Tarshish #46

Tarshish is a distant trading region mentioned throughout the Old Testament, known for its far-ranging ships and its precious metals. It is best known as the destination Jonah chose when he tried to run away from God’s command to go to Nineveh. The Bible treats it as a place at the far edge of the known world, reached only by sea, and it has never been located with certainty.

Biblical Significance

Tarshish first appears in the Table of Nations, where it is listed among the sons of Javan, together with Elishah, Kittim, and Dodanim, whose descendants spread out over the coastlands (Genesis 10:4). In the time of Solomon, the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish that sailed with the ships of Hiram of Tyre, returning once every three years with gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks (1 Kings 10:22; 2 Chronicles 9:21). The phrase ships of Tarshish came to mean large, seagoing merchant vessels, and Jehoshaphat’s attempt to build such ships at Ezion-geber ended when they were wrecked (1 Kings 22:48).

The prophets used Tarshish as a symbol of remote wealth and of maritime pride. Ezekiel lists it as a trading partner of Tyre, supplying silver, iron, tin, and lead (Ezekiel 27:12), and Isaiah pictures the ships of Tarshish mourning Tyre’s ruin (Isaiah 23:1, 14). A psalm about the coming king says that the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands will bring him tribute (Psalm 72:10).

Its most famous appearance is in the book of Jonah. Told to go east to Nineveh, Jonah instead went down to Joppa, found a ship bound for Tarshish, paid the fare, and sailed, in his words, away from the presence of the Lord (Jonah 1:3). The choice of the most distant destination known to Israelites underlines how far Jonah was trying to go in the opposite direction from Nineveh. The storm, the great fish, and Jonah’s eventual obedience follow from that flight (Jonah 1:4-17). Jonah later admits that he fled to Tarshish because he knew God to be gracious and merciful (Jonah 4:2).

Today

The identification of Tarshish is disputed, and scholars have long offered several proposals. The most widely held view identifies it with Tartessos, a rich metal-producing region in southern Spain near the mouth of the Guadalquivir River, which fits the direction of Jonah’s flight and the silver, iron, tin, and lead in Ezekiel’s list. Others have suggested Sardinia, or Tarsus in Cilicia, which the first-century historian Josephus identified with Tarshish. Some scholars think ships of Tarshish may describe a class of ore-carrying vessels rather than the destination of a particular route. No site has been excavated that settles the question, so the safest summary is that Tarshish was a far western Mediterranean trading region, most probably in Spain, whose exact location remains uncertain.