OPHIR. - Region reached by Solomon's fleet (1 Kings 9:28; 10:22), which King Jehoshaphat attempted to renew (ibid. 22:49) — with its base at the port of Ezion-geber (v.) on the Gulf of Elath — to load various merchandise (ibid. 10:11) and especially gold, a typical product of the place (Isa. 13:12; Job 28:16; Ps. 45:10; 1 Chron. 29:4; Sir. 7:18; in Job 22:29, O. in the sense of "gold").
Attempts have been made to identify the place along the entire route that the fleet could travel: on the Eritrean-Ethiopian, South Arabian, South African coast and even in India, in any place where the presence of veins of the precious metal has been noted. The indication in Gen. 10:29 (a very ancient table of the East with the names of the ancestors) seems to point in particular to southern Arabia; it places O. among the "sons of Joktan," almost all of whom can be identified with South Arabian groups (e.g. Hadramawt and Sheba). The similarity of the name O. with Jpir-ti (Elamite inscriptions) in Elam (Hüsing) is shown to be accidental (Cheyne).
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Giovanni Rinaldi
OPHNI and PHINEHAS (Heb. Hophnī, Pīnhās; etymologies uncertain, perhaps Egyptian). - Sons of the high priest Eli (v.), 11th century B.C., and his assistants in the exercise of worship, whose sacrilegious and immoral conduct is described in 1 Sam. 2:12-17, 22-25.
By their greed they drove the people away from the sacrifices and had illicit relations with the women serving at the tabernacle. Heedless of their father's rebukes and of the threatened divine punishments (ibid. 2:34), they continued in their impiety. Compelled by the necessity of their office, they followed the ark into a battle against the Philistines, and, as had been foretold, both met their death there (ibid. 4:4, 11). P.'s wife, pregnant, at the news of the disaster gave birth prematurely and lost her life (ibid. 4:19-22). No memory of O. remained. The priestly line was continued by P.'s firstborn, Ahitub (ibid. 14:3).