Jeremiah 10:9

Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish,.... In Cilicia, where the Apostle Paul was born; according to Josephus, as Jerom says, it was a country in India.

Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of cunning men.

Silver spread into plates; it was not wood washed with gold, nor massy silver or gold, but covered over with plates of silver or gold, . From Tarshish; from some remote place, probably from Spain, whence the best gold came; Tarshish is the proper name of a sea-town in Cilicia, ,25 Jonah 1:3; and being a noted port, from whence they had passage to Africa, India, and other remote countries, it is usually put for the ocean, and may as well signify from any place beyond the sea. If you take it properly, then possibly it is noted as the best silver coming from thence, as Uphaz for the best gold; for though we read also of gold coming from thence, , yet where the most proper commodities of it are mentioned we read of no gold, , unless what seems rather to be brought thither, . Gold from Uphaz, i.e. probably the best gold, coming from thence in those days, as the best silver from Tarshish, and that here was the best gold is probable from . There are various conjectures at what place this points at, whether the same with Phas, or Fez, by an aphaeresis, or Ophir, a place not far from Tarshish; and divers other places are conjectured; and some think it refers to no place at all, but to point at the excellency of the gold only. But it is not the design that this comment should swell with things rather conjectural than profitable, it is enough to know that this place intends the purest gold. The work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: thus, saith he, the artificer takes it, and each, according to his art, shapes it and adorns it; fits the silver and the gold for it. Blue and purple is their clothing: expositors differing about the materials out of which they were dyed, do differ also in the colours, which here are called blue and purple; the dispute is not worth the while in a vulgar comment, they that will may consult the English Annotations. Either this relates to the further adorning those rich idols of silver and gold; or it implies other artists, such as shape, or sew silk or cloth, woollen or linen, made use of to make these garments for those idols of more inferior materials, as wood or stone, the other being sufficiently beautified without them. They are all the work of cunning men, i.e. the choicest men in their respective arts were picked out for this work, that there might be nothing wanting as to exactness, richness, and curiosity; all this the prophet speaks the more to ridicule their idols, as if all this would put any thing of power, virtue, or excellency in them, still deest aliquit intus.

Jeremiah 10:9 Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple [is] their clothing: they [are] all the work of cunning [men].Ver. 9. Silver spread into plates.] See Isaiah 40:19. Is brought from Tarshish.] From Tarsus or Tartessus; from Africa, saith the Chaldee. Idolaters spare for no cost. And gold from Uphaz.] The same with Phaz; or with Ophir, as some; Aurum Obzyrum. They are all the work of cunning men.] Quaerunt suos Phidias et Praxiteles: but how could those give that deity which themselves had not?

(9) Tarshish.—As elsewhere in the Old Testament, Spain, the Tartessus of the Greeks (Genesis 10:4; Jonah 1:3; Ezekiel 27:12), from whence Palestine, through the Phoenicians, was chiefly supplied with silver, tin, and other metals. Uphaz.—Possibly an error of transcription, or dialectical variation, for Ophir, giving the meaning “gold-coast.” The word is found only here and in Daniel 10:5. Some interpreters, however, connect it with the name of Hyphasis, one of the tributaries of the Indus. We cannot attain to greater certainty. (See Note on 1 Kings 9:28.) Blue and purple.—Both were colours obtained from the murex, a Mediterranean shell-fish, and were used both for the curtains of the Tabernacle (Exodus 25:4) and for the gorgeous apparel of the idols of the heathen. “Purple,” as elsewhere in the English of the Bible, must be understood of a deep crimson or scarlet. (Comp. Matthew 27:28; Mark 15:17.)

Verse 9. Brought from Tarshish] Some suppose this to be Tartessus in Spain, from which the Phoenicians brought much silver. Uphaz, Calmet thinks to be the river Pison; some think Ophir is intended. Blue and purple is their clothing] These were the most precious dyes; very rare, and of high price.

9. A description of the process of the making of idols out of silver and gold, and the robing of them in expensive garments. There is probably in both MT. and LXX corruption such as cannot now be fully disentangled. The first part of the v. is likely to be a gloss. Tarshish] probably Tartessus in Spain, for the mineral products supplied by Tarshish to Tyre, silver, etc. (Ezekiel 27:12), were exactly those in which Spain was rich. In Strabo’s time the port had ceased to exist; hence the confusion as to the locality. Uphaz] unknown, read Ophir (as mg.) with some texts of LXX, Targ., Syr. Its position is disputed, but was probably in S.E. of Arabia. See HDB. blue and purple] the richness of the idols’ clothing matches that of the materials which compose them. cunning] See on Jeremiah 9:17.

Or, “It is a piece of wood (Jeremiah 10:8 note); yea, beaten silver it is, which is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz: it is the work etc.” Tarshish ... Uphaz - See the marginal reference and Genesis 10:4.

9. Tarshish — Generally supposed to have been located in the south of Spain. It is thought from the context to have been an opulent and cultured city.