Ezekiel 27:16
in Ezekiel 27Aram was your customer because of your many products; they exchanged turquoise, purple, embroidered work, fine linen, coral, and rubies for your wares.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
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.
KJV
Syria was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of the wares of thy making: they occupied in thy fairs with emeralds, purple, and broidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and agate.
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This verse in Ezekiel 27
Commentary
7 notes on this verse(Vers. 15, 16.) Many islands have traded with your merchandise: they have exchanged ivory and ebony for your price. Your merchant, Syrus, because of the multitude of your works, has presented pearls, purple, embroidered garments, fine linen, silk, and scarlet in your market. LXX: They have multiplied your merchandise with islands: you were repaying your wages with elephant tusks and those who were being brought in. Your business has been purchased by many of your customers: They traded in aphec, stacten, and polymita from Tharsis and Ramoth and Chodchod in your market.
This site's exposition
Syria was thy merchant
on Ezekiel 27:16-18
Syria supplies emeralds, purple and fine linen, and then the list turns to Judah and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants, naming Israel not as a special covenant nation here but as one trading partner among many, selling wheat, honey, oil and balm like any other supplier in the ledger. Damascus follows with the wine of Helbon and white wool, the list moving north to south and back without pause for the nation the rest of the book treats as central. Henry reads Israel's appearance in this ordinary commercial list as part of the chapter's irony, a people meant for a holy calling reduced in Tyre's own accounting to one line among trading nations.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
It is the wisdom of a nation to encourage art and industry, and not to bear hard upon the handicraft-tradesmen; for it contributes much to the wealth and honour of a nation to send abroad wares of their own making, which may bring them in the multitude of all riches. [8.] All this made Tyrus very great and very proud: The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in they market (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
), which is designed to make its ruin the more lamentable. A prediction of its fall and ruin, and the confusion and consternation which all its neighbours shall thereby be put into,
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
Syria was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of the wares of thy making,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
Syria - These were always a mercantile people. For the precious stones mentioned here see the notes on Exo 28:17 (note).
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
"Syria was thy mart for the multitude," &c. For "Syria" the Septuagint reads "Edom." But the Syrians were famed as merchants. occupied--old English for "traded"; so in Lu 19:13. agate--Others translate, "ruby," "chalcedony," or "pearls."
The words behind it
12 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אֲרָ֥ם | ʾaram | Aram | H758 → | |
| סֹחַרְתֵּ֖ךְ | sochartekh | [was] trader your | H5503 → | 21 times |
| מֵרֹ֣ב | mero | from [the] abundance of | H7230 → | 149 times |
| מַעֲשָׂ֑יִךְ | maasayikh | products your | H4639 → | 236 times |
| בְּ֠נֹפֶךְ | benofekh | for turquoise | H5306 → | |
| אַרְגָּמָ֨ן | ʾargaman | purple | H713 → | |
| וְרִקְמָ֤ה | verikmah | and multicolored cloth | H7553 → | 12 times |
| וּבוּץ֙ | uvutz | and fine linen | H948 → | |
| וְרָאמֹ֣ת | veramot | and corals | H7215 → | |
| וְכַדְכֹּ֔ד | vekhadkod | and ruby | H3539 → | |
| נָתְנ֖וּ | natenu | they exchanged | H5414 → | 2011 times |
| בְּעִזְבוֹנָֽיִךְ׃ | beizvonayikh | for wares your | H5801 → | 7 times |
אֲרָ֥םAram
ʾaramH758 →
סֹחַרְתֵּ֖ךְ[was] trader your
sochartekhH5503 →21 times
מֵרֹ֣בfrom [the] abundance of
meroH7230 →149 times
מַעֲשָׂ֑יִךְproducts your
maasayikhH4639 →236 times
בְּ֠נֹפֶךְfor turquoise
benofekhH5306 →
אַרְגָּמָ֨ןpurple
ʾargamanH713 →
וְרִקְמָ֤הand multicolored cloth
verikmahH7553 →12 times
וּבוּץ֙and fine linen
uvutzH948 →
וְרָאמֹ֣תand corals
veramotH7215 →
וְכַדְכֹּ֔דand ruby
vekhadkodH3539 →
נָתְנ֖וּthey exchanged
natenuH5414 →2011 times
בְּעִזְבוֹנָֽיִךְ׃for wares your
beizvonayikhH5801 →7 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Ezekiel 28:13You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every kind of precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald. Your mountings and settings were crafted in…
it leads to
- Ezekiel 28:15
From the day you were created you were blameless in your ways—until wickedness was found in you.
- Genesis 2:8
And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, where He placed the man He had formed.
- Isaiah 54:11–12
“O afflicted city, lashed by storms, without solace, surely I will set your stones in antimony and lay your foundations with sapphires.
- Isaiah 51:3
For the LORD will comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness…
- Ezekiel 28:15
Through
2 Samuel 10:6When the Ammonites realized that they had become a stench to David, they hired twenty thousand Aramean foot soldiers from Beth-rehob and Zoba, as well as a thousand men from the king of Maacah…
it leads to
- 2 Samuel 8:3
David also defeated Hadadezer son of Rehob, king of Zobah, who had marched out to restore his dominion along the Euphrates River.
- 2 Samuel 8:5
When the Arameans of Damascus came to help King Hadadezer of Zobah, David struck down twenty-two thousand men.
- 2 Samuel 8:3
Through
Judges 10:6And again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD. They served the Baals, the Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, Sidon, and Moab, and the gods of the Ammonites and Philistines. Thus…
it leads to
- 2 Kings 23:13
The king also desecrated the high places east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Corruption, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh…
- 1 Kings 11:7
At that time on a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites.
- 2 Kings 23:13
About Ezekiel
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.