PORT
(Heb. “hõph”: Gen. 49:13; “machoz”, “refuge”: Ps. 107:30; Gr. “limên”, “port”: Acts 27:12. The Gr. term was used for designate a port.
Instead, the primary meaning of “hõph” is “shore” or “coast”; cf. Deut. 1:7; Josh. 9:1; Thu. 5:17; Jer. 47:7; Ez. 25:16).
There is not, along the entire coast of Syria and Palestine, a single natural harbor of good characteristics. The practice was, in bad weather, to beach the boats during storms.
In biblical times, Israel did not possess any ports; In the time of Solomon, the port of Joppa, in Phoenician hands, was used for the unloading of the cedars of Lebanon and subsequent transportation by land to Jerusalem (2 Chron. 2:16), as was also done for the reconstruction of the Temple (Ezr. . 3:7). Jonah went to this port to attempt the escape to Tarshish (Jon. 1:3).
In the intertestamental period Joppa was temporarily dominated by the Israelites during the time of the Maccabees (cf. 1 Maccabees 12:36ff.; 13:11; 14:5-34).