Ezekiel 27:22 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 27:22
The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold.
to travel for trading · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct
Sheba
שְׁבָא֙she.Va'
H7614
Sheba · proper noun, a place name
Raamah
וְרַעְמָ֔הve.ra'.Mah
H7484
Ramah · conjunction + proper noun, a place name
merchants
רֹכְלָ֑יִךְro.khe.La.yikh
H7402
to travel for trading · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
occupied
נָתְנ֖וּna.te.Nu
H5414
to give · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
fairs
עִזְבוֹנָֽיִךְiz.vo.Na.yikh
H5801
trade · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
chief
בְּרֹ֨אשׁbe.Rosh
H7218
the head (as most easily shaken) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
spices
בֹּ֜שֶׂםBo.sem
H1314
fragrance · noun, common masculine singular absolute
precious
יְקָרָה֙ye.ka.Rah
H3368
valuable (objectively or subjectively) · adjective, feminine singular absolute
stones
אֶ֤בֶן'E.ven
H68
a stone · noun, common feminine singular absolute
gold
וְזָהָ֔בve.za.Hav
H2091
gold · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Genesis 10:7 And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.
Isaiah 60:6 The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and inc…
Genesis 43:11 And their father Israel said unto them, If it must be so now, do this; take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down t…
1 Kings 10:1-13 And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions.
1 Chronicles 1:9 And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabta, and Raamah, and Sabtecha. And the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.
2 Chronicles 9:1-12 And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to prove Solomon with hard questions at Jerusalem, with a very great comp…
Psalms 72:10 The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.
Psalms 72:15 And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba: prayer also shall be made for him continually; and daily shall he be prai…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 27:1-25
Here, I. The prophet is ordered to take up a lamentation for Tyrus, Eze 27:2. It was yet in the height of its prosperity, and there appeared not the least symptom of its decay; yet the prophet must lament it, because its prosperity is its snare, is the cause of its pride and security, which will make its fall the more grievous. Even those that live at ease are to be lamented if they be not preparing for trouble. He must lament it because its ruin is hastening on apace; it is sure, it is near; and though the prophet foretel it, and justify God in it, yet he must lament it. Note, We ought to mourn for the miseries of other nations, as well as for our own, out of an affection for mankind in gen…
Sheba . . . Raamah--in Arabia.
chief of . . . spices--that is, best spices (Deu 33:15). Obtained from India and conveyed in caravans to Tyre.
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 27:22
Sheba and Raamah - Inhabitants of Arabia Felix, at the entrance of the Persian Gulf, who were famous for their riches and spices.
John Gill on Ezekiel 27:22
The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants,.... This Sheba was the son of Raamah, Genesis 10:7 who settled in Arabia Felix; where, according to Ptolemy (x), is a city called Rhegma; and so Raamah is pronounced in the Septuagint version of Genesis 10:7,
they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices; as with myrrh and frankincense, with which they abounded: Pliny (y) says that the Arabians paid annually to the kings of Persia a thousand talents of frankincense; and that the Sabaeans (z) boiled their food, some with wood of frankincense, and others with wood of myrrh:
and with all precious stones, and gold; as jaspers, emeralds, carbuncles, and others, which Pliny (a) sa…
(Verse 22.) Sellers of Sheba and Reama (or Rema), your own merchants with all the choicest spices, and precious stone, and gold which they have set forth in your market. In the Psalms where it is written, 'The kings of the Arabs and Sheba shall offer gifts to you' (Ps. 72:10), in Hebrew it has, 'The kings of Sheba and Sheba shall offer gifts to you,' of which one Sheba is written with the letter Sin, the other with Samech, which is similar to our letter S. Therefore, since Saba is interpreted as a conversion, it must be said that in this present passage it does not signify conversion, but rather aversion, from which the gifts of Tyre are brought with all kinds of aromas and the best odors, and with precious stone and gold, all of which are offered for sale in the markets of Tyre. For they themselves fabricate the best odor and precious stone with which they strive to build up their own perversity in the Churches, and they promise gold in the sense, and all these things are perverse. For nothing is received for free, nor is anything given for free, but all things are bought, as when the kings of the Arabs and Saba offer gifts to Christ for free. These are the ones who do everything for the sake of shameful gain: and they received these gifts from Him who says in the Gospel: 'All these things were given to me, and I will give them to you if you fall down and worship me' (Matthew 4:9). Reama, or according to the Septuagint Rhegma, I could not find in any other place in the Scriptures, nor could I find what region it is or what it signifies; except that it is clear, and from what is connected, that Saba is a neighboring region to this province.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Arabia — Arid, an extensive region in the south-west of Asia. It is bounded on the west by the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the east by the Persian Gulf and the…
Ezekiel, Book of — Consists mainly of three groups of prophecies. After an account of his call to the prophetical office (1-3:21), Ezekiel (1) utters words of denunciation against the Jews (3:22-24), warning them of…
Fairs — (Heb. ‘izabhonim), found seven times in Ezek. 27, and nowhere else. The Authorized Version renders the word thus in all these instances, except in verse 33, where “wares” is used. The Revised Version…
Helbon — Fat; i.e., “fertile”, (Ezek. 27: 18 only), a place whence wine was brought to the great market of Tyre. It has been usually identified with the modern Aleppo, called Haleb by the native Arabs, but is…
Raamah — Thunder. (1.) One of the sons of Cush (Gen. 10:7). (2.) A country which traded with Tyre (Ezek. 27:22).
Commerce · Of the Arabians — Of the Arabians
Gold · An article of commerce — An article of commerce
Imports · Of Tyre — Of Tyre
Market · General references — General references
Merchant · 10:15,28; — 10:15,28;
Precious Stones · Brought from Sheba — Brought from Sheba
Raamah · 2. A place in Arabia — 2. A place in Arabia
Sheba
Keil & Delitzsch on Ezekiel 27:12-25
This is followed by a description of the commerce of Tyre with all nations, who delivered their productions in the market of this metropolis of the commerce of the world, and received the wares and manufactures of this city in return. - Eze 27:12. Tarshish traded with thee for the multitude of goods of all kinds; with silver, iron, tin, and lead they paid for thy sales. Eze 27:13. Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants; with souls of men and brazen vessels they made thy barter. Eze 27:14. From the house of Togarmah they paid horses, riding-horses, and mules for thy sales. Eze 27:15. The sons of Dedan were thy merchants; many islands were at thy hand for commerce; ivory horns and…
Sheba was a kingdom in southwest Arabia. The location of Raamah is uncertain, but it was always associated with Sheba.
Rashi on Ezekiel 27:21
with lambs [Heb. בְכָרִים,] lambs. Jonathan renders: with cattle, and so too did he render (II Kings 3: 4): “one hundred thousand bulls,” (כָּרִים) of Mesha, king of Moab.
Tyre · Celebrated for: Its commerce — Celebrated for: Its commerce
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
