Tarshish
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“Certainly the coastlands will wait for Me; And the ships of Tarshish will come first, To bring your sons from afar, Their silver and their gold with them, For the name of the LORD your God, And for the Holy One of Israel because He has glorified you.
Foreigners will build up your walls, And their kings will serve you; For in My wrath I struck you, And in My favor I have had compassion on you.
Isaiah 60:9-10
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Where is the land of Tarshish
The exact location for the land of Tarshish like many locations in the Bible is debated and obscured with time. For a considerable amount of time the consensus was that Tarshish was a costal or island area near Spain. Many theologians liked to tie the perceived “Edge of the World” quality of Tarshish to the goal of Paul to reach Spain. Tying the two together with little evidence other than it explains why Paul was so fixed on reaching Spain. This is complicated by the many details the Bible, Jewish and Gentile writings give us about Tarshish. Details that point more clearly to England.
What are the requirements for Tarshish
Here are the majority of the requirements for Tarshish in the Bible:
Genesis 10:4 (Table of Nations) lists Tarshish as a son of Javan (Greece/Ionia), making Tarshish a maritime people linked with distant seafaring trade.
1 Chronicles 1:7 repeats this.
This frames Tarshish as part of the “isles/coastlands of the nations” [Genesis 10:5].
1 Kings 10:22 / 2 Chronicles 9:21 – Solomon’s navy had ships of Tarshish bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks every three years.
Ezekiel 27:12, 25 – In the Tyre trading oracle, Tarshish is a major partner, providing silver, iron, tin, and lead, materials.
Isaiah 23:1, 6, 10, 14 – Tarshish appears as a major mercantile power mourning the downfall of Tyre. Ships of Tarshish symbolize the longest distance sea trade.
Ezekiel 38:13 – In the Gog prophecy, “Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish, with all its young lions”, question Gog’s invasion.
Isaiah 2:16 – “Ships of Tarshish” are symbols of human pride that God will humble.
Isaiah 60:9 – In the restoration prophecy, “the ships of Tarshish” bring Israel’s children back and carry wealth to Zion.
Isaiah 66:19 – Survivors of judgment are sent to “Tarshish, Pul, Lud, Tubal, and Javan” to declare God’s glory to distant nations.
Jonah 1:3; 4:2 – Jonah flees “to Tarshish,” explicitly “away from the presence of God.” This highlights Tarshish as the ultimate distant destination, essentially the “opposite end of the world.” Targum on Jonah 1:3 – Expands: Jonah fled “to escape the prophecy, to Tarshish, which is at the end of the sea.” Here Tarshish = edge of the world.
What are the debate points for Tarshish
Over the Millenia there were many locations that ancient historians and theologians thought Tarshish was:
Josephus (Antiquities 1.6.1) – Equates Tarshish with Tarsus in Cilicia (Asia Minor).
Jewish Medieval Writer Rashi – Tarshish is a distant island, “at the edge of the sea.”
Herodotus (430 BC) & Strabo (30 BC) – Both of these writers struggled with the location of the islands of tin, possibly associating them with the islands called Cassiterides. This is obscure but closely overlaps with many of the questions about Tarshish.
Jewish Writer Abraham Ibn Ezra (1089–1167): Sometimes identifies Tarshish with Spain (Tartessos), since Spain was known for silver mines. This interpretation became the dominant one for almost a thousand years. He based this on the presumption that Spain being the western limit of the known world.
We hold that Tarshish is England and there are a good number of reasons why but they are muddied by the 19th–20th Century “British-Israel” Movement which correctly or incorrectly (only God knows where he spread the tribes) viewed Anglo-Saxons as one of the Lost Tribes of Israel and promoted England as Tarshish which only made others more reticent to entertain the idea.
Table of Contents
Why do we think Tarshish is England
Lets start at the easiest and get more detailed farther in.
First and foremost England was and is a much more logical choice for the farthest Island nation of the known Great Sea world. There is a persistent myth that ancient people were simple with limited technology that permeates the modern mind. One that is time and time again proven not to be true as more evidence is shown that ancient peoples transversed on a regular basis in waters thought to be impossible to navigate. This could be Pacific water islands, possible visits to Antarctica and navigation throughout the Asian realm long before thought possible. In that light England is just a jaunt down the coast.
Second the restoration prophecy of Isaiah 60:9 “the ships of Tarshish” bring Israel’s children back and carry wealth to Zion. This was fulfilled by the Balfour Declaration issued by Brittan in 1917 and the ships that transported Jews to Roman Palestine in the 1920’s and 30’s.
Third, England was not only known to possess all the materials Ezekiel listed—silver, iron, tin, and lead—but to have them in abundance. Modern research has even shown that tin ingots dating to the 13th–12th centuries BC, recovered from a shipwreck off the coast of Israel, originated from Cornwall in southwest England. A team from Heidelberg University and the Curt Engelhorn Centre for Archaeometry in Mannheim determined through analysis that these ingots did not come from Central Asia, as previously assumed, but from the tin deposits of England. With their conclusion that this discovery proves “complex and far-reaching” trade routes existed between Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean in the Bronze Age.
Fourth Isaiah 66:19 groups Tarshish, Pul, Lud and historians love to call out that Lud & Pul were known for their archers, Pul is Libya and Lud is Lydia (Western Turkey). To this day we have records (from many including Herodotus) of the archers of Lydia (with great wood) and Libya has Egyptian records of composite bows (wood, horn, sinew) used to great effect. Spain has no ancient history of Archery. England does, and has the wood to make both it, and the great ships required. Spain struggled for much of its existence with scarcity of quality ship timber, relied on imports and the limited oak forests of Basque Country (northern Spain).
Fifth the Ezekiel 38:13 Gog prophecy that, “Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish, with all its young lions”, question Gog’s invasion. Sheba and Dedan encompass all of Arabia. This is conjecture, but what is more likely that England and its “young lions” (which is a Hebrew idiom for vigorous rulers, kingdoms, or warrior peoples that sprang from a greater power) of the USA, Canada, Australia & New Zealand would chastise a Southern Russian group of nations for trying to invade Israel unsuccessfully for wealth? Or that Arabia and Spain with its African and South American colonies would speak up? The former in the near term is way more likely.
There still might be room for debate, but the conjecture that Tarshish is anything but the United Kingdom is largely gone. We are no longer under the illusion where bronze age people couldn’t travel and trade beyond the Great Sea. When the invasion of Magog occurs this will be resolved conclusively and will most likely turn out to be the United Kingdom.
Read "Tower of Edar"
For more information see “Tower of Edar”.
Read "Emunah"
For more information see “Emunah”.
Read "One World Government"
For more information see “One World Government”.