Genesis 10:4: possibly Tartessus, a city of Spain between the two mouths of the Guadalquivir, which was a major Phoenician trading port, linked to the central port of Tsur (Tyre). However it may be Tarsus, near the mouth of the river Cydnus in Turkey, where Saul/Paul was born (New Testament references to Paul and Tarsus can be found here.) The difficulty with the latter option is that, while its neighbour Mersin is on the Mediterranean coast, Tarsus itself is well inland, and therefore an unlikely candidate for being the major naval port which the Bible describes (see Isaiah 23:1 especially). It might be that Tarsus was the inland capital and Mersin the naval port, so that to speak, as Isaiah does, of the "ships of Tarshish" may be like saying "the ships of Paris", but meaning France, and understanding that Paris is nowhere near either Calais or Marseilles. Tartessus in Spain, by contrast, sits on the coast.
Tarshish is referred to frequently in the Tanach, notably: Psalm 72:10; Isaiah 23:1 and 66:19; Ezekiel 38:13; Jonah 1:3 and 4:2; Jeremiah 10:9 et al.Tarshish is also the name of a precious stone, though which one is disputed. Jeremiah 10:9 speaks of "hammered silver" (Keseph Merukah - כֶּסֶף מְרֻקָּע) coming from Tarshish, but this is its merchandise, not the meaning of its name. Amongst those suggested are chrysolite, beryl, amber, mother of pearl and yellow serpentine (the illustration above shows a piece of uncut green beryl). The stone is mentioned most famously in Exodus 28:20 and 39:13, where it is listed as the first stone in the fourth row of the breastplate of the High Priest, alongside the onyx (Soham/סהם) and jasper (Yashpeh/ישפה). We are told in the same passages that each of the stones represented one of the tribes, so we can deduce that Tarshish/Beryl, being the tenth stone, must have been the tribal stone of Dan, the tenth child. For more detail on the tribal jewels, and what the Tarshish is likely to have been, see the notes to the Number Twelve.
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