1 Kings 10:18

10:18 The king made a large throne decorated with ivory and overlaid it with pure gold.

1 Kings 10:22

10:22 Along with Hiram’s fleet, the king had a fleet of large merchant ships ¹  that sailed the sea. Once every three years the fleet ²  came into port with cargoes of ³  gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. ⁴ 

Psalms 45:8

45:8 All your garments are perfumed with ⁵  myrrh, aloes, and cassia.

From the luxurious palaces ⁶  comes the music of stringed instruments that makes you happy. ⁷ 

Ezekiel 27:6

27:6 They made your oars from oaks of Bashan;

they made your deck ⁸  with cypresses ⁹  from the Kittean isles. ¹⁰ 

Ezekiel 27:15

27:15 The Dedanites ¹¹  were your clients. Many coastlands were your customers; they paid ¹²  you with ivory tusks and ebony.

Amos 3:15

3:15 I will destroy both the winter and summer houses. ¹³ 

The houses filled with ivory ¹⁴  will be ruined,

the great ¹⁵  houses will be swept away.” ¹⁶ 

The Lord is speaking!

Amos 6:4

6:4 They lie around on beds decorated with ivory, ¹⁷ 

and sprawl out on their couches.

They eat lambs from the flock,

and calves from the middle of the pen.

[10:22]  ¹ tn Heb “a fleet of Tarshish [ships].” This probably refers to large ships either made in or capable of traveling to the distant western port of Tarshish.

[10:22]  ² tn Heb “the fleet of Tarshish [ships].”

[10:22]  ³ tn Heb “came carrying.”

[10:22]  ⁴ tn The meaning of this word is unclear. Some suggest “baboons.”

[45:8]  ⁵ tn The words “perfumed with” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[45:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “the palaces of ivory.” The phrase “palaces of ivory” refers to palaces that had ivory panels and furniture decorated with ivory inlays. Such decoration with ivory was characteristic of a high level of luxury. See 1 Kgs 22:39 and Amos 3:15.

[45:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “from the palaces of ivory stringed instrument[s] make you happy.”

[27:6]  ⁸ tn Or “hull.”

[27:6]  ⁹ tc The Hebrew reads “Your deck they made ivory, daughter of Assyria.” The syntactically difficult “ivory” is understood here as dittography and omitted, though some construe this to refer to ivory inlays. “Daughter of Assyria” is understood here as improper word division and the vowels repointed as “cypresses.”

[27:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “from the coastlands (or islands) of Kittim,” generally understood to be a reference to the island of Cyprus, where the Phoenicians had a trading colony on the southeast coast. Many modern English versions have “Cyprus” (CEV, TEV), “the coastlands of Cyprus” (NASB), “the coasts of Cyprus” (NIV, NRSV), or “the southern coasts of Cyprus” (NLT).

[27:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “sons of Dedan.”

[27:15]  ¹² tn Heb “they returned as your gift.”

[3:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “the winter house along with the summer house.”

[3:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “houses of ivory.” These houses were not made of ivory, but they had ivory panels and furniture decorated with ivory inlays. See P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 139-48.

[3:15]  ¹⁵ tn Or “many,” cf. NAB “their many rooms.”

[3:15]  ¹⁶ tn The translation assumes the form is from the Hebrew verb סָפָה (safah, “to sweep away”) rather than סוּף (suf, “to come to an end”), which is the choice of most versions. Either option effectively communicates the destruction of the structures.

[6:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “beds of ivory.”