Ezekiel 27:12-25

The market of Tyre

Several things are to be observed in this passage: 1. The representation is not that Tyre is traded with by the nations, though this is the fact lying under the figures employed. The nations are not customers of Tyre. Tyre neither buys nor sells, nor does she exchange one article for another. The nations are hermerchants, who bring to her wares from every land; or they are her dependents, and the merchandise which they bring is a tribute which they render her (Ezekiel 27:15). They are her subjects, ministering to her luxury, bringing wares to her, and enriching her. The counterpart to this idea is that she enriches many peoples by bestowing her wealth upon them (Ezekiel 27:33). 2. The passage is artistic. Two words are employed for "to trade," "to be a merchant." The words have little difference of sense and are generally used alternately, e.g. one word in Ezekiel 27:12; Ezekiel 27:15; Ezekiel 27:18; Ezekiel 27:21, the other in Ezekiel 27:13; Ezekiel 27:15; Ezekiel 27:17; Ezekiel 27:20; Ezekiel 27:22seq. Two words also are used in the sense of waresor goods, though hardly differing in meaning. These also are used alternately so as to diversify the phraseology, e.g. the one in Ezekiel 27:12; Ezekiel 27:14; Ezekiel 27:16; Ezekiel 27:18; Ezekiel 27:22, the other in Ezekiel 27:13 (15), 17, 19, with other variants of the same sense. Gesen. attributed various senses to these words, as: 1, traffic, trading, 2, fair, market-place, and 3, gain, wealth. The words do not appear to differ in meaning, and neither of the two probably has any other sense than the general one of wares. 3. Again, the language is diversified by the adoption of a variety of constructions. The word "give," which receives an extraordinary extension of usage in Ez. and in later Heb. in general (cf. its use in the Apocalypse), is employed in the sense of put, bring, render, &c. That it ever means to "sell" (Ges.) is without evidence. The various constructions employed are seen in Ezekiel 27:12; Ezekiel 27:22(acc. and prep. b, cf Ezekiel 27:13; Ezekiel 27:17); in Ezekiel 27:16; Ezekiel 27:18(double prep. b), and in Ezekiel 27:14 (double accus.). These different constructions probably all express the same general meaning.

There is much uncertainty in the text, e.g. for "sons of Dedan," Ezekiel 27:15, LXX. reads, sons of the Rhodians, and for Aram (Syria) Ezekiel 27:16, Syriac reads Edom (so LXX. "man"), in both cases by interchange of the similar letters dand r. Ezekiel 27:19 is certainly out of order, and Ezekiel 27:24 exceedingly obscure. Owing to these obscurities the precise order followed in the enumeration of the nations is involved in some uncertainty. 1. vv, 12 14, the prophet names the nations lying in the widest circle around Tyre, beginning with the furthest west, Tarshish (Spain), and pursuing a line along the north, Javan (Ionia), Tubal (N. of Asia Minor), and Togarmah (Armenia). 2. If Rhodians be read in Ezekiel 27:15, a narrower circle of the Mediterranean coasts would be described. 3. Ezekiel 27:16, if Edom be read for Aram, the line traced is from S. to N., along the eastern trade route, Edom, Judah, Damascus. 4. In Ezekiel 27:19 Uzal seems certainly to be the name of a place (A.V. "going to and fro") in the S. of Arabia, the other names are Arabian, Dedan, Kedar, Sheba and Raamah. 5. The names in Ezekiel 27:23 seq. are more obscure, and it is not certain whether this be the previous line carried further N. or a new line.