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What is the connection between the "tarshish" in Ezekiel's vision and the city Jonah fled toward?
I noticed that Ezekiel 1:16, in describing his vision of something like a heavenly chariot (merkavah), says the words gleaned like tarshish, translated "beryl" by Sefaria and some others:
מַרְאֵ֨ה הָאוֹפַנִּ֤ים וּמַעֲשֵׂיהֶם֙ כְּעֵ֣ין תַּרְשִׁ֔ישׁ
As for the appearance and structure of the wheels, they gleamed like beryl.
I recognized the word tarshish when I saw this:
וַיָּ֤קָם יוֹנָה֙ לִבְרֹ֣חַ תַּרְשִׁ֔ישָׁה
Jonah, however, started out to flee to Tarshish (Jonah 1:3)
Is there a connection between the gleaming something (beryl or maybe some other material) and Yonah's original destination? If so, what is it?
1 answer
The Malbim on that verse states:
שהמלאך כשיתגלה להתראות לעין הנביא יתראה בלבוש מאויר הדק הנקרא תרשיש על שם מראהו, ואמרו תכלת דומה לים רצה לומר לים תרשיש, וים דומה לרקיע וכו
The angel, when it became visible to appear to the eye of the prophet, appeared cloaked in the thin air that is called "Tarshish," after its appearance. They say, "Techeiles is similar to the sea" (that is to say, the Sea of Tarshish), "and the sea is similar to the sky..."
The Malbim suggests that the term refers to the the color of the actual Sea of Tarshish. Based on that, the color and the place are directly connected.
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