Ezekiel 27:12-36

27:12 “‘Tarshish was your trade partner because of your abundant wealth; they exchanged silver, iron, tin, and lead for your products. 27:13 Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were your clients; they exchanged slaves and bronze items for your merchandise. 27:14 Beth Togarmah exchanged horses, chargers, and mules for your products. 27:15 The Dedanites were your clients. Many coastlands were your customers; they paid you with ivory tusks and ebony. 27:16 Edom was your trade partner because of the abundance of your goods; they exchanged turquoise, purple, embroidered work, fine linen, coral, and rubies for your products. 27:17 Judah and the land of Israel were your clients; they traded wheat from Minnith, millet, honey, olive oil, and balm for your merchandise. 27:18 Damascus was your trade partner because of the abundance of your goods and of all your wealth: wine from Helbon, white wool from Zahar, 27:19 and casks of wine from Izal they exchanged for your products. Wrought iron, cassia, and sweet cane were among your merchandise. 27:20 Dedan was your client in saddlecloths for riding. 27:21 Arabia and all the princes of Kedar were your trade partners; for lambs, rams, and goats they traded with you. 27:22 The merchants of Sheba and Raamah engaged in trade with you; they traded the best kinds of spices along with precious stones and gold for your products. 27:23 Haran, Kanneh, Eden, merchants from Sheba, Asshur, and Kilmad were your clients. 27:24 They traded with you choice garments, purple clothes and embroidered work, and multicolored carpets, bound and reinforced with cords; these were among your merchandise. 27:25 The ships of Tarshish were the transports for your merchandise.

“‘So you were filled and weighed down in the heart of the seas.

27:26 Your rowers have brought you into surging waters.

The east wind has wrecked you in the heart of the seas.

27:27 Your wealth, products, and merchandise, your sailors and captains,

your ship’s carpenters, 10  your merchants,

and all your fighting men within you,

along with all your crew who are in you,

will fall into the heart of the seas on the day of your downfall.

27:28 At the sound of your captains’ cry the waves will surge; 11 

27:29 They will descend from their ships – all who handle the oar,

the sailors and all the sea captains – they will stand on the land.

27:30 They will lament loudly 12  over you and cry bitterly.

They will throw dust on their heads and roll in the ashes; 13 

27:31 they will tear out their hair because of you and put on sackcloth,

and they will weep bitterly over you with intense mourning. 14 

27:32 As they wail they will lament over you, chanting:

“Who was like Tyre, like a tower 15  in the midst of the sea?”

27:33 When your products went out from the seas,

you satisfied many peoples;

with the abundance of your wealth and merchandise

you enriched the kings of the earth.

27:34 Now you are wrecked by the seas, in the depths of the waters;

your merchandise and all your company have sunk 16  along with you. 17 

27:35 All the inhabitants of the coastlands are shocked at you,

and their kings are horribly afraid – their faces are troubled.

27:36 The traders among the peoples hiss at you;

you have become a horror, and will be no more.’”

Isaiah 23:17-18

23:17 At the end of seventy years 18  the Lord will revive 19  Tyre. She will start making money again by selling her services to all the earth’s kingdoms. 20  23:18 Her profits and earnings will be set apart for the Lord. They will not be stored up or accumulated, for her profits will be given to those who live in the Lord’s presence and will be used to purchase large quantities of food and beautiful clothes. 21 

Hosea 12:7

The Lord Refutes Israel’s False Claim of Innocence

12:7 The businessmen love to cheat; 22 

they use dishonest scales. 23 

Luke 19:45-46

Cleansing the Temple

19:45 Then 24  Jesus 25  entered the temple courts 26  and began to drive out those who were selling things there, 27  19:46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be a house of prayer,’ 28  but you have turned it into a den 29  of robbers!” 30 

John 2:16

2:16 To those who sold the doves he said, “Take these things away from here! Do not make 31  my Father’s house a marketplace!” 32 

John 2:1

Turning Water into Wine

2:1 Now on the third day there was a wedding at Cana 33  in Galilee. 34  Jesus’ mother 35  was there,

John 6:9-10

6:9 “Here is a boy who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what good 36  are these for so many people?”

6:10 Jesus said, “Have 37  the people sit down.” (Now there was a lot of grass in that place.) 38  So the men 39  sat down, about five thousand in number.


sn Tarshish refers to a distant seaport sometimes believed to be located in southern Spain (others identified it as Carthage in North Africa). In any event it represents here a distant, rich, and exotic port which was a trading partner of Tyre.

tn The way in which these horses may have been distinguished from other horses is unknown. Cf. ASV “war-horses” (NASB, NIV, NRSV, CEV all similar); NLT “chariot horses.”

tn Heb “sons of Dedan.”

tn Heb “they returned as your gift.”

tc Many Hebrew mss, Aquila’s Greek translation, and the Syriac version read “Edom.” The LXX reads “man,” a translation which assumes the same consonants as Edom. This reading is supported from the context as the text deals with Damascus, the capital of Syria (Aram), later (in v. 18).

sn The location is mentioned in Judg 11:33.

tc The MT leaves v. 18 as an incomplete sentence and begins v. 19 with “and Dan and Javan (Ionia) from Uzal.” The LXX mentions “wine.” The translation follows an emendation assuming some confusions of vav and yod. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:82.

sn According to L. C. Allen (Ezekiel [WBC], 2:82), Izal was located between Haran and the Tigris and was famous for its wine.

tn Or perhaps “Large merchant ships.” The expression “ships of Tarshish” may describe a class of vessel, that is, large oceangoing merchant ships.

10 tn Heb “your repairers of damage.” See v. 9.

11 tn Compare this phrase to Isa 57:20 and Amos 8:8. See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:561.

12 tn Heb “make heard over you with their voice.”

13 tn Note a similar expression to “roll in the ashes” in Mic 1:10.

14 tn Heb “and they will weep concerning you with bitterness of soul, (with) bitter mourning.”

15 tn As it stands, the meaning of the Hebrew text is unclear. The translation follows the suggestion of M. Dahood, “Accadian-Ugaritic dmt in Ezekiel 27:32,” Bib 45 (1964): 83-84. Several other explanations and emendations have been offered. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:83, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:85-86, for a list of options.

16 tn Heb “fallen.”

17 tn Heb “in the midst of you.”

18 tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

19 tn Heb “visit [with favor]” (cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NIV “will deal with.”

20 tn Heb “and she will return to her [prostitute’s] wages and engage in prostitution with all the kingdoms of the earth on the face of the earth.”

21 tn Heb “for eating to fullness and for beautiful covering[s].”

22 tn Heb “the merchant…loves to cheat.” The Hebrew has singular forms (noun and verb) which are used generically to refer to all Israelite merchants and traders in general. The singular noun II כְּנַעַן (kÿnaan, “a merchant; a trader”; BDB 488 s.v. II כְּנַעַן) is used in a generic sense to refer to the merchant class of Israel as a whole (e.g., Ezek 16:29; 17:4; Zeph 1:11).

23 tn Heb “The merchant – in his hand are scales of deceit – loves to cheat.” The present translation rearranges the Hebrew line division to produce a smoother English rendering.

24 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

25 tn Grk “he.”

26 tn Grk “the temple” (also in v. 47).

27 sn Matthew (21:12-27), Mark (11:15-19) and Luke (here, 19:45-46) record this incident of the temple cleansing at the end of Jesus’ ministry. John (2:13-16) records a cleansing of the temple at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. See the note on the word temple courts in John 2:14 for a discussion of the relationship of these accounts to one another.

28 sn A quotation from Isa 56:7.

29 tn Or “a hideout” (see L&N 1.57).

30 sn A quotation from Jer 7:11. The meaning of Jesus’ statement about making the temple courts a den of robbers probably operates here at two levels. Not only were the religious leaders robbing the people financially, but because of this they had also robbed them spiritually by stealing from them the opportunity to come to know God genuinely. It is possible that these merchants had recently been moved to this location for convenience.

31 tn Or (perhaps) “Stop making.”

32 tn Or “a house of merchants” (an allusion to Zech 14:21).

33 map For location see Map1-C3; Map2-D2; Map3-C5.

34 sn Cana in Galilee was not a very well-known place. It is mentioned only here, in 4:46, and 21:2, and nowhere else in the NT. Josephus (Life 16 [86]) says he once had his quarters there. The probable location is present day Khirbet Cana, 8 mi (14 km) north of Nazareth, or Khirbet Kenna, 4 mi (7 km) northeast of Nazareth.

35 tn Grk “in Galilee, and Jesus’ mother.”

36 tn Grk “but what are these”; the word “good” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

37 tn Grk “Make.”

38 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author (suggesting an eyewitness recollection).

39 tn Here “men” has been used in the translation because the following number, 5,000, probably included only adult males (see the parallel in Matt 14:21).