The ancient Mediterranean seaport of Judah — modern JAFFA, now part of Tel Aviv — and one of the few natural harbours on the otherwise straight coast. Cedar for both Solomon's temple and the second temple was floated down to Joppa from Lebanon (2 Chronicles 2:16; Ezra 3:7). Jonah 'goes down to Joppa' to find his ship to Tarshish (1:3). ⚠ It has a second sea-and-Gentiles moment in the New Testament: it is at Joppa that Peter raises Tabitha, and on a Joppa rooftop that he sees the sheet of unclean animals and hears 'what God has cleansed, do not call common' — the vision that opens the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 9-10), a striking echo of Jonah's own reluctant mission to outsiders, begun from the same port.