Ship

Ships move through scripture as the working edge of trade, of judgment, and of flight. The first vessel built in the Bible is a covenant ark; the last named voyages carry kings' gold and prophets in revolt. Around them gather mariners, masts, tacklings, oars, and anchors — and the cities, Tarshish and Tyre and Joppa, that turn timber into trade.

Building the Vessels

Noah's ark is the lead specification. God instructs him to make an ark of gopher wood with a series of compartments, sealed inside and outside with pitch, three hundred cubits long, fifty wide, thirty high, with a door in its side and three stories (Gen 6:13-22). Noah does it: "according to all that God commanded him, so he did" (Gen 6:22).

Later builders use other timbers. In Tyre's idealized merchantman, the planks are "of fir-trees from Senir," and "they have taken a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for you" (Eze 27:5). A lighter craft floats on the Nile reeds — Cush "sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus on the waters" (Is 18:2).

Equipment

The fitted-out ship in scripture has masts, sails, tacklings, oars, helm, and anchor.

A single Isaiah verse names three of those at once, in a picture of a vessel that has gone slack: "Your tacklings are loosed; they could not strengthen the foot of their mast, they could not spread the sail" (Is 33:23). Tyre's sail is more ornate — "Of fine linen with embroidered work from Egypt was your sail, that it might be to you for an ensign; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was your awning" (Eze 27:7).

Oars belong to coastal and inland craft. Jonah's mariners "rowed hard to get back to the land; but they could not" (Jon 1:13); Ezekiel pictures "all who handle the oar, the mariners, [and] all the pilots of the sea" coming down from their ships to mourn Tyre (Eze 27:29). On the Sea of Galilee, Jesus sees the disciples "distressed in rowing, for the wind was contrary to them" (Mr 6:48).

The helm is figurative, in James: "Look, the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by rough winds, are yet turned about by a very small rudder, where the impulse of the helmsman wills" (Jas 3:4). The anchor is figurative too, in Hebrews: hope is "an anchor of the soul; both sure and steadfast; and entering into that which is inside the veil" (Heb 6:19).

Repairs are by caulking. In Tyre, "The old men of Gebal and its wise men were in you, your caulkers: all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in you to deal in your merchandise" (Eze 27:9).

Solomon's Navy and the Run to Ophir

Israel's first navy is Solomon's, 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" (1Ki 9:26). Solomon goes to inspect the yard himself — "Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber, and to Eloth, on the seashore in the land of Edom" (2Ch 8:17).

Solomon does not crew the navy alone. Hiram of Tyre lends the expertise: "And Hiram sent in the navy his slaves, shipmen who had knowledge of the sea, with the slaves of Solomon" (1Ki 9:27). And Huram likewise "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" (2Ch 8:18). The Ophir run also brings back almug-trees and precious stones: "And the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug-trees and precious stones" (1Ki 10:11).

Ships of Tarshish

Alongside the Ophir run is a longer-period circuit, the ships of Tarshish. "For the king had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram: once every three years the navy of Tarshish came, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks" (1Ki 10:22; the same in 2Ch 9:21). The Psalmist puts the Tarshish trade in royal-tribute mode: "The kings of Tarshish and of the isles will render tribute: The kings of Sheba and Seba will offer gifts" (Ps 72:10). Isaiah, in judgment-day mode, lists "all the ships of Tarshish, and on all pleasant imagery" (Is 2:16) among the proud things to be brought low. Jeremiah names the inbound metal: "There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz" (Je 10:9).

Tarshish is also a name for the merchants on the receiving end. Ezekiel addresses Tyre: "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); and in the Gog oracle, "Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all its young lions, will say to you, Have you come to take the spoil?" (Eze 38:13). In the restoration vision, Tarshish-ships carry returning Israelites: "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" (Is 60:9).

Wrecked at Ezion-geber

The Tarshish run does not always sail. "Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold: but they did not go; for the ships were broken at Ezion-geber" (1Ki 22:48). Chronicles supplies the backstory: "And after this Jehoshaphat king of Judah joined himself with Ahaziah king of Israel; the same did very wickedly" (2Ch 20:35), and "he joined himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish; and they made the ships in Ezion-geber" (2Ch 20:36). The prophetic verdict: "Then Eliezer the son of Dodavahu of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because you have joined yourself with Ahaziah, Yahweh has destroyed your works. And the ships were broken, so that they were not able to go to Tarshish" (2Ch 20:37). Ahaziah afterward asks for a second venture and is refused: "Then Ahaziah the son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, Let my slaves go with your slaves in the ships. But Jehoshaphat would not" (1Ki 22:49).

Tyre, Gate of the Peoples

Tyre is the maritime power scripture treats most fully. The fortified city sits "at the sea" inside Asher's tribal border (Jos 19:29), and stands as the limit of David's census circuit (2Sa 24:7). By the prophets, Tyre has built "herself a stronghold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets" (Zec 9:3). Her self-estimation, in Ezekiel's oracle, is that of a maritime gate: "Aha, she is broken [that was] the gate of the peoples; she has turned to me; I will be replenished, now that she is laid waste" (Eze 26:2).

The judgment oracle calls the Tarshish-ships to mourn her: "The burden of Tyre. Howl, you⁺ ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no access: from the land of Kittim it is revealed to them" (Is 23:1). In the Maccabean record Tyre is again a coastal power, joining Ptolemais and Sidon "in order to consume" the Jewish people of Galilee (1Ma 5:15).

Mariners

Around the ships are the men who work them. "Those who go down to the sea in ships, Who do business in great waters" — these are the mariners of Psalm 107:23, whose storm Yahweh raises and stills. Isaiah summons the same group to the new song: "Sing to Yahweh a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth; you⁺ who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, the isles, and its inhabitants" (Is 42:10). Ezekiel's lament gathers oar-handlers, mariners, and pilots together (Eze 27:29). And in Jonah, the mariners are individually portrayed: "Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man to his god; and they cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it to them" (Jon 1:5).

Jonah's Flight

The Jonah narrative is the Bible's longest sustained picture of a sea-passage. Yahweh sends the prophet to Nineveh (Jon 1:1-2); "But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh; and he went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid its fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh" (Jon 1:3).

A storm rises by divine appointment: "But Yahweh sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was likely to be broken" (Jon 1:4). The crew lightens the cargo, the captain rouses the sleeping passenger, and the lots fall (Jon 1:5-7). Jonah confesses he is a Hebrew, fearer of "Yahweh, the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land" (Jon 1:9), and instructs them to throw him overboard (Jon 1:12). They try first to row back: "Nevertheless the men rowed hard to get back to the land; but they could not: for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them" (Jon 1:13). Once they cast him forth "the sea ceased from its raging" (Jon 1:15), and the men "feared Yahweh exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice to Yahweh, and made vows" (Jon 1:16). Yahweh prepares a great fish, and Jonah is "in the insides of the fish three days and three nights" (Jon 1:17), praying out of the deep that he had been cast into "the heart of the seas" (Jon 2:3) and yet brought up alive (Jon 2:10).

The Tarshish-flight is the geographic counterweight to the Nineveh-mission. Jonah explains his motive after the city repents: "I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving-kindness, and one who repents of the evil. Therefore I hurried to flee to Tarshish" (Jon 4:2). Behind the prophet's flight stands an earlier note from Kings: this is the same Jonah son of Amittai by whom Yahweh "spoke" the restoration of Israel's coast (2Ki 14:25).

In Luke, Jesus reaches back to the same prophet for a sign: "This generation is an evil generation: it seeks after a sign; and there will be no sign given to it but the sign of Jonah" (Lu 11:29).

Ferry, Fishing-Boat, Warship

Not every craft is a Tarshish-trader. A ferryboat carries David's household across Jordan in the return after Absalom: "And there went over a ferryboat to bring over the king's household, and to do that which was good in his eyes" (2Sa 19:18). On Galilee the disciples row at night against the wind (Mr 6:48).

Warships have their own line in the prophets. Balaam's oracle foresees that "Those who go out from the coast of Kittim, And they will afflict Asshur, and will afflict Eber" (Nu 24:24); Daniel sees the same coast send a fleet against the king of the north — "For ships of Kittim will come against him; therefore he will be grieved, and will return, and have indignation against the holy covenant" (Da 11:30). In the Maccabean wars, Antiochus enters Egypt "with a great multitude, with chariots and elephants, and horsemen, and a great number of ships" (1Ma 1:17), and the king of Egypt later gathers "an army, like the sand that lies on the seashore, and many ships" (1Ma 11:1). Antiochus VII justifies his claim by saying he has "chosen a great army, and have built ships of war" (1Ma 15:3). Ships then press the siege of Dor: "And he surrounded the city, and the ships drew near by sea: and they pressed the city by land and by sea, and allowed none to come in or to go out" (1Ma 15:14). And Tryphon, defeated, "fled away by ship to Orthosia" (1Ma 15:37). Simon's monument at Modein is itself maritime: "by the arms ships carved, which might be seen by all who sailed on the sea" (1Ma 13:29).

Figurative Use

The figurative uses are concentrated. The ship's small rudder turning a great hull stands for the tongue's outsized power (Jas 3:4). The ship's anchor stands for hope reaching past the veil (Heb 6:19). And the great sea itself — the place "where they go down to the sea in ships" (Ps 107:23) — is the place where Yahweh's "right hand will hold me" (Ps 139:10), wherever the flight or the storm runs.