For the king's ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram: every three years once came the ships of Tarshish bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.
2 Chronicles 9:21
"This is a fascinating verse intended to help the reader sense something of the almost incredible
wealth of King Solomon. Among other indications of his riches, he had been able to develop an Israelite navy that could sail to distant lands, returning with exotic and valuable cargoes.
But what about the apes? This is the only reference in the Bible to apes (except for a parallel passage in I Kings 10:22), and scholars are uncertain whether the "apes" were true apes, or perhaps monkeys or baboons. But why would Solomon go to such expense to import apes instead of more useful animals (he had a great number of fine horses, for example)? Did he maintain a zoo? He imported ivory, so why not elephants?
He studied, perhaps wrote, and "spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes" (I Kings 4:33). HMM
2 Chronicles 9:21
"This is a fascinating verse intended to help the reader sense something of the almost incredible
But what about the apes? This is the only reference in the Bible to apes (except for a parallel passage in I Kings 10:22), and scholars are uncertain whether the "apes" were true apes, or perhaps monkeys or baboons. But why would Solomon go to such expense to import apes instead of more useful animals (he had a great number of fine horses, for example)? Did he maintain a zoo? He imported ivory, so why not elephants?
He studied, perhaps wrote, and "spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes" (I Kings 4:33). HMM
