Imports

Israel sat on the land bridge between Egypt and Mesopotamia, and Scripture's notices of imports show goods moving in by three routes: overland by camel caravan from Arabia and the eastern kingdoms, overseas by deep-water fleet from Tarshish and Ophir, and across the short coast from Phoenicia. The Old Testament both records the trade and, especially in the prophets, weighs it.

Caravans From Arabia and the East

The earliest import scene in Scripture is a caravan in Genesis. While Joseph's brothers sit down to eat, "they lifted up their eyes and looked, and noticed a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt" (Gen 37:25). The route, the goods, and the destination are all there in a single verse: aromatic spices and resins moving south by camel toward the Egyptian market — the type-instance of spice imports out of Egypt.

The same kind of caravan reappears later as a diplomatic instrument. The queen of Sheba arrives in Jerusalem "with a very great train, with camels that bore spices, and very much gold, and precious stones" (1 Kings 10:2). Hazael of Damascus sends Elisha "a present with him, even of every good thing of Damascus, forty camels' burden" (2 Kings 8:9). Isaiah names the Arabian caravans by tribe: "The burden on Arabia. In the forest in Arabia you⁺ will lodge, O you⁺ caravans of Dedanites" (Is 21:13). When Ezra returns from Babylon he leads what is functionally a caravan, not of trade goods but of temple vessels, and the kingdom's hand "delivered us from the hand of the enemy and the ambusher by the way" (Ezra 8:31) — a reminder that the import road was also a danger road.

Solomon's Triennial Fleet to Tarshish and Ophir

Israel's most fully described import operation is Solomon's. He builds a deep-water fleet on the Red Sea: "And King Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom" (1 Kings 9:26). The fleet is jointly crewed with Phoenicia: "And Hiram sent in the navy his slaves, shipmen who had knowledge of the sea, with the slaves of Solomon" (1 Kings 9:27). Its first voyage returns "from there gold, four hundred and twenty talents" (1 Kings 9:28). Subsequent voyages add "great plenty of almug-trees and precious stones," used "for pillars for the house of Yahweh, and for the king's house, harps also and psalteries for the singers" (1 Kings 10:11-12).

The Chronicler matches the picture: "And Huram sent him ships by the hands of his slaves, and slaves who had knowledge of the sea; and they came with the slaves of Solomon to Ophir, and fetched from there four hundred and fifty talents of gold, and brought them to King Solomon" (2 Chr 8:18). Imports run on a three-year cycle: "For the king had ships that went to Tarshish with the slaves of Huram; once every three years the ships of Tarshish came, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks" (2 Chr 9:21; cf. 1 Kings 10:22). These last four items — gold, ivory, apes, peacocks — form a discrete import category for Jerusalem.

The Tarshish-fleet model outlasts Solomon. Jehoshaphat tries to revive it and fails: "Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold: but they did not go; for the ships were broken at Ezion-geber" (1 Kings 22:48). His joint venture with Ahaziah is recorded in similar terms (2 Chr 20:36). Earlier still, Balaam's oracle had named Kittim's seafarers (Num 24:24); later, Jonah finds a Tarshish ship readily available at Joppa (Jon 1:3); Isaiah turns the import lane into eschatology: "Surely the isles will wait for my [Speech], and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, for the name of Yahweh your God" (Is 60:9). What had been a luxury route under Solomon becomes, in prophetic vision, the road by which the nations bring their wealth and their people home.

Horses and Chariots Out of Egypt

A second royal import line is military. "And the horses which Solomon had were brought out of Egypt and from Kue. The king's merchants acquired those from Kue for a price" (1 Kings 10:28; verbatim 2 Chr 1:16). The trade is priced and re-exported: "And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred [shekels] of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty; and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria, they would bring them out by their means" (1 Kings 10:29). These imports — horses, chariots, and linen — are grouped under Jerusalem. Jerusalem here is not the terminal consumer but the broker: Solomon's merchants buy in Egypt and Kue and sell on to the surrounding kings.

The military import had been a Canaanite advantage long before it became Israel's: "all the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron" (Josh 17:16). The prophets hear in the Egyptian-horse trade a theological problem. Isaiah pronounces a woe: "Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but don't rely on the [Speech] of the Holy One of Israel, neither seek Yahweh!" (Is 31:1). The same import that built Solomon's stables becomes, in later policy, a denial of trust.

Tyre as the Trade-List of the World

The fullest import inventory in Scripture is not Israel's but Tyre's, and Ezekiel records it as a lament. The city's location made it a hinge: "the border turned to Ramah, and to the fortified city of Tyre" (Josh 19:29), set on the sea, looking outward. By Zechariah's time the assessment is unambiguous: "And Tyre built herself a stronghold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets" (Zec 9:3).

Ezekiel 27 runs through Tyre's trading partners by region, naming what each supplied. From the far west: "Tarshish was your merchant by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded for your wares" (Eze 27:12). From the north: "Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were your traffickers; they traded the souls of man and vessels of bronze for your merchandise" (Eze 27:13); "They of the house of Togarmah traded for your wares with horses and warhorses and mules" (Eze 27:14); "The sons of Rodan were your traffickers; many isles were the mart of your hand: they brought you in exchange horns of ivory and ebony" (Eze 27:15). From neighboring Syria: "emeralds, purple, and embroidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and rubies" (Eze 27:16). From Israel and Judah, Tyre imported food: "they traded for your merchandise wheat of Minnith, and pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm" (Eze 27:17). From Damascus: "the wine of Helbon, and white wool, and the earthenware wine jars of Izalla, for your wares: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were among your merchandise" (Eze 27:18-19).

The list continues south and east. "Dedan was your trafficker in precious cloths for riding" (Eze 27:20). "Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they were the merchants of your hand; in lambs, and rams, and goats, in these they were your merchants" (Eze 27:21). "The traffickers of Sheba and Raamah, they were your traffickers; they traded for your wares with the chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold" (Eze 27:22). From inland Mesopotamia: "Haran and Canneh and Eden, the traffickers of Sheba, Asshur [and] Chilmad, were your traffickers" (Eze 27:23), "in choice wares, in wrappings of blue and embroidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords and made of cedar" (Eze 27:24). The summary brings the picture back to the sea: "The ships of Tarshish were your caravans for your merchandise: and you were replenished, and made very glorious in the heart of the seas" (Eze 27:25).

This whole chapter is grouped under Tyre. Imports are listed by partner, and the partners cover every direction — west by sea, north by land, south by camel, east by river. It is the most concentrated trade-list in the Bible.

Reciprocal Trade With Phoenicia

Imports rarely move one way. The clearest reciprocal arrangement is between Solomon and Hiram of Tyre. Solomon writes: "Send me also cedar-trees, fir-trees, and algum-trees, out of Lebanon; for I know that your slaves know how to cut timber in Lebanon" (2 Chr 2:8). Israel's imports of timber are paid for in produce: "I will give to your slaves, the hewers who cut timber, twenty thousand cors of beaten wheat, and twenty thousand cors of barley, and twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil" (2 Chr 2:10). And, as Ezekiel's list confirms, those same staples — wheat, honey, oil, balm — were Israel's standard exports into the Tyrian market (Eze 27:17). The Lebanon-timber-for-Israelite-grain arrangement is one of the few places in Scripture where both sides of an import transaction are recorded together.

The Theological Frame

Two notes recur. First, imports concentrate wealth. The same gold and silver that come in by Solomon's fleet become, in Tyre's case, "silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets" (Zec 9:3) — and that concentration is what the prophets indict. Tyre's trade-list is read as a lament, not a celebration (Eze 26:2; Eze 27 in full). Second, imports tempt to misplaced trust. The Egyptian-horse trade is functional under Solomon; under Isaiah it has become reliance on chariots rather than on Yahweh (Is 31:1). The biblical witness records the trade routes faithfully — caravan, fleet, and coast — and reads them, ultimately, as a question about where the heart goes when the goods come in.