1 Kings 9:27

“And Hiram sent in his navy his servants, etc.] And, according to (<140818>2 Chronicles 8:18), ships also but how he could send them from Tyre, which lay in the Mediterranean sea, to the above ports in the Red sea, without going a great way round, is not easy to conceive. Perhaps, as Gussetins conjectures f183, Hiram had a port in the Red sea for building and sending out ships, for the sake of his eastern navigation, and from thence he sent them to Solomon’s ports in the same sea; but if what R. Japhet f184 observes is true, that the Red sea is mixed with the sea of Joppa by means of the river Rhinocurura, as is remarked by a learned man f185 and who approves of the observation, and thinks it…”

“Shipmen - See 1 Kings 5:6 note. With respect to the acquaintance of the Phoenicians with this particular sea, it may be observed that they are not unlikely to have had trading settlements there, as they had in the Persian Gulf, even at this early period. The commerce with Ophir was probably an established trade, previously either in their hands or in those of the Egyptians, when Solomon determined to have a share in it. The Egyptians had navigated the other arm of the Red Sea, and perhaps its lower parts, from a much more ancient period. return to 'Top of Page'”

“Knowledge of the sea - For which the Tyrians were famous. He sent also ships to join with Solomon's, not from Tyre, the city of Phoenicia; but from an island in the Red - sea, called Tyre, because it was a colony of the Tyrians, as Strabo notes. 3 Kings (1 Kings) 9:28”

“his servants: Kg1 5:6, Kg1 5:9, Kg1 22:49; Ch2 20:36, Ch2 20:37 3 Kings (1 Kings) 9:28”