Albert Barnes Commentary Ezekiel 27:12-24

"Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded for thy wares. Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy traffickers; they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass for thy merchandise. They of the house of Togarmah traded for thy wares with horses and war-horses and mules. The men of Dedan were thy traffickers; many isles were the mart of thy hand: they brought thee in exchange horns of ivory and ebony. Syria was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of thy handiworks: they traded for thy wares with emeralds, purple, and broidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and rubies. Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy traffickers: they traded for thy merchandise wheat of Minnith, and pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm. Damascus was thy merchant for the multitude of thy handiworks, by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches, with the wine of Helbon, and white wool. Vedan and Javan traded with yarn for thy wares: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were among thy merchandise. Dedan was thy trafficker in precious cloths for riding. Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they were the merchants of thy hand; in lambs, and rams, and goats, in these were they thy merchants. The traffickers of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy traffickers; they traded for thy wares with the chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold. Haran and Canneh and Eden, the traffickers of Sheba, Asshur [and] Chilmad, were thy traffickers. These were thy traffickers in choice wares, in wrappings of blue and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords and made of cedar, among thy merchandise." — Ezekiel 27:12-24 (ASV)

The thread broken at Ezekiel 27:8 is taken up, and the various nations are enumerated which traded with Tyre.

Ezekiel 27:12. Tarshish – Tartessus in Spain (marginal references). Spain was rich in the metals named.

Merchant – Especially applied to those who traveled about with caravans to carry on trade .

Fairs – Or, “wares” (Ezekiel 27:33). The word occurs only in this chapter. The foreign merchants gave their wares in return for the products delivered to them by Tyre.

Ezekiel 27:13. Javan – Greece (Ion), including the Grecian colonies in Sicily and Italy.

Tubal, and Meshech – The Tibareni and Moschi, whose lands were on the Caucasian highlands between the Euxine and Caspian Seas (see the marginal reference), were a fine race of men; from there slaves have been continually sought. Greece too in ancient times was famous for furnishing slaves.

Ezekiel 27:14. Togarmah – Armenia.

Ezekiel 27:15. Dedan – There were two tribes (Shemite and Hamite), each bearing the name of “Dedan” . The Hamite (Ethiopian) Dedan may well have supplied for a payment (rather than “for a present”) horns, ivory, and ebony; the Shemite (Arabians), “clothes for chariots” .

Ezekiel 27:16. Syria – “Aram” here included Mesopotamia, and Babylon was famous for its precious stones. Many read “Edom.”

Emeralds – Rather, carbuncle.

Fine linen – The word (בוץ bûts) was used only in the times of the captivity. It is a Phoenician word, which in Greek assumed the form “byssus,” properly “cotton,” as distinguished from “linen;” the Phoenicians spinning their threads from cotton wool, the Egyptians from flax.

Ezekiel 27:17. Minnith – A city of the Ammonites, whose country was famous for wheat (2 Chronicles 27:5). The wheat was carried through the land of Israel to Tyre.

Pannag – This word occurs nowhere else and has been very variously explained. Some take it to be “sweetwares.” Others see in it the name of a place, fertile like Minnith, perhaps identical with Pingi on the road from Baalbec to Damascus.

Ezekiel 27:18. Helbon – Chalybon, near Damascus, whose wine was a favorite luxury with Persian kings.

White wool – A product of flocks that grazed in the waste lands of Syria and Arabia.

Ezekiel 27:19. Dan also – Hebrew Vedan, a place in Arabia, not elsewhere mentioned.

Going to and fro – Better as in the margin, a proper name, “Meuzal,” or rather, “from Uzal,” which was the ancient name of Senaa, the capital of Yemen in Arabia. Greek merchants would carry on commerce between Uzal and Tyre.

Bright iron – Literally, “wrought iron;” iron worked into plates, smooth and polished. Yemen was famous for the manufacture of sword-blades.

Cassia – The inner bark of an aromatic plant.

Calamus – A fragrant reed-like plant . Both are special products of India and Arabia.

Ezekiel 27:20. Dedan – See Ezekiel 27:15. It is remarkable that “Dedan and Sheba” occur both among the descendants of Ham in Genesis 10:7, and among the descendants of Abraham and Keturah in Genesis 25:3. This seems to indicate that there were distinct nomad tribes bearing the same names of Hamite and of Semitic origin; or it may be that whereas some of the nomad Arabs were Hamite, others Semitic, these were of mixed origin, and so traced up their lineage alike to Ham and Shem. Here we have, at any rate, a number of Arabian nomad tribes mentioned together, and these tribes and their caravans were in those days the regular merchant travelers between east and west. By her ships, Tyre spread over Europe the goods which by these caravans she obtained from India and China.

Precious clothes – Or “clothes of covering,” cloths of tapestry.

Ezekiel 27:21. Kedar – The representative of the pastoral tribes in the northwest of Arabia.

Ezekiel 27:22. Sheba – Sabaea, the richest country of Arabia, corresponded nearly with what is now called Yemen or Arabia Felix.

Raamah – Closely connected with “Sheba,” whose seat is supposed to have been in the neighborhood of the Persian Gulf.

Ezekiel 27:23. Haran – Charrae in Mesopotamia.

Canneh – “Calneh” (Genesis 10:10), probably Ctesiphon on the Tigris.

Eden – On the Euphrates (Isaiah 37:12). “The merchants of Sheba”; here are meant the towns or tribes that traded with Sheba. Sheba maintained a considerable trade with Mesopotamia.

Chilmad – Possibly Kalwada near Bagdad.

Ezekiel 27:24. All sorts of things – See the margin, which has “made of cedar.” Rather, it means “made fast.”