ] have behind all their later
additions the facts, not only of an increase of wealth in
Israel ( I K. 3 13), which was comparatively enormous,
but also of foreign enterprises and of internal provisions
for trade which can alone account for such increase.
David's alliance and commerce with Hiram of Tyre were
continued. Whatever historical value be assigned to
the story of the Queen of Sheba's visit to Jerusalem
(I K.101-q), there is at the bottom of it at least the
fact of a land trade with the S. of Arabia : whilst the
inherent probability of the record of voyages down the
Red Sea (on the state of the text of I K.928 1011 see
Benzinger) is obvious from Solomon's position between
Phcenicia and Arabia and the command which his
father's conquest of Edom gave him of the route to
Elath. Without Solomon's aid the Phcenicians could
not have voyaged from the Gulf of 'Akaba to Ophir.
That the sailors and ships are described as Phcenician,
not Israelite, proves that the story has not been at least
wholly idealised by later writers. If Ophir, as is most
probable, lay on the S. coast of i\rabia (see OPHIR),'three
months would amply suffice for the voyage there, and
the expedition would be back within a year ; the datum
of the record that a voyage was made only every third
year is another syniptom of the absence of exaggeration.
It is, indeed, a difficulty with many scholars that the
small kingdom of Israel had too little to furnish in
exchange for the vast and valuable imports described as
coming from Ophir ; and the reporters are at a loss to
name the gifts from Solomon to the Queen of Sheba in
return for hers to him (I K. 1013). But it must be
1 The most recent proposal for Ophir is the Malay peninsula,
where there are ancient and deserted gold mines. See T h Pilot,
Oct. 1902.
5171
TRADE .AND COMMERCE
kept in mind that the king of all Israel could always
pay in the assurance of security for the Arabian
Phcenician traffic across his dominions, and that when
this service, and Israel's surplus corn and oil ( I K.
5 2 5 [II] : zo,ooo kor of wheat and 20,ooo bath of oil
annually to Hiram) and perhaps wool, failed to meet the
value of the timber and other imports from Phcenicia.
Solomon paid the balance in land ( I K. 911 8). Buhl
(77) thinks it doubtful that the expeditions to Ophir
were undertaken for trade. But for what else
could they have been undertaken ? Early Egyptian
and Babylonian expeditions to distant lands had
no other aim (J 8, third note). W e have seen that
some products of Europe were in Babylonian shops by
1400 B.C. ; the Phcenician ships may have carried these
or others to Ophir. There were also Syrian dates, and
corn, the Syrian woven robes, the Tyrian purple, and
Phcenician modifications of Babylonian and Egyptian
art, weapons and perhaps silver ; whilst we have also
seen (J 2 0 ) that the early Egyptians exchanged trinkets
(as civilised peoples do to this day among barbarian
tribes) for the valuable products which they found in
the markets of Punt. Solomon's servants may have
done the same with the unsophisticated natives of
Ophir ; and we have seen that dates and weapons are
still imported to the S. coast of Arabia (J 5). I K.
1028f. records Solomon's trade in horses. The text
restored from 6' is to he read : ' The export of horses
for Solomon was out of MuSri and Kue : the dealers of
the king brought them out of Kue for a price.' Musr is
the N. Syrian state of that name (MIZRAIM,z a ) ; Kue
is Cilicia (see C ILICIA , J z ) . Horses came from N. to S.
in W. Asia : probably first from Asia Minor into Syria.
The Hebrew text which introduces them to Palestinefrom
Egypt, is impossible : horses were not indigenous in
Egypt nor were the pastures there sufficient for breeding
and rearing them for export. Yet notice the reference
in Dt. 17 16 which implies that some horses came to Israel
from Egypt. I K. 1015 (see Benzinger, for the correct
bO. Duties, etc. text) states that Solomon derived part
of his wealth from tolls levied on the
transit trade between Arabia and the Levant.* If I S.
8 1 5 8 be, as is probable, of post-Solomonic date, and
therefore reflect the evils of a monarchy already experi-
enced, it is notable that nothing is said, aniong the
taxes imposed on native ZsraeZites, of one imposed for
trade. But this will only mean that, RS in early Egypt
(J 11) and partly in Hgyil, when Palgrave was there in
1863, the trade of Israel was directly carried on by the
king himself through his servants : it was not private
enterprise but part of the royal administration (cp I K.
10 28 ' the dealers of the king '). Further, Solomon is
said to have ' built' or fortified cities on trade routes
(917J) :, ' Gezer, Beth-horon the nether, Baalath, and
Tamar in the wilderness, and all the store-cities ('72
nii?pFD ; cp CITY Lf], STORE-CITIES) which Solomon
had:' T AMAR ( 4 . v . ) is most probably Tamara to the
S . of Judah, on the route to Petra or Elath. Other
signs of Solomon's far-spread commercial influence are
his alliance with Egypt, which carried with it the
possession of Gezer that commands more than one line
of traffic ( 3 189 17f. ) ; the description of his dominion
as stretching from Tiphsah ( ' the crossing') on the N.
Euphrates, to Gaza ( 4 24 [5 4]), with dominion over all
the kings beyond the river, which can only mean com-
mercial influence ; and the datum ' the entering in of
Hamath' (865)--i.e., the issue from Israel between the
Lebanons towards the most iniportant mart in N. Syria.
There is no allusion to trade in Solomon's prayer to Yahwe
1 After Wi. A T Unters. 1 6 8 8 . ; cp MIZRAIM, # 2 a ; H ORSE
5 I (5); and, on the other side, C HARIOT , 4, col. 726 n. 1.
I 0 81.
K. 1 0 2 8 3 see also Crif. Bib., and cp SOI.OMON,
2 [Kittel also touches the M T ; but, like Benzinger, he may
appear to some to be almost too moderate. Cp SOLOMON, S 7,
on 'the singular statement' in I K.1014$, and Crif. Bib.
That 2x should be read instead of J.31 is undeniable (Che.1.1
5172
 TRADE AND COMMERCE
(ch. 8) ; but in the exigencies of foreign trade, and the
introduction of guilds or groups of foreign merchantmen
we may see the cause of the multiplication of altars
to strange gods in Jerusalem, especially Phmnician,
Moabite, and Ammonite (2 K. 2313). With this com-
pare the universal custom illustrated in 21-24. [Cp
S OLOMON, 4, 8f.l
In David's and Solomon's time the land trade of
N. Svria as far S. as Damascus was already in the
hands of the Aramseans (aswe have seen,
61: The IS), a people still in their early vigour
~ a m r e a nand s . therefore unlikelv to rest content
under the commercial supremacy which, as we saw
above (3 49, on I K.424 and 865). Solomon had
established as far as Hamath and the Euphrates. It
was, therefore, from the .Aramaeans that the first blow
came to Solomon's wide empire (1123) ; and this
happened even before he had passed away. The
disruption of the kingdom after his death would cause a
further shrinkage of Hebrew trade from its distant
extremities, as well a s lead to a severe competition
between Israel and Juclah for the possession of so much
of it as crossed Palestine. In this the N. kingdom had
all the advantage : in its neighbourhood to Aram and
Phaenicia, the possession of Gilead and of all the routes
across W. Palestine-even that by Ajalon, Beth-horon,
and Bethel, which lay just within its S. frontier.
Bethel and Dan, and even Jericho, with entrance to
Moab and the SE. routes, were thus in its possession.
Against all this Juda.h, already impoverished by the
invasion of Shishak, had almost nothing to offer ; and
Baasha of Israel sought by the building of Ramah to
create a blockade against his southern neighbours
( 1 5 1 6 , f ) . It was Judahs constant effort to push this
frontier N. beyond Bethel (see H G , ch. 12, ' The History
of a Frontier '). During peace with Israel Jehoshaphat
attempted to resume Solomon's trade with Ophir ; but
his ships were wrecked at Ezion-geber (224148). These
commercial ambitions had been started by Omri's
commercial alliances with Tyre (in connection with
which the capital of N. Israel was removed across the
watershed to Shomeron, on the W. esh-Sha'ir, with its
issue to the coast [lB24]; the site was purchased by
Omri for two talents of silver), and with Damascus
( 2 0 3 4 l ) ; and bnt for Jehoshaphat's misfortune the
extent of Solomon's trade from the N. Euphrates to
the mouth of the Ked Sea might have been recovered.
In 2 K.517 mules, hitherto described only as used in
riding ( 2 S. 1S g , etc.), are mentioned as beasts of burden.
The revolution of Jehu meant the triumph of the
Puritan party i n Israel, who detested the foreign
idolatries which the commercial alliances of Omri's
dynasty had introduced ; and Israel's trade must have
shrunk with Jehu and then collapsed under the weight
of the Aramzan invasions, which, with the instincts
of that race, followed the great lines of traffic by Dothan
( 2 K. 613), and Aphek in Sharon ( I K. 202630 2 K.
1 3 1 7 ) , to Philistia ( 2 K.1217), and even included a
siege of Samaria itself ( 2 K. 6 2 4 3 ) .
Meantime the Assyrians were gradually robbing the
Aramaeans of the trade through N. Svria. Ramman-
(Adad)-nirari 111. (see ASSYRIA. 32)
had reached the Mediterranean and
of besiec!ed Damascus bv the end of the
ninth century. His successor opened the roads towards
the Caspian and h8n. Nineveh's central position had
already made her the political capital ( § I O ) : by 850
B. C. Syria was, therefore, now in communication with
Central Asia, under the shield of one political power-
the invariable cause of a great increase of commerce.
Tiglath-pileser 111. ( 7 4 5 8 ) and his successors were to
confirm and extend this empire to the Persian Gulf
1 Aram's right to bazaars in Samaria, and Israel's in
Damascus. We see from this that a conqueror earned the
claim to the active and foremost part in trade between himself
and his rival.
165 5173
TRADE AND COMMERCE
(over Babylonia), to the borders of Egypt and into
Arabia, all before the end of the eighth century ; and
by 670 Esarhaddon had taken Memphis. Thus, for
the first time since the fifteenth century, W . Asia lay
under one political power, yet the S n p a f r a n c a which
prevailed throughout was not that of her conquerors
but of the Aranizans (I 15). For the internal business
of Assyria at this time, see Johns, Ass. Deeds and Docu-
ments (Camb. 1901): a large collection chiefly of seventh
century; also R P 1 1 3 9 8 7 1 1 1 8
The advance of Assyria in the ninth century enabled
N. Israel not only to recover her lost territories from
63.Eighth Aram, but also, along with Judah, to
revive her trade and c x r y it, through the
century* long contemporary reigns of Jeroboani 11.
and Uzziah, to a pitch of wealth and luxury which the
Hebrews had not before reached. The economic
difference between the time of Elisha (died about 797)
and Amos (3. cir. 755)is vast ; and the annals of the
two kingdoms in the interval enable us to explain it.
Aniaziah of Jndah had once more defeated Edom
( 2 K. 1 4 7 ) ; and Jeroboam 11. restored N. Israel's
influence from the entering in of Hamath to the Dead
Sea and in Damascus (142528). Uzziah took Gath
( z Ch. 2 6 6 ) , subdued the Arabians of Gur-Baal and the
Meunim (v.7), fortified the roads on the S. frontier of
Judah (v.IO),and held Elath ( 2K. 1422). The Hebrew
prophets from Amos onward bear witness to an extra-
ordinary increase of trade, and to the tempers which
grow with it. There is in all of them proof of the wMen-
ing geographical knowledge and acquaintance with the
internal life of other peoples which commerce brings.
Amos himself was probably a wool-seller a s well as a
wool-grower, and, Judsean as he was, learned the state
of the N. kingdom by his journeys to its markets,
especially Bethel.' He condemns its covetousness and
zeal for trade, which threatened the new moons and
snbbaths instituted among the people when they were
almost purely agricultural (84f. ). Hosea calls Israel
a very ' Canaanite '-i.e., ' trader ' (12 7 ; cp 7 8 8 I O ) ;
and Isaiah's references show that Judah was not in this
respect much behind her sister : Judah is ' filled from
the East and strikes hands with the children of strangers '
( 2 6 ) , 'full of silver and gold, neither is there any end
of their treasures; their land d S 0 is full of horses
neither is there any end of their. chariots ' ( 7 ) ; ' ships
of Tarshish' are mentioned among the triumphs of
their civilisation (16) ; caravans are described ( 3 0 6 ) ;
yet, in conformity with what we have seen in other
nations, trade is not noticed among the principal
professions of the national life (31-3). Besides the
texts already quoted (there are others : e.g., Am. 44J
Hos. 128) indicative of an increase of wealth, there are
others which speak of the popular enterprise in building
-always a sure proof of commercial prosperity (Am.
315 511 Hos. 814 Is. 215 910[g], etc. ; cp 2 Ch. 26gf.).
The (foreign?) name armon (P ALACE , I [SI). hitherto
used of royal castles, is applied to private dwellings
(Bk. of Twelve Prophets, i. p. 33, n. 3); and the
builder's plummet is used as a religious figure (Am. 7 7f..
cp Is. 28 16 30 1 3 ) . Again, the old agricultural economy
is disturbed; farmers give place on their ancestral
lands to a new class of rich men, who can only have
been created by trade ; and the rural districts are partly
depopulated (Is. 5 8 3 Mic. 21-5 9). The sins of trade :
covetousness, false weights, and the oppression of
debtors and of the poor, are frequently castigated (Am.
2 6 4 1 8 4 3 Hos. 127 Is. 3 5 1 5 523 Mic. 2 and 3). In
certain passages, particularly in Amos and Micah, such
condemnation of the trading classes is no doubt partly
due to the conservative zeal of the desert shepherd and
agriculturist, against the growth of a new economy.2
But in Isaiah this is associated with a real sympathy with
1 See GASm. Book of the TweZve Projkets 179.
It is from the shepherd village of BethlLhem that Micah
predicts the coming of Israel's saviour (5 I [ 2 ] f i ) .
5'74
 TRADE A N D COMMERCE
the serviceableness of commerce, and appreciation of
its bigness and even of its serviceableness to religion :
cp Isaiah on Cush (ch. 18), on Egypt (19), and
especially on Tyre (23) ' whose merchants are princes,
whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth ' (v. E),
and who, although likened to a harlot in commerce
with all the kingdoms of the earth, may yet bring her
merchandise and hire as holiness to the God of Israel.
The public works of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah
indicate considerable wealth and activity ; but it must
54. seventh have been under Manasseh that Judah
' first benefited commercially by the great
extension of the Assyrian empire (see
above, § 52), and the comparative security of trade
from the Caspian and Persian Gulf to the Red Sea and
Memphis under one power. The Assyrian influence
upon the ritual, and probably the literature, of Israel
under Manasseh, is significant of close and frequent
intercourse with Mesopotamia. Zephaniah describes
the Phcenician quarter in Jerusalem, the Fish Gate,
and a new or second city (M AKTESH . M ISHNEH ). Cp
the multiplication of gates on the walls (JERUSALEM,
$3 233 ). The most conclusive proof, however, of an
increase of trade in Judah during the eighth and the
seventh century is found in a comparison of the Book of
the Covenant with the Deuteronomic code. The Book of
the Covenant makes no provision for trade.' Deutero-
nomy contains a considerable number of regulations.
To begin with, there are the regulations necessitated by
the main Deuteronomic law, the centralisation of
worship at Jerusalem (142 4 8 ) , which must have meant
a great increase of trade in that city at the seasons of the
three annual festivals (ZJ. 26). Pilgrims from a distance
had to turn some of their goods into money before
leaving home, and purchase at Jerusalem the materials
for sacrifice. Then there are regulations for debt (15 I ) ;
interest may be taken from a foreigner but not from a
fellow-Israelite (2320 [I~]J ). International banking is
provided for ( 1 5 6 J ) ; and among the divine blessings
to he bestowed upon the people in reward for their
obedience to the Law is one, that they shall lend to
many nations but not borrow-as it is phrased, they
shall be ' the head and not the tail' in their trade
(28125,cp 43J). Hebrews are not to become objects
of the natinn's slave trade (247) ; and the enfranchise-
ment of any that have fallen through debt into slavery
is provided for (1512). Unjust weights and measures
are condemned (2513-16). Hired labourers must not
be oppressed ( 2 4 1 4 8 ) . Most significant of the extreme
contrasts between wealth and poverty which the trade
of the eighth and seventh centuries has produced are
the regulations for the treatment of the poor (151-11).
The king is not to multiply horses or silver and gold
(1716f.), another echo of the prophetic teaching. Yet
indicative as all these laws are (when contrasted with
their absence from the Book of the Covenant) of the
commercial development of Israel, it is remarkable that
no money dues are yet prescribed for the priests (181-8)
nor are fines permitted in expiation of murder ( 1 9 1 8
21 1-9).
T o the pre-exilic period, though written after the fall
of Jerusalem, belongs Ezekiel's description of Tyrian
56. Ezekiel,s commerce (26 8).It opens (262)
with an interesting epithet of the
Tyre, etc. Judaean capital as the 'gate of the
peoples,' justified by the fact that the pre-exilic Judah
lay, as we have seen, across the nearest path of the
Phcenician trade with Arabia, over which Manasseh, as
the tributary of Assyria, may well have held a supremacy
which Josiah, in part at least, continued. According to
Ezekiel Phcenician trade extended from Tarshish (27 12)
and the coasts of Greece (Elishah, v. 7) in the W. to
Sheba (d. 2 2 ) in the E., and from Tubal-Meshech (cp
the Moschi and Tibareni of Herod. 394) between the
1 In the Book of the Covenant there are laws of deposit (22 7).
and of the lending of money (22 25) Fines are paid in shekels.
5'75
TRADE A N D COMMERCE
Black Sea and the Caspian in the N. to Egypt and
Phut (or Punt) in the S.' Tarshish sent silver, iron,
tin, and lead ( 1 2 ) ; Greece, coloured stuffs ( 7 ) ; the
isles of the Levant, inlaid ivory (6) and ivory and ebony
articles (from Rodan= Rhodes, IS). From Ionia and
Tubal-Meshech came slaves and copper vessels (13);
from Beth-Togarmah, probably Armenia, horses and
mules (14). Egypt furnished fine embroidered linen (7).
Cypresses and cedar were to hand in the Lebanons (s),
and oaks in Bashan (6). The Arameans, in command
of the land trade immediately behind Phcenicia, brought
a great variety of goods : carbuncles, purple, embroidery,
fine linen, pearls (from the Persian Gulf) and jasper
(16: seeToy's note, SBOT; S ST ONES, 21)-evidently
thewealth of the Babylonian markets-with Helbonwine,
white wool and other wares from Damascus (18). From
Israel came only natural products : wheat, spicery,
wax (MINNITH,PANNAG), honey, oil. and balm (17).
Arabia supplied wrought-iron, cassia, and calamus from
UZAL (19); saddle cloths from D EDAN ( 2 0 ) ; lambs,
rams, and goats from K EDAR ( 2 1 ) ; the best spices,
precious stones, and gold from Sheba and R AAMAH (22).
The trading centres on the N. Euphrates (where it
begins to he navigable), H ARRAN and E DEN (4q.v.
round Birejik between Edessa and 'Ain-tab), Assyria
itself, and Canneh or C ALNO , and C HILMAD in
Babylonia, furnished dyed mantles, and stuffs with
skeins of wool (? 23f.). The shipbuilders and sailors
were native Phcenicians (8f. 11) ; but Tyre had also a
mercenary army (cp $111, 48)-Ethiopians (read 013 for
m g , P ARAS ), Lybians, and men of Phnt ( I O ) . It is an
imposing catalogue, and worthy of the enthusiasm of
the prophet : the fruit of centuries of enterprise and
organisation for Assyrian trade ; see Johns, 0.8. cit.
The destruction which Ezekiel beheld as imminent
on Tyre. fell immediately. In 572, after a siege of
thirteen years, Nebuchadrezzar took the
island city (cp N EBUCHADREZZAR ,
re2zu* TYRE).It was the final triumph of
a policy sustained through many annual campaigns
to the Levant, designed to divert the rich trade with
the E. from the Red Sea and the Arabian land-routes
to the Persian Gulf and the Euphrates. Proofs of
this are found not only in Nebuchadrezzar's own
annals, but also in the Greek accounts of great works
in Babylonia which are most probably attributed
to the son of Nabopolassar. Famous as a soldier,
Nebuchadrezzar was still more eminent as a builder
and organiser: his peaceful labours bulk in his own
records over his military expeditions. He cleared the
mouths of the two great streams of Babylonia into the
Persian Gulf, and deepened their channels, so that they
were still navigable for sea-going vessels in the Greek
period. Arrian (Anad. Alex. 5 7 ) reports that the ships
of the 'Gerrhaeans (from the Arabian coast of the Gulf)
sailed up the Tigris as far as Opis : and Gotz ( Vmkefws-
wege. 151) is justified in assigning the measures which
made this possible, as uell as the founding of Derodotis,
a port at the mouth of the Euphrates, to Nebuchadrezzar.
The two great rivers were connected by a system of
canals which in Xenophon's time (Anab. 2 4 ) were still
navigable by great grain-ships ; the largest, the Nahar
Malka, is sfill in use. By campaigns against ' Kedar
and the kingdoms of H AZOR [ ~ . z J . ] (Jer. ' 49 z 8 ) ,
Nebuchadrezzar ensured the security of the desert
routes S . of Babylonia ; and he himself on one occasion
used the short but difficult road from Syria to Babylon
by Tadmor. Yet, these Arabian campaigns must have
1 In the close of the seventh and opening ofthe eight centuries
the trade ofEgypt both internaland foreign wasvery prosperous,
especially under bsamegik Necho II., ipries (Hophra), and
Amasis 11. Coincident dith this was the usual increase of
mercenaries. Greek commerce, which had founded Milesion
about 7 m (Hall, Oldest Civilisation of Greece, 271) took a firm
hold of the Delta. Amasis II., besides encouraging theGreeks,
entered into a close alliance with Cyrene. Cp Herodotns, 2 182.
a Cp saddle-bags exported from el-Jbf to-day ; 8 4, third note.
5176
 TRADE A N D COMMERCE
had as their end not so much the use of the desert
routes (except perhaps to Egypt) as the diversion of the
Arabian and eastern traffic up the Gulf to the Euphrates,
and so to the Levant, whose coasts were now an
integral part of the Babylonian empire. We have seen
the Gerrhzan ships far up the Tigris : they brought
incense for the temples in Babylon.' But sea-trade
with India may also have been at this time in full
course; it has to be noticed, however, that no S ILK
(p...) is mentioned in the commercial lists of the period.2
From India, then, to Tarshish, and from Egypt to
Central Asia (through Persia and the Medes), the trade
of the world now centred in Babylon. Hence the vast
increase of the city's size aud wealth so wonderful to
the Greek writers (Herod. 1 1 7 8 8 ; Diod. Sic. 22). The
esilic passage Jer. 50 mentions its ' storehouses ' ( 3 . 26) ;
its ' mingled people ' and ' treasures ' (37) ; and Is. 47
' those that have trafficked with thee from thy youth. =:
Throughout these prophecies there is the same imputa-
tion of ' wisdom ' and ' enchantments ' and ' sorceries,'
which we find imputed, by Israel to other commercial
peoples-the sons of the East,' the Edomites, and the
Philistines. The recent discovery and deciphering of
Babylonian documents from the end of the Habylonian
period and the beginning of the Persian have revealed
an organisation of commerce so thorough that J. Kohler
justly declares it to exhibit the greatest similarity to the
conditions of modern banking and exchange, and to
have been the origin of the commercial system which
has descended to modern times through the Greeks and
Romans (Beitr. a. Assvr. 4 430). He has given in the
volume just cited a nuinber of interesting instances (in
addition to those given in Kohler and Speiser, A u s dem
Bn6y.l. HechtsZebcn, etc., and Bab. V e y t y Z p ) . There
were banks and banking firms (the most famous of
which was the house of Egibi-cp RP 11). ' Anwei-
sungen ('assignments,' ' bills of exchange ' ) und Zahlung
des Angewiesenen an den Anweisungsempfanger waren
dns tagliche Brod des Babyl. Verkehrs.' Money was
paid into the agencies of a bank, and by its head office
or other agencies paid out again to the assignee, exactly
n s by our system of cheques. Discount was known.
Property was pledged. In cases of sale or debt surety-
ships were accepted (again cp Johns, op. cit.). Sales
were made on approval. Partnerships were formed
between freemen, and between freemen and slaves-ie.,
between capital and labour. Money was still reckoned
by weight. The depreciation in use of metal-pieces
was understood and accounted for (cp Hrozny, ' Zum
Geldwesen der Babylonier,' Beitr. a. A s s y ~ 45468
. ).
.4t the heart of this commercial empire the best part
of the Jewish people--including its industrial classes
8,. Jews in ( ' craftsmen and smiths ' : z K. 24 14)-
were established, and probably found a
large number of their own race already
intimate with, and benefiting by, the trade of the land
(see D ISPERSION , 0 4). They must have taken the
advice of Jeremiah to settle into the life of their new
surroundings, their comparative independence in which
his letter takes for granted (Jer. 2 9 4 8 ) . 3 That many
of them became engaged in Babylonian commerce
needs no argument. After fifty years the great prophet
who arose to announce to them their return, not only
promised the restoration of their command of the trade
from Egypt and Arabi,a (Is. 45 14, cp D. 3), but seems to
have found it difficult to tear them from the profitable
conditions of Babylonian life (cp his many calls ' to go
forth,' and in particular his appeal 552 : 'Wherefore
do ye weigh your money for that which is not bread
and your earnings for that which satisfieth not' ; cp
1 Herod. 1183 reckons the amount used annually at the chief
temple of Babylon at 1000 talents.
2 The earliest mention of silk appears to be by Aristotle in
the beginning of the fourth century.
3 Cp the present writer's 'Is. 40-46' 57 8 ; Nikel Die
Wiederherstellung des judisch. Gemeinwesens narh' dem
babyZ. E d , 1900.
5177
TRADE AND COMMERCE
Buhl, Soc. Verhaltn. 88,n. I). Whether few or many
returned when Cyrus opened the way (see DISPERSION,
§ s), those who remained in Babylon were the prosperous
and wealthy (Zech.6108). They must have been
introduced to the thorough Babylonian methods of
doing business, though it is striking that (as u-e shall
see, 5 60) the Priestly Code bears no reflection of the
Babylonian subjection of coinnierce in its smallest
details to priestly regulations, nor of the temples as
registering, banking, and appraising centres (Johns,
o j . cit. 3254). New horizons, however, appear in
Hebrew literature; and the Jews' knowledge of the
world was immensely widened (G EOGRAPHY , 18).
With the rise of the Persian empire all these processes,
from Babylon a s the centre, were quickened and ex-
68. tended (D ISPERSION , - $ 6). The con-
quests of Cyrus in Asia, 3nd of Cambyses
empire. in Africa. were thorouehlv orpanised by
themselves and their successors and-cgefly-by Darics
Hystaspis before 515. The empire was divided into
provinces and the policy was to connect these by as
speedy means of conveyance as were possible. Some
of the ancient lines of traffic were made into solid roads,
capable of carrying two- and four-wheeled carriages,
and new lines were opened up, especially through Iran
to Eastern and Central Asia. The greatest of all. the
roads for which we have now exact data was that from
Susa the capital to Sardis ; see the careful survey and
argument of Gotz (Die Verkehrswege. 165-184). H e
reckons the distance at sixty-five daily stages, which
with eight days of rest on the way occupied seventy-
three days in all.
The road led NW. from Susa, past the now deserted Nineveh
crossed the N. stretches of the Tigris and the Euphrates (th:
latter a little to the N. of the later S k o s a t a ) and so through
Cilicia by Ancyra to Sardis, whence it was a short journey
either to Smyrna or Ephesus.
Another road from Susa led N. by Echatana (HamadBn) to
Rhagae (close to TeherBn) where in the ninth century after
Christ, lay the Levant market fir Chinese silk;1 thence to
Hekatonpylos 2 (probably the present Shahrud : Gotz) where it
divided into one branch hy Magaris (Merv) to Marakanda
[Samarcand) the capital of So diana, and another to Herat.
A third road from Susa lef E. to Persepolis and Aspadana
[Ispahan). Susa was, ofcourse, directly connected with Babylon
from which the land road up the Euphrates was freshly laid
down and furnished with bridges over the canals.
Greek sources (Xenophon and Herodotus) give us
for the first time exact data for this ancient line of
traffic between Babylon and the Gulf of Issus (above,
s It was 8 days from Babylon to Hit thence
39J ).
20 to the mouth of
the H5bhBr thence 5 to Tiphsah or ?hapsacus (Rakka) where
the Foad &ossed to the S. hankof the Euphrates, thence to
Balk 3, to Aleppo 3 and to the coast 4, or 43 in all (not 73:
Gijtz, 190)from Bab;lon to the coast.
From the coast the Phoenicians, according to Marinus
sf Tyre (Gotz, 190). carried their goods to Hierapolis
:Bambyke) near the Euphrates, and thence direct to
Ecbatana and Hekatonpylos for the Central Asian
markets. There was also a road from the Gulf of Issus
to Tarsus ( 12 days) ; thence through Cilicia to Iconium
[see further Ramsay, Hist. Geog. of A s i a Minor).
Persian roads were, according to the Greeks, well
supplied with stations, furnished with horses and khans
b r travellers (Herod. 5 52 898), and with a government
jervice of swift couriers (Id. and Xen. Cyrop. 8 1 8 ) , ~
which is said to have accomplished the distance between
h s a and Babylon in a day and a half, and that between
Susa and Sardis in I O (Gotz, 198). C p Esth. 3 1 3 814.
Whilst the Persians thus organised and accelerated the
and-traffic, they suffered the water-traffic. developed
>y Nebuchadrezzar ( 5 6 3 ) , to fall into disuse. Nebu-
:hadremar's port at the mouth of the Persian gulf
iecayed, and it is even doubtful whether the Peripbs
1 Heid, Gesch. deslevnntelrandel irn Mittelalter, Stuttgart,
8 g, i. p. z : in French (much enlarged) 1885-1886.
Up to Hekatonpylos it was good for'carriages, GStz, 186.
Cp dyyppedsw in NT from iwapos, Herod. S 98, a Persian
vord = courier.
5178
 TRADE AND COMMERCE
of Skylax (Geogr. GY. &‘in. 1, ed. Muller) round Arabia
to the Red Sea occurred as asserted in the time of
Darius (thirty months is the time assigned to it). See
Gotz, 2 0 3 8 Darius attempted, without success, to
carry out the plan, which Necho 11. is said to have
initiated, of connecting the Ked Sea with the Nile
(Herod. 2 158 442)’ Further, we have under the Persian
kings the first appearance in W. Asia of MONEY (9.n.)
in the true sense (see also WEIGHTS A N D MEASURES).
The present writer has purchased several darics and
also silver coins of Sidon under Artaxerxes Ochus which
were found in N. Palestine.
The trade of Syria must have enormously benefited
by all this policy of the Persian kings ; not only in the
69. Post-exilic security ensured-though this was not
perfect (cp the note of Ezra on the
Jerusalem. iournev from Babvlonia to Terusalem :
> , ~ ,
Ezra 8 ZIJ 31)-but also in the means taken by the
satrap of Memphis for furnishing the desert route
between Gaza and the Delta with water (Herod. iii. 46).
Incorporated in the Persian empire, and still without
rivals in the Delta, the Phcenician ports continued to
flourish (cp their coinage of Aradus and Sidon under
Persia; Head, Hist. Num. 666, 671). Damascus
and Gaza flourished with them; but Gotz (164) is
wrong in adding to this list Jerusalem, to which we
now turn. The destruction in 586 had rednced Jeru-
salem and her people to the ‘ off-scouring and refuse in
the midst of the peoples ’ (Lam. 345). Her ‘ breach
was great like the sea ’ (213) ; the luxury of former days
had become starvation ( 4 7 8 ,etc.); the people had to
buy even their wood and water (56, cp vu. g 13). The
Edomites and Arabians recovered the transit trade.
The exiles who returned in 537 were a weak and starve-
ling community. The statement that they bought for
the temple timber from the Tyrians who brought it to
Joppa in return for meat, drink, and oil (Ezra 37)
belongs to the less authentic portion of the Book of
Ezra, and seems a reflection of Solomon’s trade. It is
difficult to see how the hunger-bitten colony raised wine
and oil for export. Haggai and Zechariah tell a
different story. There was no hire for man or beast
(Zech. 810); no thrift (Hag. 16); a blight lay upon
agriculture (ib. TI). The silver and gold were still in
the hands of YahwA (28), and other nations had not yet
brought their ‘ desirable things.’ Timber for building
the temple was hewn by the Jews themselves in the
neighbouring hill-country (1 8). What gold and silver
arrived in Jerusalem came as contributions from rich
exiles in Babylon (Zech. 6 9 8 ) . Agriculture was only
partially resumed ; its prosperity was still, after twenty
years, a thing of promise (Zech. 310). In Malachi
there is no reflection of trade. The connubium practised
with the surrounding heathen and semi-heathen implies,
of course, a certain amount of local traffic ; and this
would gradually increase with the resumption of Jewish
life in ‘ the cities of the Negeb’ (Neh. 11). Nehemiah
pictures corn, wine, grapes, figs, etc., brought into
Jerusalem from the country (13158),and fish sold by
the Tyrians ( 7 6 ) ; on the Sabbath the gates have to be
closed against these traders ( 2 0 ) . But there was no
through traffic, as in olden times. ’ Indeed, according to
Ezra 420, one of the objections made by the enemies of
the Jews against rebuilding Jerusalem was that it would
resume the customs and toll which were formerly im-
posed by Jewish kings and made them great-a very
interesting glimpse into the pre-exilic trade of Judah.
The Jews were themselves subject to the general imposts
of the Persian kings (Ezra 413 20 Neh. 54) who, however,
in pursuance of their usual policy, exempted from duty
the goods required for the temple (Ezra 7 24 ; see EZRA-
N EH ., § 5. col. 1480). In spite of their poverty the
Jews, with the new horizons which the exile and the
increased extent of the trade of their Phcenician neigh-
1 On the various canals and attempted canals with this aim,
see Budge, HE6 m g f : 763f.
5x79
TRADE AND COMMERCE
bours opened to their eyes, indulged vaster hopes than
ever of the mastery of the world’s trade. Not only
would the wealth of Arabia return to them (Is. 6 0 6 f . :
Midian, Sheba, Kedar, Nebaioth) ; the new coasts ,of
the West should send them tribute (Sf: ) ; from foreigners
and the sons of the Diaspora alike (9-17). It is remark-
.able that in this passage Jerusalem, the mother of far-
scattered and wealthy sons, is represented, not in her
inland, secluded position, but as standing on the sea.
shore, the abundance of the seas and the wealth of the
nations drifting to her feet (605 ; cp G. A. Smith, Bk.
of Zsaiah, ZZ.). Contrast the picture given above,
5 45. So much had the Persian roads and Phcenician
ships achieved in the scattering of trading Jews, and
the widening of the mercantile hopes of the people.
On Is. 65 11 see F ORTUNE .
At this point we may conveniently take the attitude
to trade of the Priestly Narrative and Code. Between
these two in this respect there is a dis-
60.code. tinction. Whilst P s stories of primitive
man are as destitute of any reflection of
trade as those in J E ( § 42),its narratives of the patri-
archs contain more allusions to commerce than J E does.
Abraham, bargaining in the usual oriental fashion,l
buys Machpelah for 400 silver shekels (Gen. 2315f.) ;
Hebron is thus pictured as it always was-a market and
‘ harbour‘ for the nomads to the south. The treaty with
Hamor (3488) covers settlement, connubium, and
commerce-the last definitely stated (nu.IO 21). The
distances of the marches in the wilderness are suitably
given, not in the daily stages achieved by traders, but
in those (4to 6 or 7 m.) of nomad camps (Xu. 33).
The rich offerings for the tabernacle imply a people of
far trade as well as one skilled in handiwork (Ex. 253-7,
etc. ; cp the oblations of the princes in Nu. 7). Incense
is for the first time mentioned in the Hebrew ritual (Ex.
3 0 z z g etc.: cp Jer. 6 2 0 ) ; along with sweet calamus
(R EED ), myrrh, C INNAMON , storax (?), O NYCHA , G AL-
BANUM. On the other hand, the Priestly Law is very
meagre in references to trade ; puzzlingly so in contrast
with Deuteronomy (above, 5 54),when we consider the
intervening residence in Babylon. The laws against
fraud in money matters, loans, and deposits (Lev. 6 1 8 ) ,
and false measures and balances (19358). are similar to
the warnings of post-exilic prophecy. There are laws
for the selling of land (2514f: 238), against interest
(v,36), and concerning foreign and native slaves (a.39 :
H ; cp Dt. 238). No ransom is allowed for the life of
a murderer (Nu.3531). On transactions necessitated by
the restorations of the Jubilee Year, see Jos. Ant. iii.
123. But these are almost all that have to do with
commerce. Unlike those of Deuteronomy, the blessings
and curses pronounced in connection with the Law
contain no reference to trade (Lev. 26). The priests
value land (etc.) used for sacred purposes ( 2 7 ); but their
revenues, nnlike those of Babylon and Egypt, appear
to include none derived from trade (Nu. 18). The
religious feasts (Lev. 2 5 s ) are purely agricultural ; there
is no inclusion of the directions for farmers at a distance
selling their produce and buying material for sacrifice at
the central sanctuary, such as we saw in Deuteronomy
(I 54). On the whole, the comparative silence of the
Priestly Code as to trade is to be explained either by
the effort of the compilers to hold themselves to the
wilderness conditions, or else by the sadly diminished
trade of the post-exilic Jews as compared with the com-
merce which Aourished in the deuteronomic period.
On the monetary standards of P. see S HEKEL ,
§ 3f.
The Book of Joel (about 400 R. C. ) reflects a purely
1 Forder (With Am6s in Tent and Tmun, 219 ) illustrates
the details of Abraham’s pnrchase. ‘In buying c i d from the
Arabs some such terms as the following are used :-“A buys
from B land in such a place, also all that can be seen o n the
land, trees, and stones, also all that sha!l be found under the
ground.” This custom makes Abraham’s action very under-
standable.’
5180
 TRADE A N D COMMERCE
agricultural community with no resources when their
81. Other harvests fail. Their children are the
victims of the Phcenician slave-trade to
post-exi1ic Ionia (3[4]6): they shall have revenge
literature' some day in selling Phoenicians to Sheba.
Instead of commanding the transit trade, Jerusalem is un-
willin4 overrun with foreigners (314117). Cp Zech.
1421;'io more a trafficker in the house of vahw8.' W e
have here traces of the feeling against association with
foreigners, which the new legalism continued to enforce
through subsequent centuries, and which must have
seriously hampered any revival of trade in Judah.
Compare the account which Palgrave gives of the effect
of the WahHbi religious rigour on commerce.
Of course, there were other tempers in post-exilic
Judaism. and these appear in the Wisdom literature.
With all its reproof of greed of gain (119,etc.), the
Prologue to Proverbs employs the methods and tempers
of commerce to illustrate the ideal of man's search for,
and intercourse with, Wisdom (314 8 2 8 1 8 8 ; cp
2323). Like so much else in the Books of Wisdom,
this also reappears in the parables of Jesus (below, 5 79).
The temptress in Prov. 7 is the wife of a merchantman
on a long journey ; it is interesting that, at the present
day, among the Syrians of Lebanon, such immoralities
are almost entirely confined to the wives of men trading
abroad. W e see in this another cause of the dislike of
conservatives in Israel to trade ; cp Pr. 27 8 : ' as a bird
wandering from her nest, so is a man that wandereth
from his place.' There is also in the Prologue the
strong warning against suretyship (618). But its
most striking feature is the recognition of the highest
divine Wisdom as identical with that which appears in
the common ways, bazaars, traffic, and concourse of
men.
In Job the references to trade are very few. T h e
land of Uz is on the path of the men of Sheba ; they
are represented as marauders (115). Mention is made
of desert-journeys of the caravans of Teyma, and the
companies of Sheba ( 6 ~ 8 J ) of ; the Egyptian ships of
reed ( 9 26) ; of (gold of) Ophir and silver as the reward
of righteousness ( 2 2 2 4 2816 ; contrast 31 24); of beryl,
sapphire, gold, glass, coral, crystal, pearls, and the
topaz of Ethiopia ( 2 8 1 6 8 ; see STONES, PRECIOUS)-
an interesting list of what, at the time the book was
written, were regarded as precious metals and stones ;
and in 2 8 1 8 there is the vivid picture of mining, and
in 21 29 a n appeal to the wide experience of travellers.
As a whole the book shows a knowledge of the far
world and its wonders, only to be derived from the
situation of the writer on the line of a widespread com-
merce.
In Ecclesiastes there is hardly any allusion to trade
among all the ambitions and labours of men : but see
28 : ' I gathered silver and gold and the peculiar property
of kings and princes I made for myself. '
Apart from the prologue, the Book of Proverbs prob-
ably reflects the life of many centuries in Israel; yet
even here the possible references to trade are pro-
portionately few : warnings . against suretyship (1115
1718 2016 2226 2713). false balances(l11 1611,weights
and balances are the work of Yahw8, 20 IO 23), bad ways
of gain ( I l l s ) , greed of gain (1527 ; it brings bad luck
to a house : yra pja i j v a my ; -282022 zs), the withhold-
ing of corn (from the market?) (1126), and sluggishness
in bnsiriess (2213 : the reference is to the bazaars) ; some
satire on oriental methods of bargaining (2014),notes
on the helplessness of the debtor (227). on wealth from
wisdom in trade (244), and on the deep contrasts
between rich and poor and the woefulness of poverty
which appear only in commercial communities ( 1 9 4 7
227, etc.). 2610 is an obscure verse on hiring. The
picture of the strong woman portrays her searching for
wool and flax ; she is like ' a merchant ship that bringeth
.goods from afar ' ; ' she perceives that her merchandise
( a y ) is profitable ' and she delivers the linen and the
5181
TRADE AND COMMERCE
girdles made by her household to the Canaanite-ie.,
Phoenician pedlar or trader-a glimpse into the honie-
industries of Israel (3113f: 18 24).
By the end of the Persian period (about 340) the trade
of the civilised world reached the following limits. In
6a. Summary the east the Persian roads were in com-
end of Persian munication with India, and it is ex-
tremely probable that the Chinese silk,
epoch. ' Seric stuff,' which the Greeks found in
325 in Afghanistan, was already there. The Arabian
land routes were still regularly used. C INNAMON came
from the east beyond Media, and G ALBANUM from
Persia (?). In the south the Egyptians, if it is not certain
that they had circumnavigated Africa (in Necho's time),
were at least in communication with the E. coast of
Africa (so much basis must we allow to the story),
traded with Nubia, with the W. oases, and Cyrene.
Egypt began to send large supplies of corn across the
Mediterranean (Diod. Sic. xiv.794). In the N. the
Greeks had opened up the Black S e a ; in the W. and
NW. the Phoenicians had long exploited the mines
of eastern Spain and the Rhone region with its com-
munications with N. Gaul and perhaps Britain. They
had also penetrated the Atlantic, whilst Carthage had
reached Lake Tchad and the Niger. Massilia was a
flourishing depBt, soon to send out Pytheas (about 300
B.C.) to the sonrces of amber round the Baltic (cp
A MBER , 5 3), and to the N. of Scotland (for the truth of
the tale see Gotz. 291). How far across this enormous
sphere of communication Jews were scattered it is im-
possible to say -probably everywhere in the Persian
empire as traders and settlers, and in Greece, Italy, and
Carthage as slaves (cp Joel, as cited in beginning of
61), some of whom might regain their freedom,
and, like their kind, take up some form of industry or
commerce. Except in the Semitic names of slaves, and
in a tale told by Aristotle, and reported by Claudius of
Soli (Jos. c. A$. 1 2 2 ; cp Fmg. Hist. Grec., ed. Muller,
2323), Jews do not appear in Greek literature before
the very end of the fourth century B.C.
With the conquests of Alexander the Great a new
epoch began in the trade of the world. The land-traffic
63. succB880rs.which
and
the Persians had developed was
sustained and their roads extended
eastward. There was little change in
the lines of traffic ; but new cities were founded upon
them--e.g., L AODICEA ; and both Alexander and the
Diadochoi increased the speed of marching (Gotz, 191,
etc.). The Persian neglect of the rivers ( 5 58) was
rectified ; Alexander cleared the Tigris of its dams and
weirs, founded a new port at its mouth, Alexandria,
later Charnx. and redug the canals. The foundation
of Seleucia on the Tigris was a great blow to Babylon,
which began to decay. For reasons why the Tigris dis-
placed the Euphrates as a line of route, see Gotz, 411
j? 0.n sea the changes were enormous. Hitherto the
Phcenicians had encountered powers whose resources
were confined to the land, to whom their sea-power was
indispensable, and by the growth of whose empires the
trade and wealth of Tyre and Sidon only the more in-
creased. But the Greeks were a people who were of
equal maritime capacity with themselves, and had long
been preparing for the mastery of oriental trade by
their occupation of the sea-boards of Asia Minor, and
their settlements in the Delta,' who had fleets, and
knew how to found new harbours and establish colonies.
Alexander rivalled his land march to the Indus by the
naval expedition which he sent back from there up the
Persian Gulf, thereby reopening (if not for the first time
founding) direct maritime communication between India
and Babylonia ( G e o p . GY. Mia. ed. Muller, I).
It was, however, his foundation of the Egyptian Alex-
andria which made the greatest change, and in this Tyre
and Sidon found their first successful rival. For with
1 There were Greek mercenaries soldiers and scribes in Egypt
under Psarneiik, and Greek settleAents anh trade since Amasis.
518a
 TRADE A N D COMMERCE
the exploration of the Red Sea, already intended by
Alexander and carried out by Ptolemy II., and the
founding of new harbours-at Arsinoe near Suez, Leukos
Limen near eI-KoSEr, Berenike, and others (see above,
§ 29),there was opened a new route (or an old one was re-
opened) to s. Arabia and India which must have drawn
away some proportion of the land-traffic through Arabia
and the sea-traffic up the Persian Gulf, on which Tyre
and Sidon depended.’ The Greeks had now a line of
their own from Europe to HindostHn all the way on sea
except for the small stretch of land-traffic through what
was now a Greek kingdom. Alexandria was its main
depdt and exchange ; and in proportion as Alexandria
flourished Tyre and Sidon grew less. The doom, there-
fore, which Zech. 9 I 8 saw imminent upon Hamath,
Hadrach, Damascus, Tyre, and Sidon was pregnant
with more than the merely military overthrow which
is all that the writer seems to perceive in it. As the
Seleucid power grew, the Phcenician ports and Damascus
found themselves threatened by northern in addition to
their southern rivals. The growth of ANTIOCH (4.v. ) has
always meant the diminution of Damascus (HG 643,
647, and article ‘Antioch’ by the present writer in
Hastings’ DB); and the new Seleucid ports in N. Syria
must have diverted the Euphrates trade from Tyre and
Sidon. The usual result of a wealthy commerce appears
in the large mercenary armies of the Seleucids (e.g., Jos.
Ant. xii. 10 I, and other passages).
One of the earliest of the Seleucid campaigns was
that undertaken in “ 912 B . C . and reDeated later against
64. Nabatsans. the NABATBANS(9.”., cp SchiirTGVZ
I aDD. who had.become uossessed of
the seats of the Eddnhes, and had alread; filled Petra
with wealth derived from the transit trade. The new
Red Sea commerce did not wholly destroy the land-
traffic in Arabia ; and the Nabataeans-successors both
to the Aramaeans, whose language (though themselves
Arabs) they adopted, and to the Edomites-made them-
selves masters of all the routes from Teyma and Egra
(MedHin +lib) (the S. limit of their inscriptions) to
the Persian Gulf, Babylon, Damascus, Gaza, Elath, and
Egypt (5s 29-33). But they had also industries of their
own. The first appearance of SE. Palestine in Greek
letters is made by the Dead Sea as a source of asphalt ;
and it is to the Nabataeans that Diodorus Siculus ( 2 4 8 )
ascribes the collection of asphalt and its conveyance to
Egypt. The Seleucid campaign of 312 had had.for one
of its aims the possession of the Dead Sea and its asphalt
(Diod. 1 9 1 ~ ) .The N a b a k a n s must also have grown
dates, and, when they came into possession of HaurHn,
wheat sufficient for export. These with camels, the
Arabian incense, coral and pearls from the Gulf, alkali,
medicinal herbs, and what proportion of goods from
Africa they were able to draw to Elath, would form
their exports to the W. Their port for this was the
hArbour of Gaza, with perhaps Anthedon-other new
rivals to Tyre and Sidon. The Nabataeans were land
traders; but three of their inscriptions from the first
decade of the Christian era have been found in Puteoli
and Rome (CISPt. 11. vol. i., Nos. 157-159).
These then were the new commercial currents within
which the Jews lay during the Greek period. The con-
1 For Ptolemy 1 1 . ’ ~policy in regard to trade, and the trading
expeditions he sent see the inscription on the ‘Stone of Pithom
in Naville The .?fom-cit, of Pifhom efc., also L 12 of the
Phil= insAiption of the same king (translated by Budge, H E
7 z o g f i : ) . The trade of Egypt was very prosperous under the
Ptolemies and the consequence is seen in the apparently
inexhaustible wealth of that royal house. Their mercenary
armies were always easily raised : their expenditure on build-
ings was enormous. Of late years a considerable number of
commercial documents of the Ptolemaic and Early Roman
period have been discovered in Egypt. Those given by Messrs.
Grenfell and Hunt (Tke Oxyrhynchus Papyli, pts. i. and ii. ;
Faydm Tom= and their Pa##.; etc.) comprise appeals for
justice again?[ trade defaulters, bankers’ receipts, acknow-
ledgements of loans, declarations of sales, and registrations of
contracts sales, loans mortgages etc.-for which registration
there weie special offidals in each nome.
5183
TRADE m D COMMERCE
tests of the Diadochoi must at first have ruined trade
Soon we find Jewish settlers
65. Jewish in Syria.
receiving civil rights from the Ptolemies
trade. in Alexandria and from the Seleucids in
Antioch and other N. Syrian cities. These settlers were
probably for the most part merchants. There was con-
stant intercourse between Jerusalem and Egypt and N.
Syria-both Greek powers bade for Jewish friendship by
granting at various times remission of dues on goods
into Jerusalem (e.g., Jos. A n f .xii. 33), or by regulating
trade to suit Jewish religious laws (idid. 4). T h e
financial abilities of individual Hebrews found individual
opportunity in the farming of the Syrian taxes for the
Greek kings and were great enough to form almost
legendary stories (id. 4 7 ; cp Schiirer, E T , ii. 1160).
Thus the nation grew in affluence (Jos. Ant. xii. 4 I O ) .
Ecclesiasticus finds it necessary to make many warnings
against fraud in trade (especially 2 6 2 0 8 , cp 3711 and
7 1 5 ; 813 2 9 4 8 1 4 8 4118 423). Thencame the over-
throw of Jerusalem by Antiochus Epiphanes (169 B.C.),
and the bitter struggles of the Maccabees during which,
at first, Jew-ish trade must have been utterly destroyed.
W e read of merchants (probably Phoenician) accompany-
ing Syrian troops against Judaea to purchase the captives
( A n i . xii. 73). The friendliness of the Nabataeans to
the Jews is noted twice (idid. xii. 8 3 xiii. 12). In the
66. Maccabees. campaigns of Judas and Jonathan the
regard paid to lines of trade and con-
spicuous centres upon them is manifest : the wonder is
that it has not been noticed. Bacchides fortified Jericho,
Bethhoron, Emmaus (xiii. 13); then Jonathan garrisoned
Michmash (6); the three toparchies which Demetrius the
younger presented to the Jews were all necessary to the
command of trade : they were accompanied by remission
of dues on saltpits, etc. ; as soon as Jonathan cleared
Judaea of the Syrians he took Ashdod and made treaties
with Ashkelon and Gaza ( 5 5 ) . Then he turned against
the Ammonites and the Nabataeans, while Simon fortified
a line of places as far as Ashkelon, and broke to the sea
at Joppa (510). How much this meant for the com-
mercial ambitions of the little Jewish state is seen in the
eulogy on Simon, I Macc. 145 : ‘ With all his glory he
took Joppa for a haven, and made an entrance to the
isles of the sea.’ At last Judah had a port. Beside it
the small river harbour of Jamnia ( J ABNEEL ) u a s also
occupied, and Gezer fortified in connection with both.
The increased wealth brought about by these means is
seen in the rebuilding of Jerusalem which foll6wed (Ant.
xiii. 510). In 142 B.C. Simon set Judaea free from
Seleucid tribute, and commercial documents were dated
from that year ( 6 7 ) . Jewish coinage began. The
campaigns of Judas into Gilead had not been so successful
in restoring communication between the Jewish settle-
ments there and Judaea-he had to bring the Jews away
with him ( I Macc. 5)-whilst between Galilee and Judaja
lay Samaria (Ant.xiii. 1028) which John Hyrcanus
subdued, and opened the way to the S. desert routes
by Hebron through the subjection of the Idumaeans
(xiii. 9 I ) . When Simon appealed to the Romans it is
significant that he asked for the restoration of ‘ Joppa,
the havens, Gezer, and the springs (? of Jordan)’ (idid.
2 ) . During the subsequent years of peace John amassed
an immense sum of money (ibid. 10I ) ; in so barren a
land as Judah it must have come from trade and dues
on trade. Josephus reports as much as 3000 talents
in money, deposited in the tombs of David ( B l i . 2 5 ) .
Tombs were a usual place of deposit. Aristobulus added
part of the Iturzean country ( A n t . xiii. 113) with the
entrance to the Hamath route (cp HG 414,n. 4) ; but
it is in the campaigns of Alexander Jannaeus that we
see most proof of commercial ambitions. He took
Gadara (?), Raphia, Anthedon, Gaza (which was dis-
appointed in help from its NabatEan ally Aretas ; Ant.
xiii. 133). Moab, and Gilead (but had to give them
back to the Nabatzeans ; 141). held Samaria (154)with
its command of routes to the coast, and made a treaty
5184
 TRADE A N D COMMERCE
with the Nabataeans (15 2 ) . The lines of positions held
by Jannzeus as laid down by Josephus are very signifi-
cant ; first along the coast from Rhinokolura to Straton's
Tower (afterwards Caesarea) and them through Esdraelon
from Mt. Carmel by 'Tabor and Bethshan to Gadara
with a number of cities E. of Jordan (154). Both he
and his widow aimed at Damascus (163). Later, the
Nabatzans retaliated by a siege of Jerusalem (xiv. 21) ;
Josephus describes them as ' no very warlike people'
(idid. 3). All the later Hasmonzean kings1 had
mercenaries in their army-another sure proof of their
commerce.
Meantime Jewish settlements abroad increased in all
the great towns ; but they do not appear to have excited
67. Jews and remark from the greatness of their
areeks. trade. Their business, except in the
case of a few prominent individuals,
must have been petty and parasitic. The Nabatzeans
appear better known to the Greeks, whose earliest notices
of the Jews are confined to their hatred of men (Posi-
donius of Apamea, born about 135 B. c., Fr. Hist. G r . ,
ed. Muller : through Diod. Sic. 34, f r . I ; Apollonius
Molon a teacher of Cicero, Fr. Hist. Gr. 111 213; cp Eus.
Prep. Evang. 9 19). Apollonius also charges them with
making no useful invention (quoted by Jos. c. Ap. 215).
With the civil rights granted to them in so many large
cities (Jos. Ant. xii. 32, etc.), however, they must have
risen to considerable commercial power, especially in
Antioch, Alexandria, and Cyrene (for the last cp Strabo
quoted by Jos. Ant. xiv. 72). The Jews of Asia Minor
deposited in Cos 800 talents, about ~ 2 9 2 . 0 0 0 (see
Reinach's n. 2 on p. 91 of his Testes d'aufeurs Grecs
et Ronz. relnfzys nu /udaisme).
We now pass to the last of our periods-the Roman.
The effects of Roman policy on the trade of the world
were more revolutionary than those of
68. Roman
period: Rome. any of the empires which preceded
them, and may be summed up under
the following five heads :--
(i. ) The centre of trade was shifted from W. Asia to
the other end of the Mediterranean and fixed at Rome.
This was rendered inevitable : politically by Rome's
rank as the capital of the Roman state ; commercially
by the Phcenician and Greek exploitation during the
previous periods of the W. Mediterranean, N. Africa,
Spain. and Gaul; geographically by the position of
Rome well down the great Italian promontory, which
runs so far out upon the Mediterranean, with its attend-
ant isle a day's sail from N. Africa, and its SE. cape a
few hours from Greece. Even in Republican times
Rome's central character had been assured both by the
roads which gathered to her from all parts of the pknin-
sula, and by the sea-traffic which filled her harbour of
Ostia or came up the 'Tiber to herself (even triremes and
penteremes reached the city under the Republic, and
under Augustus ships of 78 tons ; Gotz, 319).
(ii.) Above all the nations which preceded them, the
Romans excelled in the making of long lines of firm
69, Roman roads-first in Italy, towards Gaul, and
Spain, and then, as their empire extended,
roads, to the middle of Scotland in the N., and
to the farthest borders of Mesopotamia and the Arabian
province. By CEesar's time sixteen paved roads led into
Rome-the oldest the Via Appia S. by Capua with
branches to PUTEOLI (APPII F ORUM , T HREE T AVERNS ),
R HEGIUM (4s.), and Rrundisium. From Dyrrhachium
(another branch from Apollonia) the great route to the
E. made for THESSALONICA with a continuation to
Byzantium. For the Roman system of roads through
Asia Minor from Byzantium, Ephesus, and Smyrna, see
Ramsay, Hist. Gtog. As. Min. and the summary with
map in Miss Skeel's Travel in First Century after Christ
(Cambr. 1901); also A SIA , C APPADOCIA , C ILICIA ,
EPHESWS,G ALATIA , LAODICEA, PHRYGIA, S MYRNA,
1 Josephns (?,Ti. 2 5) says that John Hyrcanus w a s the first to
have mercenaries.
51%
TRADE A N D COMMERCE
etc. From Asia Minor to the Persian Gulf the lines
were little altered from those of the Greek period ( 5 69).
The Euphrates was bridged at Samosata, and there was
a bridge of boats at Zeugma (Sir) (Tac. Ann.1212).
From the Euphrates as from Byzantium the Pontus was
more easily reached. Antioch grew in influence a s a
knot of trade-routes 1 The road by Palmyra to the
Euphrates was more frequently used. Charax was still
the port on the Persian Gulf. The distances were
approximately these :-
From Tarsus to Antioch 5 to 7 days ; thence to Zeugma 6 ;
thence to Seleucia (Ctesiphon the Parthian capital) 23 or 24;
then to Charax 13 ; Seleucia t o Artaxata (for Ce:itral Asia) over
32 ; to Trapezus (Trebizond) over 40; from Antioch by Emesa
(Horn$)to Palmyra g days ; thence to the Euphrates at Circesium
5 or 6 (to Vologesias, lower down the river, 16, and thence
to Charax 29 or 30) ; Antioch to Damascus 7 to 9 ; thence to
Palmyra 5 or 6 ; Bosra to Charax across the desert 5 to 6 weeks ;
Damascus to Petra days to Gaza 7(at least) ; Petra t o Gaza not
el at?^
less than 5 . to 3 or ; and to Leuke Koine II or 12. Gam
to Pelusiuk was 6 or 7 days (Gotz 5); Pelusium to Alexandria,
5 or 6 by land, I to 2 by sea ; Alexandria to ' Babylon ' (later
Cairo) 4, to Arsinoe (Suez) 6, to Cyrene 20.2
In Syria and Palestine the ancient routes were
followed with no important variations ; and here we
must remember that, with the possible exceptions of a
few short stretches in the neighbourhood of the Coloniae
and other centres, none of the characteristic Roman
roads were laid down till the times of the Antonines,
nor, so far as the present writer has been able to
examine them, was the structure consistently so perfect
as in the Roman roads of Italy and the W. (for these
latter, see Gotz, 3 2 2 5 ; and Skeel, 45). Along these
roads an imperial service of post-horses and carriages
was developed by Augustus; later known as the
cursus publicus,' which civil officials, returning or
emigrating veterans, and of the soldiery all who carried
special passes, had the right to use. Each of the
mansiones or chief stations was supplied with an inn,*
stables, and about forty horses ; the intermediate rnutu-
tiones had about twenty (Gotz, 3 3 6 8 ; cp Skeel, 4 8 ) .
The variety, capacity, and speed of wheeled vehicles
was greatly increased ; and it is to the Romans that we
owe the first real development of the carriage of goods
on wheels, though pack animals, camels, mules, asses,
and even oxen, were still generally used (cp Jos. Vi#.
2126). Horses, mules (cp Horace's journey to Brun-
disium. Sat. Is), and asses were employed for riding.
On the breeding of horses, for different purposes, the
Romans bestowed great care. The security of the
roads was a constant matter of trouble to the pro-
vincial governors. In semi-independent principalities
(as we shall see under the Herods, 75). brigandage
was alwavs more rife : but even under uurelv I , Roman
government it frequently reappeared. Yet, on the
whole, the security of land-travel at the beginning of
the empire had immensely improved: cp Strabo,
vi. 4 2 ; Pliny, HN27 I , who calls the ' immensa R'omanae
pacis majestas,' 'velut alteram lucem . . .
rebus
humanis.'
(iii.) At sea the greatest change was the reduction of
the whole of the Mediterranean under one political
Then followed its clearance of
70. Mediter- ppwer.
pirates, first by Pompey and then by
raneaa Augustus (who also cleared the Red
Sea from the same pest). The consequence was an
enormous increase of the Mediterranean traffic, which
is described by many writers of the period in glowing
terms (Juvenal, 1 4 2 7 8 8 , 'the sea as thronged as the
land ' ; Philo, De Lcg. 21 : ' filled with merchantmen ').
Perhaps the most significant illustration is found in the
contrast between the Hasmonaean princes, who, till
after Jannzeus, never set foot on shipboard, and the
1 Josephus (Byiii. 24) reckons it the third city of the Roman
empire.
a Calculated from the Antonine Itinerary and the Peutinger
Table ; G6tz, 424fl gives slightly different calculations. Titus
took only 5 days to march from Pelusium to Gaza ; BJiv. 11 5.
3 For inns, used mostly by poorer travellers, see Jos. Ani
xvi. 5 I .
5186
 TRADE AND COMMERCE
Herods who were constantly passing to and from Italy.
3
See below, 75. But this applies only to the summer
season; ships were laid up (even in the middle'of a
voyage) froni November to iMarch. Philo (De Leg, 29)
explains the exceptional character of a winter voyage
(cp Jos. Ant. xvi. 2 I ) . ~ The size of the ships was con-
siderably, and their speed somewhat, developed. War-
vessels and the lighter (mostly private) passenger ships
carried many oars ; cargo-transports had but a few oars,
chiefly to turn the head of the ship in its tacking, and
depended on sails. They also carried passengers :
Josephus went to Rome in a ship with 600 souls on board
(Vit.3) ; and over zoo were reckoned on Paul's ship the Malabar coast to Alexandria was go days. The
(Acts 2737 ; see, however, S HIP, § 8). For a further
description see Skeel, 81&
The three principal ports on the Mediterranean were
Rome (with Ostia and Puteoli, the latter the goal of the
grain ships from Egypt), Alexandria,2 and Carthage.
Smyrna with the Asia Minor trade, as well as some from
Central Asia, came next. Delos was the great centre
of the slave trade ; Strabo (xiv. 5 2 ) mentions 10,ooo
slaves there. Rhodes maintained the flourishing con-
dition ascribed to it by Ezekiel (2715): it lay on the
Alexandria-Byzantium-BlackSea line. THESSALONICA
( 4 . v . ) had grown since the time of Alexander, and now
increased through its connection with Dyrrhachium.
Byzantium commanded the Black Sea, though much
of the traffic from the E. portion of this went by land
across Asia Minor. Corinth and Athens rather fell
behind ; but Corinth grew again under Trajan. On
the Syrian coast Berytus, a colonia of Augustus, grew
into prominence (see below, 75); PTOLEMAIS (9.v.) times of famine supplied Syria with food-stuffs. These
became the chief port for Rome-especially for the
soldiery, but also for commerce; and Herod founded
Czesarea (75); Gaza and, to a lesser degree, Anthedon
still flourished with the Nabatzean trade from the far
E. The importance of Tyre and Sidon was, therefore,
relatively (though not absolutely) diminished.
Strabo (iii. 25 x. 45,etc.), Pliny ( H N 1529 191,etc.),
Acts (20-28), Lucian ( N a v i s I-6),and others, furnish
us with data as to the time occupied by Mediterranean
voyages. If we take the sea from W. to E., from Gades
to Ostia was 7 days, from Carthage 2 to 3,from Puteoli
to Alexandria g days, from Athens to Smyrna z t . These
may be taken as express or even 6record' voyages.
For cargo boats with favourable winds we may add
25 to 50 p.c. Even when storms did not intervene, it
must have taken the grain ships of Alexandria well on
to a fortnight to reach Puteoli. From Cyprus to Tyre
and Sidon (to judge from the voyages of mediaeval
galleys) 24 hours would suffice ; the Syrian ports were
mostly within 12 hours of each other. But the un-
certainties were great. Herod sailing from Alexandria
to Pamphylia was driven by a storm, with loss of the
ship's cargo, to Rhodes, where he built a three-decked
ship and sailed to Brundisium for Rome (Jos. Ant.
xiv. 133). Lucian, who reached Cyprus from -4lexandria
in 7 days, took 63 more (having been driven to Sidon)
to reach the Piraeus (Nuvig. 1-6). For winds on
the Mediterranean, see Pliny, N N 2 iqfi ; Smyth's
Mediter. 2 3 0 8
(iv.) The trade down the Red Sea and across the
Indian Ocean was immensely increased ; and indeed
it is to this period that we owe the first
?l. Trade approximately exact data with regard to' instanced by Greek cities in Europe. See DECAPOLIS,
with it (Strabo, 60 B.C. to about 21 A.D.; Pliny
senior, 23-79 A . D . , and the anonymous Per@lus of the
1 Cp Jos. B'vii. 1 3 (last clause).
2 Cp i6id. iv. 10 5. See, too, The Meditmanean by
Admiral Smyth (London, 1854),pp. 27 46.
3 This was partly due, of course, to the obstructions to trade
raised upon the Mesopotamian and Persian Gulf route to India
by the rise of the Parthian empire and its frequent wars witd
Rome. Had the Seleucids continued to hold all Mesopotamia
the trade down the Red Sea in the Ptolemaic period, and th;
consequept wealth of the Ptolemies, could not have been so
great aj It was.
5x67
TRADE AND COMMERCE
Erythrzean Sea, 1st cent. ; Ptolemy, fl. circa 140).
But even though the discovery of the ' monsoons ' was
attributed to Hippalus, of the tinie of Augustus, we must
not suppose that t k s e had not been employed by navi-
s
gators in earlier periods (above, 17). The E. coast of
Africa was known as far as Madagascar. The way to
India was fairly opened up (Horace, E$$. i. 145J).
Ceylon had been known before the geographer Pom-
ponius Mela (about 150 B.c.), and now, with its
markets for the farther E., became quite familiar
(Strabo, 21, Ptol. 7 3 ) ; an embassy came from it to
Claudius (Plin. HNvi. 245). The time required from
Tiber and the Indus were thus less than 34 months
distant. Pliny ( H N l Y 4 1 ) estimates that every year
'India, Seres, peninsulaque,'-Le., Arabia-withdraw
from the Empire ~oo,ooo,ooo sestertii (about A885.416).
When Strabo went up the Nile with Elius Gallus he
learned that 120 ships left Myos Hormos (? Leukos
Limen; see 5 29, n. 4) for India, as contrasted with
' extremely few under the Ptolemies ' ( G e o p . ii. 5 12).
Yet these regular voyages did not destroy the Arabian
land-traffic. For reasons for this (eg.,the preference
of the age for land-routes and the loss to the value of
incense and spices when on the sea), cp Gotz, 4 3 6 8
We are now able to appreciate the growth, under the
Romans, of Alexandria. The bulk of the Indian trade
passed through its warehouses, as well as that from inner
Africa. Besides its exports of Egyptian grain, paper,
linen, and glass to Rome, it sent proportional quantities
(except of grain) to Syria, especially to Antioch, and in
were also brought thitiisr froni Cyprus.l
(v.) The civilised world found itself for the first time
under a common system of law-administered with
,3. Law, western consistency ; and even a maritime
lzr$ie, law began to exist. With the law there
spread a common coinage. Less extensive
was the use of the Latin language. Except
in the names of the coins, official designations, and a
few other terms, it did not in W. Asia displace Greek ;
the PeripZus is written in Greek, the harbours on the
Red Sea continue to have Greek names. W e shall see
a similar state of affairs among the Jews.
Thus though the Romans, unlike the Phcenicians,
and the Greeks, did not increase the bounds of the
73. s u m m ~known world, for they were not ex-
plorers, they reduced it to peace, and
Rome* bv this and their thorough- administra-
tion of every department of life, enormously increased
its commerce and wealth. The life of the world is
everywhere found in the most rapid circulation, against
the throng and change of which voices from an older
day appeal in vain. The mixture of nationalities on all
the main lines and centres is bewildering. Wealth and
luxury increase by leaps and bounds.
The Roman arms came into touch with the Jews on
the arrival of Pompey at Damascus 64-63 B.C. Among
,4. Bntipater. the first results were several which are
properly commercial. The Greek cities
E. of Jordan had been founded on the main trade
routes with a connection by Scythopolis with the sea.
Under Roman protectiop they were able for the first
time to carry out a trade-league, such as was already
$5 rf. Pompey also appears to have been attracted by
the trade of the Nabataeans (Jos. Ani. xiv. 3 3 J ) ,
with whom, as we have seen, the western world was
already more familiar than it was with the Jews. An
expedition to Petra ended in a treaty with the Nabataeans
(ibid. 51). Josephus (ibid. 41) also notes already the
palms and balsam of Jericho. Gabinius rebuilt cities
Dn trade line? which had been destroj-ed (53). T h e
policy of Antipater (cp HEROD, FAMILY OF, 5 2 )
1 The Crusaders also used Cyprus as a base of supplies;
L'Esfoirc de la Guerre Saintr, z i o o f l a 3 6 7 8 .
5188
 TRADE A N D COMMERCE
included treaties with Nabatzans, Gaza, and Ashkelon
( 1 3 J 7 3). and he supplied the army of Gabinius with
corn, weapons, and money (62, cp 51). The wealth
not only of the temple, through the contributions from
Jews of the Diaspora, but also of Jerusalem and J u d z a
as a whole, was considerable (7rf: with quot. from
Strabo). A limited freedom from taxes was granted
to the Jews ( 8 j 1 0 6 ; cp ~ O I O ) ,and Hyrcanus was
allowed the dues 011 corn (20,675 modii every year)
exported through Joppa to Phmnicia ( 1 0 6 ) . The
Senate restored to the Jews possessions taken Erom
them by the Phcenicians (106).
Herods earliest efforts (cp HEROD, FAMILY OF,
55 3-5) as governor of Galilee were directed towards
the dispersion of brigands (92 154) who
75. made the conveyance of even the neces-
saries of life a difficulty ( 1 6 2 ) . From the first Herod
continued, and after each of his reverses he renewed,
the policy of his father. When he songht a loan, it
was to the Nabataeans that he turned (141; BJi.14 I ) :
he sought their friendship; but on the extension of
his power E. of Jordan, he and they became bitter
rivals (xvi. 92). When Antony had given Cleopatra
the revenues of Jericho, Herod farmed them for her
(xv. 42). He got the coast-towns from Czsar, with
Gadara, Hippos, and Saniaria (all trade centres, 7 3 ) ;
and having fortified and embellished Samaria, he created,
25 m. distant from it at Straton's Tower, CESAREA
(9.".), the one real port between the Delta and Ptole-
mais (85 96). Thus the line across the Saniarian
mountains was in his hands; at its farther end lay
Phasaelis (and in the next reign Archelais) with palm-
groves reaching to Jericho, and easy fords across
Jordan, commanded probably by the fortress Alex-
andrium (Jos. AJi. 6 5 ; Strabo, xvi. 2 41 ; cp HG
352f). Further, Herod built ANTIPATRIS (on the line
Czsarea-Jerusalem as well as on the inland route N.
and S. over the maritime plain) (xvi. 52), and greatly
improved the fertility of the Jordan valley (ibid.). The
trade of W. Palestine, at least S . of Carmel, thus lay
in his hands; at Gadara. and Hippos, and Jericho he
intercepted the trade of E. Palestine, but there his hold
was precarious and femporary ; whilst at Gam he held
the tolls for Arabia via Petra, and for Egypt. Herod
mightily increased his opportunities, both of wealth
and of expense, by his many voyages to the W. (see
above, 5 70) : ( a )to Rome, Ant.xiv. 1 4 2 8 , and back
to Ptolemais, 151 ; ( b ) to Italy for his sons, xvi. 1 2 ;
( 6 ) to Ionia to M. Agrippa, 21 ; i d ) by Rhodes, Cos,
Lesbos, Byzantium. to Sinope, to Agrippa, returning
through .4sia Minor 1.0 Ephesus and thence by Samos ' in
a few days to Czsarea,' 22-4 ; ( e ) to Italy to accuse his
sons, and back by ' Eleusa,' off Cilicia, and Zephyrium,
4 1 $ , BJ i. 2 3 4 ; (f)to Italy ( ? A n t . xvi.91) ; (g)to
Berytus to the trial of his sons and back to Czsarea
(xvi. 11 2 8).Hemd was able to estimate the re-
sources of his countrymen of the Diaspora, and no
doubt to draw upon these in return for services
rendered them (e.g.,xvi. 5 3 ) . H e also received, among
other imperial donations, the revenues of copper mines
in Cyprus ( 4 5 ) . But, on the whole, as Josephus points
out (54), Herods expenditure constantly exceeded his
income. He would send money and provisions for the
imperial armies, and provide water (no doubt with the
help of the Nabatzans) on the desert marches between
Egypt and Palestine (xv. 67). and an auxiliary2 regiment
[e.g.,xv. 93). His lavish gifts to foreign cities resemble
the donations of a n American millionaire (xvi. 53). At
home, besides rebuilding the temple in eighteen months
(xv. 11 I), and constructing other public edifices on a
western scale (81, etc.), he had to bring corn from
Egypt, not only for bread for the cities of Jerusalem,
1 Cp the large sums obtained later by the Pseudo-Alexander
from ews in Crete and Melos (Ant. 17 12).
2 Iferod's foreign mercenaries are frequently mentioned ; c.g.,
BJi.183.
5'89
TRADE AND COMMERCE
but also for seed for the peasants on the occasion of a
famine (92). While, no doubt, his policy increased
the trade of his dominions, he milst at the same time
have hampered trade by his growing exactions. On
this Josephus speaks cautiously but emphatically
(xvi.54); cp the complaint of the Jewish embassy
to Augustus after the accession of Archelaus (xvii. 1 1 2 ) '
and the many seditions both in Herod's life-time and
later (1048).
Commercial events and processes under the Roman
procurators, or under the descendants of Herod (see
-76, Procuratore, HEROD, F AMILY OF. $5 6-13),'do
not call for special mention, beyond
later
~.
these facts. Herod Antipas by his
domains in Perea was brought into special relations
with the Nabataeans and the Decapolis ; and his build-
ing of Tiberias must have increased the traffic of
Galilee. The policy of Agrippa I. was milder towards
the Jews than that of Herod; his revenues were
about three-fourths of Herod's (xix. 82). He sailed
from Anthedon for Alexandria, and thence to Puteoli
(xviii. 63). The completion of the works on the temple
created a large number of unemployed for whom
work had to be found (xx. 97)-a striking instance
of the complications brought into Jewish life by the
Hellenic policy of the Herods. Josephus gives an
interesting account of the trade, wealth, and finance of
the Babylonian Jews (xviii. 9 ; xx. 23). Queen Helenaof
Adiabene brought food from Egypt and Cyprus for
Judzea during a famine (25). As the troubles with
Rome drew to a head (from 60 A . D . ) , brigandage in-
creased (54 85 9 3 8 , etc.).
As to the conditions of Syrian trade in the first
Christian century, we may say, in general, that it
suffered everywhere for periods, and in
77.
trade. some of the more desert parts always, from
robbers;2 and that, besides the exactions
noted, it was greatly hampered, especially among the
Jews of Judrea, by the strictness of the Law, and
above all by the provisions relating to the Sabbath and
to things clean and unclean (for a list of these
see Schiirer, G J V , ET, ii. 2 9 6 8 , 106fi). The
Sabbath prohibitions reflect almost wholly an agri-
cultural people ; yet those against writing and carrying
and putting a value on anything on the Sabbath
(ibid. 102) must have made trade on that day ini-
possible except by desperate subterfuges. The laws
against unclean things affected trade more deeply ; for
trade everywhere brought Jews, in any large ways of
doing business, into contact with the Greeks and other
foreigners. In spite of themselves, however, Hellenism
poured into their life through commercial channels.
For the very large list of trading terms and names
of objects of trade borrowed by the mixed Hebrew
of the time from the Greek language, see Schiirer.
GJV, ET, ii. 1 3 3 f. 3 6 8 Inns, different names for
dealers, foreign provisions and materials for dress,
some raw stuffs, and vessels for eating, carrying, etc.,
are Greek. So with some of the coins: the*rest are
Roman (P ENNY , etc. ) ; but the superscription-for the
Greek cities had their own coinage with Czssar's iniage-
was mostly in Greek. The large number of very small
coins in use (ibid.) betrays the great poverty of the bulk
of the population. Yet, here and there, very rich
individuals outside the official classes were found (.g.,
Ant. xiv. 13 5).
It is easy to form an idea of the objects of trade.
7L1.Objects The transit trade from Arabia to the
oftrade. Levant, and from Egypt to N. Syrin,
avoided Judzea (hence the ambition of the
Herods for coast-towns from Gaza northward), but was
1 He embellished foreign cities at the expense of his own;
and ' filled the nation with poverty.
9 Under the procuratorship of Cumanus they seized the
furniture of ' a servant of Czcsar' on the Beth-horon Road (BJ
ii. 12 a ; cp 13 3 6).
5190
 TRADE A N D COMMERCE
frequent and heavy across Galilee, especially between
Ptolemais and the Greek cities beyond Jordan.
Josephus (Vit.26) describes the wife of Ptoleniy, the
king's procurator, as crossing Esdraelon with ' 4 mules'
lading of garments and other furniture ' ; a ' weight of
silver not small,' and ' 500 pieces of gold.' Palestine
continued to export from the Jordan valley dates and
the balsam of Jericho (the passages already cited from
Jos. A n t . ; Diod. Sic. 1 1 48u ; 1998 4 ; Dioscorides 118;
Plin. 12 25 ; Thepphr. Hist. Plant. 9 6). Whether the
flax of Beth-shan, later so famous ( ' Totius Orbis Descr.'
in GeogT. GY. Min., ed. Muller, 2 5 1 3 8 ) , was already
grown there is uncertain. Wheat and oil were also
exported to Phoenicia; but, lavish as Josephus describes
the fertility and agriculture of Galilee to have been, it
was not thence but from Egypt and elsewhere that
Judzea brought her food and seed in times of famine.
In 66 A.D. John of Gischala had the monopoly of
exporting oil from Galilee, by which he made great
sums of money (BJii. 21 2 ) . Josephus mentions artificial
snow (Bjiii. 107). There was also exportation of
pickled fish from the Lake of Galilee, as far as Italy
(Strabo, xvi. 245). Taricheze, the chief port on the
Lake, means ' pickling-places ' ; Josephus describes it
as full of artizans and of materials for shipbuilding (BY
iii. 10 6). The temple of Jerusalem was, even on
ordinary days, an immense centre of trade; incense,
spices,2 priests' garments, and the supplies for the
daily sacrifices (cp Schiir. Hist. ii. 1269 298) alone necessi-
tated enormous markets, largely in the hands of the
priesthood (Keim, Lzye of Yesus, ET, 5 117 f:). T h e
temple-finances-not only the sacred revenues but also
private deposits 4-were managed by special officials
(Schiir. id. 261). All this business was heightened
enormously at the time of the great festivals-when
food (largely pickled fish from the Lake of Galilee and
the Levant) had to be supplied for the incoming multi-
tudes; and no doubt much private business also was
transacted. Among the traders of Jerusalem, Josephus
enumerates those in wool, brass, cloth ( B l v . S I ) , timber
(ii. 1 9 4), and all kinds of artisans.
In the N T there is a considerable reflection of all this
life. The Gospels, relating large catches of fish in
79. Trade in the Lake, which must in that climate
been immediately cured, are curiously
the Gospels. silent about the conveyance of the fish
for this purpose by the Jewish fisherman to the Greek
curer. But of other business, so thriving in Galilee,
they give us many glimpses. One of the disciples keeps
toll on the transit-trade at Capernaum (Mt. 9 9 ) . Many
of the hearers of Jesus are publicans (P UBLICAN ).
Zacchzeus was probably farmer of the state revenues of
the balsam gardens of Jericho. The use of the objects,
means, and tempers of trade by Jesus is very instruc-
tive (cp above, on Proverbs, 61). The parables
reflect the roads and journeys, mostly of Galilee but
also of Judzea : a merchant seeking goodly pearls ; a
Samaritan traveller, rescuing a Jew fallen among thieves,
and paying for him at an inn ; the prosperous farmer
and his new barns; the woman with her little store
of silver ; the rich man and his steward ; the farming
of estates to husbandmen by absentee landlords ; and
other of the economic relations of the time. In the
light of what we have seen in previous periods
(I§ 11 48J), it is interesting that the Parable of the
Pounds imputes trade to kings through their servants.
From the early Pharaohs to the Herods trade had always
been a royal business. And the teaching Of Jesus is full
1 Also BJi. 6 6 ; cp Hor. E). ii. 2 1e4. For the farming of the
groves by the Romans see W. Pressel's Priscilla an SaKna.
a ' Sweet-smelling sAices with which the sea replenished it ' :
B l v . 5 4. There were thirteen kinds.
-3 B j i i . 3 3 vi. 5 2.
4 Such are mentioned in B j i . 139 iv. 5 1 , etc. There were
also the public treasures (cp 8 66) held in the royal palace (BJ
i. 139, iv. 34), where also business contracts were deposited
(ii. 176).
5'9'
TRADE A N D COMMERCE
of appreciation of the bigness of its methods and of the
brave tempers required in it (Mt. 1 3 4 5 f . , Lk. 1 6 9 8 ) .
He frequently likens to its pursuit the search after the
true riches. At the same time his warnings are many
against covetousness and the temper of the trading
Gentiles. Galilee was a place where a man might gain
the whole world and lose his own soul. The temple
courts had become a fraudulent market-the house of
God a den of thieves.
On the social life of the early Christian societies see
C OMMUNITY OF GOODS, D EACON , etc. The progress
A,,ts arrdof the new faith was along the lines of
Epistleas trade and in the great trade centres-
L YDDA, JOPPA, CBSAREA, ANTIOCH,
D AMASCUS , the cities of ASIA M INOR , THESSALONICA,
C ORINTH , ROME. Paul worked at his own trade (Acts
183 20338), and other commercial pursuits are men-
tioned among the early Christians ('Erastus the
treasurer of the city,' Rom. 1623 ; ' Alexander the
coppersmith,' 2 Tim. 414 ; Zenas ' the lawyer, ' Tit.
3 1 3 ; 'Simon a tanner,' Acts 943 ; Lydia ' a seller of
purple,' 1 6 1 4 ; Aquila and Priscilla, like Paul, tent-
makers, 183). The Apostolic letters, however, con-
tain, besides the general warnings against covetousness,
extremely few references to trade, either for illustration
or warning :-Jas. 4 1 3 8 , 5 1 3 I Thess. 2.9 2 Thess.
3 8 (Paul's own example of industry) I Thess.411
2 Thess. 39 8 (exhortations to do your own business
and to work with your hands ... that ye may
walk honestly towards them that are without and
may have need of nothing') Rom. 1 3 7 8 (taxes, and
debt) I C o r . 7 3 0 ('those that buy as though they pos-
sessed not'). The fewness of such references is the
more conspicuous when the many passages on the
relations of masters and slaves are contrasted with it.
The lifting of the burdensome law from the lives of
the Jewish converts to the new faith must have given
them fresh advantages in trade ; cp Peter's vision at
Joppa,' in which the sheet, let down from heaven, full
of things clean and unclean, has been compared to
the sails of the merchant ships in the roads visible
from the Joppa house-tops (see HG141$), 'What
God hath cleansed call not thou common' (Acts
1098:). W e may take for granted that the rise of
Christianity had far-reaching economic effects-e.g.,
upon the fortunes of certain trades (cp the outcry of
the Ephesus silversmiths, Acts 19 24 X), and still
more deeply-as in parts of India to-day where a
rise in wages has been known to follow the adoption of
the new faith-upon the wage-earning slaves and
freedmen.
In the Book of Revelation the peculiar traders of
LAODICEA ( p . v . )are referred to. On the mark, the
81. Book of name of the beast, which gave license
to buy and sell ( 1 3 1 7 ) , see the com-
mentaries. In the picture of Rome,
Babylon the Great, as in the prophet's account of her
namesake of old, her vast trade is included : Rev. 1 8 3 ,
' the merchants of the earth waxed rich by the power of
her luxury' ; ZI. 11, ' the merchants of the earth weep and
mourn over her, for no man buyeth their cargo.' Then
follows a list of her imports. Compared with those
assigned to Tyre and Babylon by the prophets, there is
nothing new except S ILK (q.ZI. ) ; but note the emphasis
in ZI. 13 on 'bodies and souls of men.' Rome's fall
means the destruction of commerce and industry
[ 1 8 1 5 - q ) . With this acknowledgement of Rome as the
:entre of the worlds trade, we may finish our survey of
the Roman period. In the prophecy of her fall there
may be traced a just sense of the precariousness of her
:ommercial, apart from her political, position. Less than
1 couple of centuries saw the gradual disappearance of
ier trade to other positions naturally more fitted to
ittract it.
1 For a description of Joppa, see Jos. BJiii. 9 3.
5r9=
 TRADE A.ND COMMERCE
IV. TERMINOLOGY I N OT
An account of the terminology of trade among the
Israelites will complete our survey, . by. giving
- - a number
of names both of agents and pro-
trade in OT. cesses not touched on in the pre-
fo ceding history. The appended list
is as nearly as pos.sible exhaustive so far the OT is
concerned. It ought to be noted that a great many
of the terms and phrases given are used only metaphori-
cally ; yet, in the case of nearly all of these, the meta-
phorical (generally a religious) use implies a previous
direct employment in common life. The list presents
many points of historical interest of which the following
may be summarised by way of preface to it.
i. The OT terms are all Semitic. Down to the
Greek period there are in fact no others-none of
Egyptian and none of Persian or Indian origin. This
is the more striking in that so many of the names of
articles and objects which trade introduced into the
Hebrew vocabulary are Egyptian or Persian-plants,
raw materials, gal-ments, etc. ; and that from their
Persian masters Israel also adopted a number of political
terms. That none of the agents or processes of trade
even in the Babylonian and Persian periods are of non-
Semitic origin is clear proof that till the advent of the
Greeks the trade of W. Asia remained in Semitic hands
(witness the dislike of the Egyptians to trade, § 12)and
that all the foreign commerce of Israel was achieved
through Semitic tribes or nations who spoke a Semitic
tongue ; further ev.idence that the non-Semitic PHILIS-
TINES ( p . ~, . 5 J :I, with whom the early Hebrews did
so much trade, had adopted ‘ the lip of Canaan.’ As.
soon as the Greeks come to Syria we perceive a change :
the purely Semitic words for trade and trader are
displaced in M H b’y Greek terms ; and there is a great
influx of Greek names for specialised forms of trading,
and for the articles and objects of trade (see above,
177 ; also H ELLENISM. 5).
ii. The O T terms all belong to the common Semitic
stock and are native to Hebrew except in the case of
a small number borrowed from the Assyrian probably
through the Aramzan (e.g., mn, ]?I), and these are
chiefly in P and the post-exilic writings. Of course,
some others may be of Phenician or Arainzean origin ;
but this it is impos!;ible to prove.
iii. There is clear evidence in the OT terminology of
a gradual growth and organisation of commerce in
Israel. For ( a ) the number of terms, and the frequency
of the instances of teach increases from Dt. onwards and
rapidly in P and .Ezra-Neh. (6) Especially are there
more words for ‘ property,’ ‘ wealth,‘ ‘ substance,’ or at
least these occur more frequently ; (c) terms of general
significance ( n y , ip, and the like) have specially com-
mercial meanings attached to them in the later writings ;
( d ) the shades of meaning increase in the case of some
words, or the various processes (cp ‘ valuation ’ and the
like) are carefully differentiated; ( e ) the mention of
deposits of money becomes more frequent; (f) old
processes of a primitive type are displaced by more
formal and by written deeds ; cp the sale of land in
Ruth 4 with that in Jer. 32 ; (9) and yet in spite of all
this, Hebrew trade remains somewhat simple ; there is,
e.g., no mention in the OT of a trading company.
The Hebrew names for trade, traders, and merchants,
and for the various Drocesses and conceptions included
83. Detailed under trade are as follows :-
( a ) National names specialised to mean
v o c a b u l ~ tradt,,s.
. 1
I. KZna‘dni, m? !%’ ‘Canaanite’ or ‘Phcenician,‘ means
‘trader ’ in Job 40 3d [416], Prov. 31 24 @ut @ @orvixov, Xava-
valoors). There is a plural form with suff. ?’p? in Is. 23 8 : and
in Zech. 11 7, 11 ?>>yiJ is, aftere, to be read wjyj> with the
same sense. In Hos. 128 North Israel is described as a 1 ~ 3 3
1 These have heen alluded to already, 5 13.
5x93
TRADE AND COMMERCE
(eXsvcrav); inZepb.111 ip!? DY!?? is probably used of the
mercantile portion of Jerusalem generally(@ rr& b AabcXavaav) :
in Ezek. 16 29 (eom.) and 17 4 (@BO Xavaav, @ A X U A G Q ~ V )
Chaldea is called a ‘ land of j y 3 p ’-i.e., ‘trade.’ (Cp CANAAN,
8 2, col. 639 [and on the text-critical questions arising out of the
passages referred to, cp Crit. Bib.].)
2. mZddnim, D ’ n n for midyanim, O?‘:l Midianites, Gen.
37 28 36, and
3. yiZnZ’Zim, n’&F@:, ‘ Ishmaelites’(Gen. 3725 39 I), may
also (as we can see from a careful observation of these passages)
have heen used in the sense of traders. On the other hand there
is no provable connection (tempting a s it might be to suppose
one) betwegn 2 7 in ~ its sense ‘ t o do trade’ (see below) and lly
‘Arabians.
(a) Names f o r Traders and T r a d e i n General.- For
theSe the Hebrews used four terms, the radical meaning
of all of which was the same : viz., ‘ to go about ’ :-
Tnn, ~ I T ,i?n and iqw. Of these the first three when
applied to trading are practically synonymous.
I . s+r, i n n (cp Assyr. sa&&% ‘ t o turn round ’ ; Syr. ‘ to go
ahout as a beggar’ : in M H ‘ to go ahout as a pedlar ’), in the
OT used exclusively (with metaphorical applications) of travel-
ling, making circuirs or tours, for trade : Gk. 2prropdedlar by
which @ renders’it.1 Gen. 42 34 (JE) of the right to trade in
Egypt granted by Joseph to his brethren, Gen. 3410, 21 (P?):
??l!D ‘traverse, or trade in, it ’--Le., the land. Jer. 14 18: meta-
phorical of prophet and priest, ‘trafficking’ (@ &opav’&pau).
T h e pt. s@Zr (lnb) is one of the usual terms for ‘merchant,’ 03
&~lropos. Gen. 37 28 (JE) ‘ men, Midianites, merchants.’ I K.
1028 (I1 z Ch. 116) ?&? ’1“: either thekraeliteagentsthrough
whom Solomon did trade with the N. Syrian Musri and KuC or
(more probably) horse-dealers of those lands who traded with his
agents : cp Is. 47 15 7 p n b not ‘thy native merchants’ but those
(foreigners) who trade with thee,’ Babylon (cp 03). Ez. 27 3 4 :
‘ t h e merfhants among the peoples ; 58 13 : the merchants of
Tarshish ; z Ch. 9 14 : ‘the chapmen and merchants.’ Other
phrases :-Ez. 27 21 : ‘ the merchants of thy hand’ ; Gen. 23 16
(P): ‘money current with the merchants’ (lflbi lab rp); cp
KESITAH ; Prov. 31 14 : 1 n i D (sic) ‘a merchant-ship ’ ; Is.
2 3 2 : ‘the merchants (@ pc~af36hor)of Sidon that pass over
the sea.’ The fem. pt. sa&&eth (nlvb) is used of cities, etc.-
Tarshish, Aram, Damascus-trading with Tyre ; Ez. 27 12 16 18.
Derivatives :-(u) lo!: Is. 233 18 ; 45 14 RV ‘ mart’ and
‘merchandise,‘ but (cp the parallel ]>nv in 2318) more
probably ‘profit,’ cp Prov. 3 14, 31 18.2 For tll;.+r ( T D ~ in
constr.), I K. 10 15, taken by the lexicons a s a separate word,
Klost. reads l ? e p (6) si&ri/~ (n!hD), ‘trade,’ is used collec-
tively of ‘ traders ‘ : Ez. 27 15.
2. r/ikaZ,!?31(cp 511 ‘to march ’ or ‘go ahout ’ :h a m . a>$?,
Syr. rukkda, ‘travelling merchant,’ ‘pedlar ‘)is also used in the
O T of trade exclusively. The pt. rdki2 is synonymous with
s8[z2r,but, except in I K. 10 15, is found onlyin later writers: 3 Ez.
174 : ‘a city of merchants’ (D.>?l l’Y)-i.e., Babylon ; 27 13 15
17 22-24 (of various nations trading with Tyre); Cant. 36,
‘powder of the merchant’. Neh. 3 31f: : ‘the house of the
Nethinim and of the merchhnts’ : this was opposite the Gate
Ham-Miphkadh (see J ERUSALEM , 8 24 [IO]). The fem. pt. r8.W
Zeth is used in Ezek. 2720 (of Dedan) 23 (collectively of five
peoples : omit NlW h;l). Although the root $31 (like $11) was
used as in h:=slander (cp M H n h ) in a had sense, there
is no reason for supposing that any derogatory meaning was
intended by its employment for trading. Deriv. :-(a) rFkuZkih
‘trade’ : Ez. 2B 12, 28 5 16 18. (6) marh8leth ‘market’ : Ez:
27 24 (hut see Cornill).
d
.
3. tzir, 1tp1 (Assyr. f&u ‘ to turn’ reJ. Ar. tEra ‘to go
about ’)is used in the O T in Kal of exploring land, Nu. i 3 z etc. ;
in Hiph. of exploringor
. - suyinn,
.. Tudn.- 12?(1). Cu SPIES. T h e
~
pt. kal in the phrase D%? is used of traders parallel with
P’>!i, I K. 1015,and with D’,o:b, 2 Ch. 9 14.
4. lrv, Targ. ‘ t o run ’ (Ass. . W u ‘ t o go about’ ; Ar. sdra
‘to go ahout ’ esp. in trading c a r a v k ) . Is. 57 9 : ‘ thou dids;
travel with ointment (hut see ‘ Isaiah,’ SBU I”, note to Is. 5 i 9,
where existence of the verb la^ is denied) ; Ez. 27 25 : ‘ ships of
1 [On I K. 1028, cp MIZRAIM,8 2 a ; also’througbout cp
Crit. Bi6.1
2 Similarly in modern E. Syriac 6 6 z d r means both ‘trade ’ and
‘profits’ : Maclean, Dict. of Yernac. Syr. [19or].
3 [On the difficult phrase in I K. 10 15 cp S OLOMON, 8 IO
SPICE MERCHANTS ; on Neh. 33rf: M ERCHANT 2 and Am=;
Journ. of The02 July 1901 (I NLthinim’=‘E’thktes,’ and
r6kilim= Jerahm2ehm) ; see also Crit. Bi6.1
5194
 TRADE AND COMMERCE
Tarshish were $:Cii$,’ RV ‘thy caravans,’ hut Cornill reads
$3nle, ‘ served thee.’
With these we may take the following terms signifying
way or going as applied to trade or business.
( I ) ddrek, 711. Is. 58 13, ‘1ai$’!= to do hnsines ;
(2) hdlikrilr, n ? h , ‘caravan’(butperhapsmetaph.: lit. ‘going’;
also procession) : of Sheba, Job 6 19 ; cp Bihl. Aram. $h, ‘ way.
money,’ toll, Ezra 4 13, etc.
(3) ‘cirZ&ah,n@, ‘ caravan ’ always of merchants, Gen. 31 25,
or of mercantile tribes ; Is. 21 13 : Dedan ; Job 6 18f: : Tema.
’ c h i & , nlk, the pt. is used of travellers in general : Jer. 9 I [2] the qhject, Pss. 6010[81 108 10[91. (6) tb‘ridrik, nlqyn, ‘attesta-
n n l k 11ig (but Giesebrecht after @ $lgN [cp also Crif. Bi6.]),
a ‘caravanserai.’ nill!=provision for journey: YDl and yDD
refer to the journeys of nomads’ camps (cp TENT, $ 2); he
who prepares the camping ground, the quarter-master, i&
“cup, Jer. 51 59. [But see SERAIAH, 4.1
( c ) Merchants’ Qua&?-s. -Travelling merchants took
up their quarters in special parts of the towns to which
they took their goods.
hri@fh, nih!p, ‘streets’ or ‘bazaars,’ were what Ben-hadad‘s
father was allowed by treaty to build in Samaria and Ahab in
P m a s c u s ( I K. 2034), probably for their merchants ; cp the
bakers’ street’ in Jerusalem, Jer. 3721. The MAKTESH(pa.
cp also JERUSALEM, col. 2424) appears to have heeen a quarte;
of the city where the p * j y 1 ~or ‘merchants’ 0 resided (Zeph.
111). For ‘the house of the merchants ’ see above under p * $ ~ l ‘ 19 I 32 7 8 15 43 Gen. 49 30 50 13 (both P). Also in a more
for the fish-, sheep-, and horse-gates see JERUSAL)EY, s 24. coll.’ general sense of purcha5ing a Hebrew slave through his falling
2424 3 For ,market see n$?n ’
above (6 2 [a]) ; for caravan-
serai, O’mk @, see b (3).
( d ) Trading Companies.-There is no mention of
these in the OT; but wecanhardlydoubt that theyexisted.
(I) @6er, 127, ‘a company of priests for robbery,’ Hos. 6 9 ;
‘ a house held by a number of people,’ Pr. 219 25.2, (but
Gk. and Toy read 2m). (2) ?za66dr, lzn, ‘a guild’ or ‘society’
of fishermen, Job 40 30 [416], (cp Phcen. 137 and Assyr. e6m, ‘ a
comrade’).l (3) mi*d&h, np??p, lit. ‘family,’ or ‘clan ’ ; hut
‘a guild’ of scribes, I Ch. 2 55 ; ‘of linen workers,’ 4 21.
( e ) Yayious Processes included under Trade.
I . Barter and exchange. ( I ) 14, ‘to give one thing for 22 11 (Pk).
another,’Joe14[3] 3(3 before the object taken in exchange; cp
Lam.1 II), Ezek.271;($ before the object given in exchange), 16
(? before both objects), ;4 (without ; both objects in the acc.); and Ex. 21 7 (JE), Ps. 105 17 Ezra 74 ; cattle, Ex. 21 37 [221]
cp Dt.1425, ‘togive for money‘: 18?3;Ps.155, ‘forinterest’:
(2) The antithesis of p! is ,lei; and so in Neh. 10 32,
nincn (Ba. ”@,lit. ‘things t o be taken,’ are ‘wares for sale ’;
cp Talmud nzn or nFp, buying’ or ‘article bought.’
(3) iqn, ‘to exchange’, doesnot appear in the O T in the sense
of barter(Lev. 21 TO 33 the substitution of one beast for another ;
Ezek. 48 14, of one pie:e ofland for another); yet the fact that the
Syr. mar means ‘to import victuals’ proves that a t one time
among the Aramreans it was used in the sense ‘to barter.’
Deriv. a?np, ‘exchange,’ Ru. 47, Job 28 17 ; ‘the thing ex-
changed,’ Lev. 27 IO 33 (P) ; ‘gain ’ or ‘ profit ’ as a result of
trade, Job 2018; also compensation,’ 1531.
(4) Nor does ‘to exchange,’ appear in the O T for barter ;
yet is used twice : Nu. 18 21 31 (P) in the sense of ‘returns,’
‘rewards for’ service rendered : and Hoffmann (Ph6niz.
Inschriften, 2 0 ) gives &q as = equivalent (in exchange) ;
(Bloch, Ph&. Gloss.) <payment,’ ‘n o$&, ‘to reward.’
(5) usually ‘to pledge ’ (see below, 3 [SI), is used in Ezek.
?7927 as=‘to exchange.’ I n pther Sem. languages it is to
furnish security,’ or ‘to pledge. The original meaning seems
to be to mix or ‘mingle,’ as in NT, Aram., Syr., and Heb.
Hithpael; yet thismay be a secondary meaning, through ‘having
intercoursewith. Deriv. >:!In, sg. and pl. ‘wares.’ (6) I t is
possible that the difficult ] i 3 y (see below, 7 181) in Ezek. 27
means ‘ exchange.’
z. Bargain, contract, etc. (I) The very wide use of 6 i f h ,
n v , to express a ‘covenant’ between men (see C OVENANT),
and its application in Job 4028 14141 to an engagement
between master and servant, are evidence of the probability of
its employment for business contracts;z (2) &dzrifh,nm, is used
in Is. 28 18 as a synonym for n’??; cp n’ln in Levy, NHWB.
(3) tZirimcfhy d , 1; n Q ? h ,Lev. 521 [621 (P), lit. ‘something
1 In M H the root is used apparently only of societies for
religion or learning. See further H ANDICRAFTS col. 1955.
2 Yet in M H it seems t o be used only in a theblogical sense.
5195
TRADE AND COMMERCE
placed in the hand’ or ‘trust’ of another, is translated by E V
‘ bargain ’ : @ rrorvovia.l (4) n’ribhd7, 12;. ‘affair,’ in Ruth 47
in sense of transaction ; l?+ o.!?, ‘to ? confirm any transac-
tion.’ (5) This confirmation, in cases in which the object bought
and sold could not be handed over, appears to have been symbol-
ised hy the seller drawing off his shoe or sandal, i y ? ?!$, Ruth,
47f:; cp Dt. 2 5 9 8 ; where it symbolises the giving up of one’s
right; WRS K B . 269. Cp R UTH, S H O E ; also, for a similar
action among the Arabs Burton Land of Midian 2 1 9 7 . and
Goldziher, Adhand. z. Arab. Phkol. 147 (quoted b; Buhl: Die
socid. VerhZlfnissederZsvaelifen,94, n. 2): The antithesis ‘t:
take possession ’ was syAbolised by ‘throwing one’s shoe over
tion, Ruth 47. (7) In J e r . 3 2 9 X we find another mode of
conveyance (which probably displaced the primitive one just
noticed). A deed of sale (nlpf3;r pa)was signed by the buyer
lp& y l i D , and witnesses ;ere called who also signed. T h e
deed was in two copies, one sealed (om?), and one open
(‘h$?),and placed in an earthen vessel ; cp Johns, op. L i t . 34.
‘The terms and conditions of the sale’ (?)=n‘(?r[;r] aL!p?
(8) ‘ They strike hands,’ Is. 2 6, ?p’?Fl ; espec. if wit; Hi. and
Du. we read ~3 for 1 i i q . But see Che. SBOT ‘ Isaiah,’ and
Ges.-Buhl, Lex.(lz) S . D . pab.
3. Buying and selling. The commonest words are kdnrih.
?Jp, and makar, 132, Is. 24 2 ; iJiB8 .?lip,‘like buyer like
seller’ ; Ezek. 7 12, cp Zech. 115. (I) kinah, lit. ‘to make, or
obtain,’ is applied to purchasing either with ID??, Ani. 8 6 Is.
4324, or alone, Gen. 39 I , @ ~ K ~ ~ U C Z(JE) T O ; 2 S. 12 3 Jer. 13 I
into one’s debt ; Ex. 21 z (JE). Also metaphorically; Ex. 15 16
Is. 1111, etc. ; kbneh, ‘the buyer,’ Is. 242 Ezek. 7 12, is used
also as owner Is. 1-, Bib. Aram. N J ~‘ t o buy,’ Ezra 7 17.
Deriv.:-(a) &neh,>but only in sense of ‘ property,’ cattle(Ex.
1026, etc.) or land (Gen. 49 32, K ~ U L S ) ; cp C ATTLE , 8 8 end.
$4) mi&nah, besides meaning ‘possession ’ is used for ‘ sale ’ ;
Dn 1SD =deed of sale, Jer. 32 I I ~ ;.or object sold 182 n?p,
‘a puichased slave,’ Gen. 17 12f: 23 (cipyup6vqros), Ex. 12 44 ;
or ‘purchase-price,’ Lev. 2516 ( & K ~ U L S(all ) P); also qD.
ni!?!, Lev. 2551, ‘the money for which he was bought’ (&py+ov
mjs r p d u e o r a h + ) . (c) kinyrin, ‘property ’ in widest sense ;
i9Dz ];I?, ‘the produce of his money * (Evarr)ros dpyvpiou), Lev.
(2) mrikar, ‘ t o sell,’ with pretii: of selling persons ; Gen.
31 15 (JE), @ rCsparw ; of selling a bride ; so also the Aram.
mikar, or men and women as slaves, Gen. 37 27f: (@ &ro%&opc),
(JE), Lev.2727 (@ rpa&jumar, P); land, Lev.2523 34 (etc., P).
birthright Gen. 25 31 (JE) ; land, Ezek. 7 1 2 3 , or any property’
Lev. 25 25)27, or any wares, Neh. 13 16. So generally, m8k2;
‘ seller,’ Is. 24 2. The same general sense attaches to 132 in
Phcen MH and‘ Ansyr.; in the latter damguru or tamkam
Syr. f&gdrd,?= merchant ’ Del. Ass. HWB, 222. Derivv. : I
(a) mdker, ‘price’ or ‘ valud,’ Nu. 20 19 (JE) ; cp Pr. 31 IO ; also
wares’ or ‘things for sale,’ Neh. 13 16. (b) mimkdr, ‘act of
sale ’ ; Lev. 25 27, @ spPu~rs,29 50, etc. ; 33 (nil “n= house that
was sold ’), or ‘ thing sold,’ 25 25 Ezek. 7 13 ; or ‘ wares for sale ’=
13D Neh. 1320. (3) &&ah, ;nj ‘to buy,’ Dt. 26, pe‘rppr
A4~$ru0e, Hos. 3 2 Job 6 27, to mike merchandise of a friend
or ‘haggle,’ 4030 [416] with $$!. Acc.toTalm. X.haSh.,kirah
was used on the coast, Levy, NHWB 2323; Ar. kara=
to hire, kirri, ‘wage.’ (4) mZbtir, l’np, ‘price’ or ‘payment,
2 S. 24 14 I K. 10 28, l’np? ; I K. 21 2, l’nn qDp ; CP Pr. 17 16
27 26; also ‘ wage,’ Dt. 23 19 [IS] Mi. 3 I I ;6 the phrase c’?? d7
Op’?.’vf3?, ‘ thou hast not gone high with their price,’ Ps. 44 13;
Pr. 22 16 appears to hare a different sense. Assyr. ma&u, cy
Del. Prol. 93, Ass.HWB 400, 404, from malufm, ‘ to be opposite
-i.e., mutual. alone means price, Gen. 31 15, ‘ the money
paid for us.’ ( 5 ) mdhar, ‘to buy a wife,‘ @ + F ~ v L E ~ , ; Ex.
22 15 [r6]. Deriv. mbhar, ‘price of a wife,’ Aram. malrQrd,
$yr. mahrd, Ar. mahr (MARRIAGE 5 I). (6) &&ar, 13w,
to buy corn’ ; Gen. 41 57 42 5 47 ;4, @ &yop<erv, 422, @
rpiadBr; ‘ t o buy victuals,’ with ‘akel (s?k), Gen. 427 IO, etc.,
Dt.26. Hi. ‘ t o sell corn,’ @ ;&Aer, Gen.426(@ ;pnoAPv
~psopnicuOat) Am. 8 5 3 ; with 5?k, Dt. 2 28, @ L a o 8 i q . (7)
@dah, 318, ‘to buy free’ or ‘ransom,’ @ Aurp60, Ex.5420
13 (P)’ Dt. 7:. etc., A r . f a d r i , Assyr. $add, ‘to buy
”
?
e
$! %th. td ‘pay. Derivatives $idyam, .n, ptdriyim,
‘ransom money.’ (8)gri’al, h, ‘to redeem.‘ Barth, Efym.
Sf.18, gives Ar. 3Yrilat, ‘price.’ Derivative gt’tildlr, usually
1 in M H is ‘to appraise,’ ‘value.’
2‘[So Jensen Z A 6 34 for another view of the derivation of
the Syriac see h6ld. in 8Caenkel’s Arm8i1. Fremdw. 181fJ
5196
 TRADE AND COMMERCE TRADE AND COMMERCE
‘redemption,’ but also, Ler. 25 j ~ ‘the , sum paid.’ Q T& hhpa. yithfln Eccles. 13, etc., ‘profit,’ in general, M H yuthrun ; (6)
y8&r, “profit,’ Eccles. 68 T I ; (c) mbthrir, ‘profit,’ PI. 1423 of
(9) kdjher, 1?2, ‘quit-money,’ @ A ~ T ~ o v .(IO) Bibl. h a m .
z&n, 131, ‘ t o buy,’ is used metaphorically, Dan. 2 8 ; found
Iabour, 21 5. (3) lWy, to be rich.’ Deriv. 1WY >e!, ‘ t o make
also in MH, Targums p b . , Palm., and Syr. Supposed to be riches,’ Jer. 17 11.1 (4)hdn, ]rn, ‘riches,’ ‘goods,’ Ezek. 27 12
fro” Assyr. zibbn?tu, balance ’ (see Ges.-Bu.). Ar. farnun, 18 33 and PI. (5) &dyil, 5:0, ‘substance’ or ‘wealth,’ ‘n nosty,
‘ price ’ ‘ value ’ (Spiro, AY. Eng. Yocab.). Dt. 8 17f: Ezek. 28 4 (6) ~“hrisisim,O’D?l, wealth ’ of various
4. Hiring, lending ledging. sorts, Josh. 22 8 (D), 2 Ch. 111f: See CATTLE, 8 8, end. (7)
(I) jrikar l ~ b .’Po
, hire,’ with 3 pretii &rdo4uBar), rdkaS, 0j i , ‘ to gather,’ and YZkzG, ‘ substance ’ or ‘ goods,’ in
mercenary iroops, Judg. 9 4 2 S. 106 I Ch. 196f: 2 Ch. 256; a general ; Gen. 12 5, @ T& 3rrripXpvTa a 3 G v 8ua Bmmjuauro, and
priest, Judg. 18 4 ; a workman, Is. 46 6 2 Ch. 24 12 ; a husband; frequently elsewhere in P, also in Ezra and C h Of the royal
Gen. 3016; cp Pr. 26 IO [Heb.]. Ar. S a k a r a = ‘ t o thank.
Derivatives :-(u) tdker, ‘ wage,’ Pr. 11a& l ? W ‘VY, ‘ makers of property, I Ch. 27 37 28 I 2 Ch. 31 3 35 7. (8) ‘ii2Z6an, iigy, in
wages,’ Is. 19 IO. (t.)&ikrir, the conmoner word for ‘wage,’ Q Ezek. 27 12 14 etc. means wares,’ but in v. 27 it is parallel t o
p ~ u 0 6 ~ Gen.
. 3028 32f: 31 8, etc. (JE); Ezek. 29 18 (metaph.); han. Hoffm. P h h Znsrhr. 15 gives the original meaning a s
‘hire,’ for a n article, Ex.2214 [I)] (JE); for man and beast, ‘produce’ or ‘results of trade,’ from 37y=>ry. T h e Assyr.
Zech. 8 IO. (c) drikir, ‘let on hire’ ; cattle, Ex. 22 14 [15] ; ed6u is ‘ t o leave over,’ uzu6(6)rr, ‘a payment.’ See also above,
persons, Ex. 12 45 Lev. 22 I O 25 50 (all P), Dt. 15 18 24 14 Mal. under log, a;??, l’p,7!?DF, pn?. (9) bri?n‘, yX3, lit.
3 5 Job 14 6, etc. ; mercenaries, Jer. 46 21. Note that the hirer ‘ t o break off,’ ‘take unjustly,’ Pr. 1 1 9 1527 Ezek. 22 12 27, Pi.
asks the servant what his wage will be, Gen. 29 15 3028. et.the ‘to finish ’ a work, Is. 10 12, etc. Deriv. &!sa‘, generally of
master changes the wages, 31 7 41. T h e wages are here)iT kind. ‘violent’ or ‘unjust gain,’ Judg. 5 19, taken i& war, I S . 8 3 (e
(d) maf&ireth ‘ wage,’ Gen. 29 1 5 31 7 41 (JE), @ pru0B6r ; Gs u v v r e h d a s , E V ‘lucre’), Ezek. 22 27 (RV ‘dishonest gain’),
Ruth 2 12 (metaph.); cp Ass. iSkar, Johns, o j . cit. 360. Other
words for wage are,6b‘aZ, $ph, @uZZah, >$e?. Pr. 1527, cp Is. 57 17 Ezek. 22 13. But ‘profit’ in general,
Gen. 37 26 (JE), Q Xpiucpov. Cp above, 5 61. (IO) ‘b&’&, pWY,
(2) hiwrih, >I$, ‘to borrow,’ Gavi<err, >fs?, ‘to lend,’ Dt. ‘unjust gain,’ Eccles. 77.
28 12 Is. 24 2 ; a$p ,l$?, Pr. 22 7, etc., Ex. 22 24 [25] ( J E 8. Value, valuation, etc.
[Z:&ZV~+V]), Ps. 3’121 1125 ( I L X ~ ~ VNeh. ) 54. I n M H a)!, (a) Prepositions.+i) pretii, in the givingof one thing ‘for’
= lend ’; Ar. Zuzvri, ‘ t o delay payment of debt.’ (3) mi&&, another. (2) ‘ ~ 3 3,9 5 , *a-sy, ‘according to the number’ or ‘the
ad,, and ~ ~ I S. 1 22,2 Is. 24 2, etc., ‘ t o lend,’ Is. 24 2 Jer. rate of.’ (3) 3,35 ‘for’ areward, Is. 5 23 ; cp >?)!, Pss. 40 16 704.
15 ~ o D t24 . II Neh. 5 7 ~ o ( w i t hP,DB),II (withothergoods). T h e
Phiin. 3py, ‘profit,’ ‘reward.’ (4) l?lpz,Am. 26.
pf.KaZ= ‘creditor,’Ex. 2224[251(JE with badsignification). @
d G a v e r u i r (in Ex. ~ a T e m i y m v ) . Ar. n u d a . The use of the (6) Verbs, nouns, adjectives.-(x) ‘E&, TlJ, to compare,’
Aram., Syr., and A.r. cognates and the Heh. use of Kal (once also to equal in value’ ; Job 28 17 19. Hi. ‘ to tax,’ 2 K. 23 35,
Lam. 3 17), Niph., and Hiph. in the meaning ‘10 forget,’ proves ‘ t o value’ (8 &cpoypir#quav), Lev. 278 12 14, Q3 rLp+rerat.
the origin to lie in delaying payment. Yet Ass ifz‘;<i=‘to take,’ Deriv.:--‘Prek ‘valuation,’ for purposes ofroyal taxation, 2 K.
Johns 36 I O & Derivatives:-(a) n G , ‘debt,’ 2K. 47, 703s 23 35 (03 mv&qurr), or for priestly sacrifices and fine:, Lev.
T ~ K O V Fuov. (b)maEri,‘usury,’acc. after ~ d jNeh. , 5 15 18 25 1661 2 7 2 8 12 16f: Nu. 18 16 (@ 7 ~ ~ UuvrLpqUrr,
5 7 ; cp I O ; 6 ,
‘deht’or ‘exactionofdeht.’ :(4) h d , ‘to borrow.’ (5) l , a p> etc.); ‘ the sum a t which a thing is valued,’ Lev. 27 13 18 23 27
1 / : 7)
(@ rrpd, W U T ~ , L ~ U L S ) ; this is also rendered by ply qD;, ZN.
Ezek. 18 17, etc., ‘to lend on interest.’ (6) n m n n?), parallel
15 19, and by S l y itDJp, v. 23. Note that the valuation was
phrase, Ezek. 188, etc. On borrowing and lending, see L AW
A N D JUSTICE, 16. (7) ~ 3 y(8) , $ j n , Ass. &ubuZu=‘interest,’ made a t the sanctuary; cp above, 5 24 n. (2) sillah, 7 s ~
(9) 337 ‘ t o pledge.’ See PLEDGE (IO) ypn, ,Niph., is :t (only in Pu‘al), ‘ t o weigh,’ rightly rendered ‘to value,’ by E V
pletlg; oneself as, security for another by striking hands, Job 28 16 19. (3) gridal, h:, constr. with ;zYF,‘ t o he worthy in
Job li 3. mine eyes’ (EV ‘much set by’), I S. 2624 parallel to i,y in 71.21
5. Debt.
( I ) 436, 3j7, ‘debt,’ v k . l8,7$Co. 2id), Syr. hau6Hhd,
(edpfyahv‘v0q); gida‘ZZwas probahlyused of ‘settinga high value
Ar. &riba, ‘ t o be in debt ; cp Pi. to make guilty,’ Dan. 1 IO. on’ anything, cp JobT17. (4) yri&ar, lg;, ‘ t o h e valuable’ or
(2) N f g , Neh. 1032 I311 ; (3) R$$g, Dt. 2410 Pr. 22 26 ; (4) ‘dear,’ I S . 2621 (Q &TL,,LOF); also ‘ t o he valuedat. Derivv.:-
yFkar, ‘price,‘ Zech. 1113, O?$Jg ‘~12; 1Wt lea, yri&ri~,
@, Dt.152, ‘debt’; ”D \p, ‘creditor.’
6. Payment, reckoning, etc. ‘valuable,’ ‘dear,’ and yakkir. (5) rri&c&,pin;, ‘far,’ is used
(I) Sri&ul, $d, lit. ‘toweigh,’Ezra825f:zg, so‘topay’with metaphorically in PI. 31 IO of value ; E V ‘farabove rubies.’ (6)
I D ? , Ex. 22 16 [17l (JE) ; Gen. 23 16 (P), z S. 18 12 Is. 55 2 er ma$nrrid, ?PI?, anything ‘desirable ’ ; pl. applied to ‘costly
829 ; with 1?$-1851,I K. 20 39 ; or with l?$, Zech. 11 12. <,V things,‘ Hos. 96, silver, Is. 64 IO[II] Joel 41.31 5 aCh. 3619 Lam.
1Io-all of the costly vessels and treawres of the temple.
\,
is used with ‘7; sp, ’52 h(of persons), and 5p (of treasuries, in la!, ‘costly,stone,’ PI. 178. (8) ran, in pl. ’costly things (72
Estb. 47). Phcen. $70, ‘a-weight,’ Aram. $?n, Ass. TakbZu, Pr. 3 15 8 11 ; n > ’ ?:, ‘precious stones,’ IS. 54 12. (9) niiy?,
‘to weigh,’-the last also ‘ t o pay.’ See MONEY, SHEKEL, ‘costly things,’ Gen. 24 53 (JE), but Q &pa, Ezra 1 6 (8
W EIGHTS AWD MEASURES. (2) nasi’, ~ i y l is , used poetically &viots) 2 Ch. 21 3 (6&ha) 32 23 (8%para). See also above,
of weighing, Job 6 2. (3) ne$$& (yan in Niph.), of ‘the reckon- under l‘n?
ing’ of money, 2 K. 22 7. (4) mrimZh, ?in, ‘ to count’ is used of
money, 2K.12 11. Deriv. MANEH(q (f)Custums, dues, t d 2 , etc.
D D ~ ,‘ t o count ’ (Ex. 124) ,is used commercially in the deriv.
niiksrih, ’ sum ’ or ’value, Lev. 27 23. Del. (Ass. HWB, ( I ) I n Gen. 43 1 1 (JE), Israel commands his sons, going to
407) gives iniksad a s ‘toll’ or ‘duty.’ Heh. mdkes is used buy corn in Egypt, ‘to take a min&&, >?ip, or ‘present’ to
only of tribute to Yahwb, Nu. 3128 3741.1 (6) sE#har, the governor of the land. elsewhere mint& is applied to
IDD, may have been used of the counting of money; cp Is. sacrificial ‘offering’ and iolitical ‘tribute ; see SACRIFICE,
33 18. ( 7 ) X G m ,&$, lit. ‘fulfil,’ is used of ‘repayment’ of debt, $ 30. (2) middrih, a?;, Heh. of ‘tribute’ or ‘tax’ to the
- 2 K. 4 7 ; Ass. suZunzu=‘topay.’ ( 8 ) O n ~ d s e p L , ~ D ~ , s e e M oking, ~ ~ ~ ,Neh. 5 4 ; Bibl. Aram. Z:? or R 4 p , Ezra 4 13 20 7 24,
SILVER. I t isusedin thesenseof ‘price,’ ?$ ; ID?, Gen. 2313 ‘dues’ or ‘customs,’ cp 68. This term is said to be borrowed
from Assyr. mardatiu ‘ tribute,’ from nada?, ‘to give’ (Del.
(P) ; cp above under >$a. (9) &Zsigrik, ?I:*@?, see KESITAH. Ass. H W B , SI), bu; cp naditu, ‘deposit, ‘treasure.’ (3)
is?,
(IO) Kihhar, 1zp see TALENT. (11) ’Zgarrik (3$$), in constr.
before qpz, I S. 2 36, is usually taken after Q (bPoAo3
&pyuplov) and Tp. as ‘a small coin’; but S y ~ , a g @ r f r i ‘, p a y
6<ZJ,
&,I
Bibl. Aram. Ezra 4 I 20 7 24 ‘customs’ or ‘dues.’
Assyr. bizfad, ‘tax.’ (4) hdlrik, Bibl. ;ram. Ezra, id. ‘way-
money,’ ‘ toll.’ See further, T AXATION, 5 7 n.
men1 ’ and Ar. ’ a g p r , ‘to let ’ or ‘ t o hire, ugra, ‘wages.
(12) ’efhnan, ppH, usually of a ‘harlot’s’ wage, but applied (g)Deposit, banking, hoarding, efc. See DEPOSIT,
in Is. 23 18 to the profits of Tvre’s trade ; perhaps metaphorical, etc.
but the original general meaning of the word makes it possible
that the commercial application of it was direct. I n Ezek. 16 41
.
( I ) i>&\ . pi, ‘to give to keep’ money, tools, garments,
the tribute which Israel pays to foreign idols or nations (?). For or any beast, Ex.226-IZ [7-131. (E). (2) pri&d, 111,9,
other terms see above, under Buying and Selling, 3. store’ or ‘deposit,’ 2 K. 524 of money, etc. Hi. ‘to lay u p ’ a
7. Profit, gain, etc. roll or baggage, ‘ t o commit’ people to any one, ‘ t o muster.
Ho. ‘ t o be deposited’ of money or other property, Lev. 523
(I) ha*Zl(Hiph. of iy.), ‘ t o profit,’ in a general sense, Job 21.15 [641 (P). Deriv. PikkEdan ‘store’ of corn Gen. 41 36 (JE),
35 3 ; except (perhaps) in Is. 47 12 it is not used of commercial
profit. (2) 733, ‘ t o he over.’ Derivv.:+all late words), (a)
6,
‘ deiosit ’ of money 0; othe; property, Lev. i 21 23 [G 2 ( P ) ;
1 [In Aram. nrakmd, ‘tribute,’ mik&sd, ‘tax-collector.’]
5J97
 TRADITION TRIBES
d r r a p a f h j y (3) np&?, Lev. 5 21 [6 21, is ‘ trust ‘ or ‘deposit ’ (I) $N, a,wir(d ‘ t o heap up ’), I K. 7 51, etc., and l$N n’z
parallel to {ll??;see above e 2 (3). (4) In the east the hoarding 62th ’a@, Neh. 1039 [38] Dan. 12, with which
of money is common and in Heb. this is watmcjn, lit. ‘place (2) 2hJJ n.8, hjth ntkathah (2 K. 2013=Is. 392) is clearly a
where one hides’ or ‘hoards,’ Jer. 418, pits for ‘storing’ corn, s y y m (EV, by, guess, the house of his precious things ’ ;
oil, honey (cp Ar. ghabcig-hib); Gen. 4323 (JE), ’money’ (e o K O S m S veXwBa [in 2 K. n j s irmip~rosa h o S KO.; 70; Y. L, ki
Bquaupo6s), cp Pr. 2 4 Job 321. i i D p is one old derivation of
Is. - r a N*l). Ntk8th is possibly an Assyrian loan-word; b f f
M AMMON (q.v. 8 4 3) recentlyfavoured by Deissmann. Banking nakamti= treasure-house, Del. Prol. 141 ; ZDMG 40 731 ; c p
is not mentioned in’OT where one individual lends money to Haupt, Z A 2 266, who plausibly reads l$J? n’2=bit nakavdfi
another. But we saw h t in the Roman period the temple
contained, besides thesacred revenues, sumsdeposked by private (for nakamciti, plur.). Very possibly too the same word should
individuals (5 78) ; cp the gate HAMMIPHKAD, close to Temple. be read in Nah. 2 g [IO] (i.e., p@ for n p , E V a store ‘).
See also Johns, 0). cit. 3254.
(3) $722, ganzak ( I Cb. 2 3 1 r t ; { a ~ p[BAa?, see Sw.],
( h ) Various other t e r m . ciao@qK& [Ll) like the N H l ~ j perhaps l Pers. origin with
( I ) ‘Ebad, i l y , ‘to work’ (used frequently (a)of cultivation, the addition df 0. Pers. ak (LLg. &s. Abh. 27). T h e simpler
$6) of serving a s slave, (c) of working by means of another ; form occurs in Ezra6 I N:!l?, girrmyyd, E V ‘treasures,’ or in
9 l;? , 25 39, (P), Jer. 22 13, etc.) is not applied in the O T
Lev. combination with n q in Ezra517 720 E V ‘treasure house’
to commercial business, nor is the deriv. ‘iibddEh(all other kinds (@BA &’a; @L in 5 17 7 29 ya<o+uAl~r&: but it is used alone
of work). Bibl. Aram. ‘rihidci is ‘work,‘ Ezra 4 24, etc. ; and in the last-mentioned sense in Esth. 3 9 4 7 1 (ya{o+uh&rov,
state ‘business,’ Dan. 2 49 3 12. d h a [BNAL]) a usage which is paralleled by Gk. e u a u p 6 8
(2) maZ‘EkEh, 3&9, ‘work ’ or ‘ business ’ (lit. ‘mission ’), 4reahure storelhouse casket etc.).
Gen. 39 I r Ex. 20 gf: (JE) cstr. with nby, cp Neh. 2 16. of (4) KOp)8au&, Mt. ~ $ (cp 6 j o s . BJ, ii. 9 4); see CORBAN.
handiwork, Jer.183 zK.12 LZ[II]; ofthesuperintendentsofrAya1 (5) a ~ o + u h L ~ r o wI, Macc. 3 28 14 49 2 Macc. 3 6 8 4 42 5 18
treasures, Esth. 3 9 9 3 ; also of worked articles, Lev. 1348 ; ’13 ~ Lk. 21 I Jn. 8 20 ; see T EMPLE , S 36 (a).
Mk. 1 9 4 43
ljy, ‘leather-work,’ in Ex. 22 7 IO [8 111, ‘goods ’ ‘possessions.’ TREE OF KNOWLEDGE (nuq;l yy), Gen. 2 9 , and
Besides the works cited in the coiir5e of ;he article, the
student may consult on (a)the trade of the Jews, Herzfeld, TREE OF LIFE (D”n;? ?&?),Gen. 2 9 ; see P ARADISE,
Handelsgesch. der Juden (not seen) ; the 5 11. TREES, SACRED. See N ATURE-W ORSHIP,
84. Literature. brief summaries in Benzinger and Nowack‘s § If:
manuals of Hebrew Archzology ; Bennett
art. ‘Trade’ in Hactings’ DB: several works given under DIS!
PERSION. (6) for the Persian and Greek periods, Kennell’s
TRENCH I . TI 5
. 2 S. 20 15, RV rampart.’
._, htV, See
lllustrat. of Hist. of Exfied. of Cyrus, etc. (1816) ; Sayce’s FORTRESS, I 5.
Herodotus. (c) for the Roman period, Bergier, Hist. des Grands 2. hQ,makciZ, I S. 26 5 7 ; and 3. & pmakaW, I S.
Chemins de l’,!?m#. Romain (1728) ; Mommsen’s History and 1720. See C AMP , I I.
Prm. of the Roman Empire: Mahaffy, GK. World under 4. O’x, g&m, 2 K. 3 16 RV, AV ‘ditches.’ See C ONDUITS,
Roman Sway: Hausrath, N T Zeitgesch. ; Ramsay, St. Paul
the TraveZler and Rorxnn Citizen. Consult also Tozer Hisf. I I(3, 5).
ofAncient Geog. See W W. Hunter, Hist. of British >nZia, 5. i&+, fzcilrih, I K. 1 8 3 2 8 , 2 K. 1817 2020 Is. 7 3 36n
vol. i. G. A. S. Ezek. 31 4 Job 38 25. See CONDUITS, $ 2.
TRADITION ( n a p a h o c i c ) , Mt. 15 2 etc. See 6. ply,, Is.52, ‘made a trench’ RV, AV ‘fenced.‘ See
SCRIBES, 6.
V INEYARD .
7. ,&a$, Lk.1943, R V ‘bank,’ RVmg. ‘palisade.’ Cp
TRAGACANTH (nkh?) Gen. 3725 RVmg- See SIEGE, 5 2.
STORAX. TRESPASS-OFFERING (n&, Lev. 5 6 . see
TRANCE (I) Nu. 24 4 AV, and (2) Acts 10 IO
S ACRIFICE , 27f:
( r j u r a m s ) ; see PROPHECY, 8 19 6. TRESSES (n’p??),Cant. 7 5 [6], RV. SeeGALLERY.
TRANSFIGURATION. See SIMON PETER, 5 8. (2).

TRANSLATION (META&CIC),, Heb. 11 5 [same TRIAL, TRYING. See TEMPTATION. The words
word, but not used of change of place, m 7 1 2 1227, also in are :
2 Macc. 1124 t]. See ENOCH, 8 I.
I. R?F, massdh, Job923. Cp MASSAH.
TRANSLATIONS OF SCRIPTURE. See TEXT If2, b$zan, Ezek. 21 13; see BDB ; but also Toy(adloc.),
2.
AN D VERSIONS. who follows R V ‘for there is a trial,’ and refers to Jer. 20 IP
TREASURE CITIES (nb?pp yg),EX. 1 II AV, RV Ps. 66 10 139 23 Is. 29 16 ; add Ps.17 3, n>n>,;GoKipauar.
3. qlx, <adpwuas, Ps. 17 3.
STORE C ITIES (q.v . ) [A I) ; cp CITY. 4 and 5. ~ o K + $ 2 Cor.82, R V ‘proof [of affliction],’ and
TREASURER. The word renders : G O K ~ ~ C O WI, Pet. 1 7 Jas. 1 3 (AV here ‘trying,’ R V in both
passages ‘proof’); cp Ps. 173, QSodpauag(in$ But is GoK;piou
I. Adenom. verb of @ar, l$K, ‘treasure,‘in Neh. 1313. See really a substantive,? In the Greek Egyptian papyri ~ O K ~ ~ iLsO S
TREASURE-HOUSE, I. ‘ an adj. =‘genuine. Deissmann (Neue Bibelstudien, 88) pro-
2. sdktn, j?b, Is. 22 15 ; see SHEBNA.
poses to ado t this sense here-< that which is genuine in your
faith ’. cp a Eor. 88, ~b 6 s 3pn6pas &yLaqs ~ V ~ ~ U L O W .
3. gizbcir, l?!.’, Ezra18 (raupapqwou [Bl, yap& [AI, yav- 6 Lnd 7, m i p a , Heb.1136, and msrpaup&, I Pet.412
CappaFou [L]), aud in plur. Bibl. Aram. ib. 7 21 (yL3a15.1). T h e (CP 1 6 3 ) :
word IS of Persian origin (~an&5ava),and if a current restora- On ‘trial’ in the sense of a legal process (a sense not found in
tion of a passage in an Egyptian-Aramaic papyrus be adopted, EV) see L AW , $10, GOVERNMENT, P, 16 etc. For the ‘trial ‘ of
the first part of the word 133 1 had already become Aramaised Jesussee, further, PROCURATOR, R OMAN EMPIRE, 8 5, SYN-
EDRIUII, 0 3 8
by a t least the fourth century B.C. ( C I S 2 no. 149 A, 1. 3).
According to Meyer(Entst. 23), Ges.-Buhl(L;x.P3)), and others,
the word is identical with :-
TRIANGLE (ts’+k&),
I S. 186, RVmg. See MESIC.

4. T h e plur. @ZhZrayyZ,. N:???!, Dan. 3 zf: ? but yap- (e

§ 3 (4).
Gapqvovs, Symm. in Syr. Hex.). Soalso Bludau (AZex.Uebersetz. TRIBES I
Dan. 98) who, moreover, takes the presupposed original ~ > i > i >
to be a gloss to ~ - 7 3 n(cp
l C OUNSELLOR , 2). An alternative view, TRIBES OF ISRAEL
that of Graetz, which is favoured by Bevan (Cotrrm. 79). treats
the wordas purely a scribe’s error for ~ 1 x 1 2 (cp C OUNSELLOR , Words (S I). Lists : order (I 9 ~ 3 .
3), chiefly on the ground that the word recurs in the similar but Clans (S 2). Current theories ($8 11-13).
much smaller lists of officials in Dan. 327 68. I t is more Tribes (8 3). Criticism (6 14).
plausible, perhaps, to suggest, with S. A. Cook, that ~ ’ 1 2 1 ~ Number and origin ($5 4-8). Conclusion (I 15).
(the true meaning of which is quite obscure) IS a corruption of The we1.I-established Hebrew words for ‘ tribe ’ are
the perfectly intelligible H*y,ni. [See also Crit. Bib.]
5. oixov6por, Rom. 1623 RV, AV C HAMBERLAIN (g.V.). ftbt??, Bqv, and ma&& ?lpp
(see ROD, STAFF), to
TREASURE HOUSE, TREASURY, occur as the 1. words. which
corresponds in d and in
the NT.
rendering of several Hebrew and Greek terms.
1 Cp TREASURY, (3). 1 Apparently also in Erek. 27 24, see CHEST (2).
5199 52-