[Footnote B: "Although the ancient Jews were mainly an agricultural nation the geographical position of Palestine and the contiguity of some of the tribes of Israel to the Mediterranean Sea, induced the Jewish people to make common cause of their friendly neighbors, the sea faring Phoenicians. There were two causes which conduced to render the Jews well acquainted with navigation on high seas. Many of them were carried away as captives in their frequent, and often unsuccessful, warfare with more powerful nations. The prisoners of war were forced to serve on land and sea. Allusions to redeemed prisoners, returning from the Islands of the Sea and from the "four corners of the earth," occur in many parts of the Hebrew Scripture and the experiences of the Jews in sea voyages are graphically depicted in the Bible (Psalm 107). Then there were missionary voyages of the Jews for the inculcation of monotheistic teachings. The Jewish missionaries visited many lands across the sea, as is attested in many parts of the prophetic writings. Allusions to a life on the ocean and to the unpleasant experiences of sea-sickness occur in several places in the scriptures together with magnificent representations of the wondrous sights of mid-ocean. Such descriptions were not borrowed from alien and pagan nations for the simple reason that the admirers of God's marvelous work on the sea are mentioned as coming home from their perilous expeditions and praising God's glory in the midst of their own people. The distribution of the Jews in many sea-girt places of the Gentiles is often mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and bears evidence to the sea-faring habits of many Jewish families; David's conquest of Ezeon-Gaber; the greatest sea-port in Southern Arabia, was followed by other kings, Jewish and non-Jewish, who coveted the possession of that harbor. The history of King Solomon's alliance with the Phoenician King Hiram is given in the Book of Kings. The building of merchant-men in Ezeon-Gaber and the voyages undertaken by the Jewish mariners could not be merely legendary seeing that even in the latter days when the Romans attacked the Jews the latter had numerous ships and seamen on the inland seas. On this subject we find many notices in the works of Josephus and in parts of the New Testament."--Dr. Lowry.]