Bible Locations

Elishah appears in Ezekiel 27:7, in a poem picturing Tyre as a magnificent ship: "Fine embroidered linen from Egypt was your sail and served as your banner; your awnings were of blue and purple from the coasts of Elishah." Elishah was a son of Javan, the ancestor of the Greeks (Genesis 10:4), so it was probably a Greek-related land in the Mediterranean. Many scholars identify it with Alashiya, the name for Cyprus in Egyptian, Hittite and Amarna texts from the 1300s BC, where it's known as a source of copper and a trading partner of Egypt and Ugarit. Others have suggested Carthage, Sicily or southern Italy. Blue and purple dyes, made from sea snails, were valuable, and Tyre itself was famous for purple. If Elishah was Cyprus, it fits the close trade ties between Tyre and nearby Cyprus, only about 120 miles away.