Ezekiel 27:13

Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market. JAVAN - the Ionians or Greeks; because the Ionians of Asia Minor were the first Greeks whom the Asiatics came in contact with. TUBAL AND MESHECH - the Tibareni and Moschi in the mountain-region between the Black and Caspian seas. THEY TRADED THE PERSONS OF MEN - i:e, as slaves. So the Turkish harems are supplied with female slaves from Circassia and Georgia. AND VESSELS OF BRASS - all kinds of articles or implements of copper. Superior weapons are still manufactured in the Caucasus region....

1-25 Those who live at ease are to be lamented, if they are not prepared for trouble. Let none reckon themselves beautified, any further than they are sanctified. The account of the trade of Tyre intimates, that God's eye is upon men when employed in worldly business. Not only when at church, praying and hearing, but when in markets and fairs, buying and selling. In all our dealings we should keep a conscience void of offence. God, as the common Father of mankind, makes one country abound in one commodity, and another in another, serviceable to the necessity or to the comfort and ornament of human life. See what a blessing trade and merchandise are to mankind, when followed in the fear of God. Besides necessaries, an abundance of things are made valuable only by custom; yet God allows us to use them. But when riches increase, men are apt to set their hearts upon them, and forget the Lord...

Verse Ezekiel 27:13. _JAVAN, TUBAL, AND MESHECH_] The Ionians, the Tybarenians, and the Cappadocians, or Muscovites. _THEY TRADED THE PERSONS OF MEN_] That is, they trafficked in _slaves_. The bodies and souls of men were bought and sold in those days, as in our degenerate age. With these also they traded in brazen vessels....

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 (see Genesis 23:16). 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

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 27:2 TAKE UP A LAMENTATION FOR TYRUS. The dirge over the merchant-city that follows, the doom _sic transit gloria mundi, _worked out with a fullness of detail which reminds us of the Homeric catalogue of ships ('Iliad,' 2:484-770), is almost, if not altogether, without a parallel in the history of literature. It can scarcely have rested on anything but personal knowledge. Ezekiel, we must believe, had, at some time or other in his life, trod the sinful streets of the great city, and noted the mingled crowd of many nations and in many costumes that he met there, just as we infer from Dante's vivid description of the dockyards of Venice ('Inf.,' 21.7-15) that he had visited that city. Apart from its poetic or prophetic interest, it is for us almost the _locus classicus _as to the geography and commerce of t

Ver. 13 JAVAN, TUBAL, AND MESHECH, THEY [WERE] THY MERCHANTS,.... Javan designs Greece, as the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions render it; especially that part of it called Ionia, from Javan the son of Japheth, Genesis 10:2 and Tubal, and Meshech, were also sons of Japheth; the former are the Iberi and Albanians, as Jerom and others, among whom were a city called Thabilaca, by Ptolemy w; and the latter the Cappadocians, with whom is a city called Mazaca x. THEY TRADED THE PERSONS OF MEN AND VESSELS OF BRASS IN THY MARKETS; or, "the souls of men" y; they bought up men and women in the several countries to which they belonged, or where they traded, and brought them to Tyre, and sold them for slaves; and the Ionian and Grecian slaves were had in great esteem: and the best brass, of which vessels were made, was had from Corinth, Delus, and Aeginetus; according

Ezekiel 27:1. Ezekiel 27:1 give an interesting description of the world-wide commerce and glory of this proud world city. “Sic transit gloria mundi,” thus passeth the glory of the world! Of the proud and wicked mistress of the sea nothing but ruins remain and her very site is no longer known. What her past glory was is made known by the prophet, yet Ezekiel never had been to that city, nor did he have any knowledge of her grandeur, her great wealth and far reaching commerce. God revealed all unto him. The description of her great commerce reminds us of that coming world-system as described in the last book of the Bible, the Revelation. Babylon the Great will be both an ecclesiastical and commercial world center. Her commerce is just like the commerce of Tyrus...

EZEKIEL 27. THE DIRGE OVER TYRE. The interest of the brilliant poem that follows is greatly enhanced by the description of the commerce of Tyre in a passage (Ezekiel 27:9_ b_ - Ezekiel 27:25_ a_) remarkable alike for its textual difficulty and for its importance as a source for our knowledge of the trade of the ancient world. Tyre is compared to a gallant ship, of finished beauty, with equipments the finest and costliest, manned and piloted by the most skilful of sailors (Ezekiel 27:1). In Ezekiel 27:5, Senir = Herman. In Ezekiel 27:6, Kittim =

JAVAN. Ionia. Compare Genesis 10:4. These are named together in Genesis 10:2. PERSONS. souls. Hebrew. _nephesh_. App-13. Referring to the slave trade. See Revelation 18:13. MEN. mankind. Hebrew 'adam. App-14....

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 _her_merchants, 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