| Word | American Tract Society - Definition |
| OPHIR | 1. One of the sons of Joktan, who settled in southern Arabia, Ge 10:26-29. 2. A country to which the ships of Solomon traded, and which had for a long time been celebrated for the purity and abundance of its gold, Job 22:24 28:16. "Gold of Ophir" was proverbially the best gold, Ps 45:9 Isa 13:12. The only passages which give us any information as to the location of Ophir are 1Ki 9:26-28 10:11,22 22:48, with the parallel passages in 2Ch 8:18 9:10,21 20:36,37; from which it appears that the so called "ships of Tarshish" went to Ophir; that these ships sailed from Ezion-geber, a port of the Red Sea; that a voyage was made once in three years; that the fleet returned freighted with gold, peacocks, apes, spices, ivory, algumwood, and ebony. Upon these data interpreters have undertaken to determine the situation of Ophir; but they have arrived at different conclusions. Josephus places it in the peninsula of Malacca. Others have placed it at Sofala, in South Africa, three mines of God and silver have been found, which appear to have been anciently and extensively worked. Others still suppose it to have been Southern Arabia. |