Tarshish Essay

After the Lord calls Jonah to go to Nineveh, Jonah travels to Joppa to take a ship to Tarshish. This city of Joppa is first listed in scripture as a territory of inheritance for the tribe of Dan (Jos. 19:46). Joppa is not as well documented within the Old Testament, but it is each time mentioned because of the ships that may land there at their sea port. Solomon brought goods by sea to Joppa for his temple (2 Ch. 2:16) and Ezra later brought supplies through Joppa for the rebuilding of the foundation of the temple (Ezra 3:7).
Jonah never makes it from Joppa to Tarshish, but it is also a popular port city in the Ancient Near East (1 Ki. 10:22, 22:48). Several biblical accounts write of the gold and silver of Tarshish, indicating the wealth
In scripture, ships are often a tool for trade (Ez. 27:9) or a tool for war (Dan. 11:40). Of the thirty-one uses of the Hebrew word for ship used in Jonah (אֳנִיָּה), twenty-eight of them are used in describing the ships of Tarshish – furthering the emphasis on a ship’s use for trade. This can be seen in Jonah when the mariners hurl cargo from the ship into the sea (Jon. 1:5) – they are transporting goods from Joppa to Tarshish. Beyond this, there is little in scripture that defines the ship as a setting of note. Even Jonah in the “hold of the ship” carries little characteristic. The only use for this word for “ship” (סְפִינָה) is found here in Jonah 1:5, and the word for “hold” is typically used to describe rear of the tabernacle or a home (Ex. 26:22-23, 36:27-28; 1 Ki. 6:16) or the remote part of a physical setting (Jud. 19:1, 18; Is. 14:13; Jer. 6:22, 25:32; Ez. 38:15, 39:2, 46:19). Therefore, the only thing that is illustrated is that Jonah had gone to the remotest part of the ship to
While some instances in scripture simply use the sea to describe the border of Israel (2 Ki. 14:25), as the landmark of the coastlands (Isa. 24:15; Ez. 27:3), or as an identifier for the West (Gn. 12:8, 13:4; Ex. 10:19; Josh. 5:1; Isa. 24:14; Ezek. 48:10; Hos. 11:10), the sea itself is employed much more powerfully than these identities. The Israelites know that God is the creator of the sea (Gn. 1:10; Ex. 20:11; Jon. 1:9; Neh. 9:6). God made man to rule over the sea (Gn. 1:26), but He controls the sea – whether stirring it up against His enemies or against those who have sinned against Him (Ex. 14:21; Job 9:8; Isa. 51:15; Jer. 31:35; Ez. 26:3), calming the sea for His people (Ex. 14:26-27; Job 26:12, 38:8), commanding it in His power and for His purposes (Isa. 43:16; Jer. 51:36; Hag. 2:6; Ps. 135:6; Amos 5:8, 9:6), or killing the sea monsters within it (Isa. 27:1). The sea is a destructive force of nature (Jon. 1:4; Is. 10:26, 11:15; Ez. 26:3; Zech. 9:4); even the nations pray to their gods to control it (Jon. 1:5, 9). However, only the God of Israel can give it to whom He chooses (Deut. 33:23) or can command by it (Isa. 23:11). The sea, then, is neither inherently “good” or “bad”, but possibly frightening to the finite man that has no control over its