Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars; the company of the Ashurites have made thy benches of ivory, brought out of the isles of Chittim.
Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars. Bashan was celebrated for its oaks, as Lebanon was for its cedars.
The company of the Ashurites have made thy benches of ivory - the most skill workmen summoned from Assyria. Rather, as the Hebrew orthography requires, 'they have made thy (rowing) benches of ivory inlaid in the daughter of cedars' (Maurer), or the beat boxwood х bat (H1323) 'ashuriym (H839)]. Fairbairn, with the Chaldee, and one of DeRossi's manuscripts and Bochart, reads the Hebrew two words as one [bitª'ashuwriym, the plural of tª'ashuwr (H8391), with bª- prefixed: a species of cedar, the Arabic Sherbin]: 'Thy plankwork (deck, instead of "benches," as the Hebrew is singular) they made ivory with boxes.' The English version, with Maurer's correction, is simpler. The Hebrew for "thy benches" is the singular used collectively for the plural-a frequent idiom х qarsheek (H7175)].
Brought out of the isles of Chittim - Cyprus and Macedonia, from which Pliny tells us the best boxwood came (Grotius).