Mar.6] PROCEEDINGS. [1894.owesits origin to the same conception. The denuding action of
waterthroughfriction has given risein our languageto the word
shore,as something shorn; and the sameresult is visible in the
Semitic (T13.Fpn,'jjaas, ajU-and Jj-Lj-
Thecharacteristicfeatureof Phoenicia is that it consists merely
of a long andextremelynarrowlineof sea shore, at the foot of hills
whichtoweraboveit everywhere. 'H 'rrapa\ia <Poivi'kii.. trrevTj ti?
Kal aXiTrt-,}? is the accurate descriptionof it given byStrabo(xvi,21).
Thatportionof it which lies opposite to Aradus (oneof the " isles ")
he calls pax'uiri] tis vapaXia, which is really the mostaccurate
translationthat can be given of the name of Tarshish. Thougha
continuation of the maritime plain beginning from the desertat
the south, there is nothing in Phoenicia corresponding to the
Shephelah of the Philistines or to the plain of Sharon, no room
for the vast cornfieldsor the rich pasturesof the southern country.
It was marked out not for agricultural but for maritime enterprise.
AndTarshishwasa most appropriatedesignationas applied to it
by its Hebrew neighbours.
If Tarshish be the equivalent of ami) and pitfuv, it is easy
to understand how it came at a later time to be interpreted by
the Chaldee MJ2^ andby OaKaaaa and mare. Forthe Hebrew
Q^ has the sense of plagaoccidentalis,andis often usedin the sense
of 7vest withoutthe least referenceto the sea. But in Isaiah xxiii,4,
□^ "TON is actually said of Tyre itself. " Dicit mare, i.e., urbs
maritima(Tyrus)." Such,accordingto Gesenius, is the interpreta
tionof the passage. This,it is true, is poetical language,but so is
every passage in which the name of Tarshish occurs; not even
exceptingGen.x, 4.
The evidencewhich lies before us is, I believe, sufficient to
convince us that when the sacred writersmention Tarshishthey
meanPhoenicia,andthatthe name is an appropriate one,but on
the farther questionas to how far and by whom independently of
the sacred writers the name was recognisedas the geographical
designation of the country,it is impossible, in the absence of all
evidence,evento hazard a conjecture.
- Ez. xxv, 16, "I will stretch out mine handuponthe Philistines, and I will
cut off the Cherethims, anddestroythe remnants of the sea coast, Q1|~JPpl"!-"
ThePhoeniciansare probably designedunderthe last of these designations. Cf.
Jeremiahxlvii,4, "To spoilall the Philistines, andto cut off from Tyrusand
Zidoneveryhelperthat remaineth."
141