Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 27:21
Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats: in these [were they] thy merchants.
21. occupied with thee ] Lit. were the merchants of thy hand, i.e. serving thee. Cf. Isa 60:7, “all the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered unto thee.” The Arab nomads were rich in flocks. Kedar (Gen 25:13, second son of Ishmael) was an important people toward the N. of Arabia. In Isa 60:7 they are named along with the Nabatheans; in Jer 49:28 they are threatened with destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, as they were threatened at an earlier time with an attack from the Assyrians (Isa 21:16). Outside of scripture they are mentioned first in the inscriptions of Assurbanipal (667 626 b.c.), where they are represented as dwelling between the gulf of Akaba and Babylon. Cf. the ref. Jer 2:10.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 21. Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar] Arabia Deserta, on the confines of the Dead Sea. The Kedarenes inhabited the same country. These brought lambs, rams, and goats for the consumption of the city.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Arabia; a large country, and distinguished into Desert, or sandy, which cannot keep au honest man, but affords thieves enough; next the Stony, or Petraea, which afforded good pasturage for sheep and goats; and the third Felix, or happy, most remote from Tyre.
The princes; for there were many such among those Kedarens, or Scenites, who dwelt in tents, bred and fed cattle, and carried them to Tyre market; furnished the shambles at Tyre, and their altars too for sacrifices.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
21. Arabiathe nomadic tribesof Arabia, among which Kedar was pre-eminent.
occupied with theeliterally,”of thy hand,” that is, they traded with thee forwares, the product of thy hand (see on Eze27:15, 16).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar,…. Arabia was a large country, divided into three parts, Arabia Deserts, or the desert; Arabia Petraea, or the rocky; and Arabia Felix, or the happy. Kedar was in Arabia Petrea; its inhabitants were called Kedarenes, descended from Kedar, a son of Ishmael, Ge 25:13, they were chiefly shepherds, and dwelt in tents, to which the allusion is in So 1:5, these princes were the rich and wealthy among them, who bought up the cattle of the meaner sort, and brought them to Tyre. In Jerom’s time Kedar was the country of the Saracens. The Targum calls them the princes of Nebat, the same with Nebajoth, the firstborn of Ishmael, and brother of Kedar, Ge 25:13.
They occupied with thee: or, “they were the merchants of thine hand w”; that took off her manufactures from her, in lieu of “the lambs, and rams, and goats”, they brought to market, for her food and sacrifices; keeping of sheep being their chief employment: “in these were they thy merchants”: they supplied them with their cattle, and took their wares of them for them.
w “negotiatores manus tuae”, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus; “mercatores manna tuae”, Cocceius, Starckius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(21) Arabia . . . Kedar.Arabia is never used in the Old Testament for the whole of the country now called by that name, but only for the desert part of it occupied by nomadic tribes. Kedar is the name of a nomadic pastoral race descended from Ishmael (Gen. 25:13; comp. Isa. 60:7).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
21. Arabia It is only recently that Arabia has been explored and its inscriptions examined. The result shows us why this country occupied such an important place in the ancient world. Two great kingdoms have been revealed in South Arabia: one, that of Saba (Sheba), reaching back to Solomon’s time, while the Minaean probably precedes it by many centuries (Glaser, Hommel). The inscriptions prove that this people had rather a high civilization, lived in walled towns, built magnificent temples, carried on agriculture, mining, and manufactures, had an elaborate code of civil law, honored women, who could even rule as queens, cultivated the fine arts, and enjoyed an extended commerce. Incense was the chief export and the basis of the nation’s wealth. Mr. Bent has discovered that it is still produced at Dhofar at the rate of nine thousand hundredweight annually and myrrh also in large quantities ( Nineteenth Century, October, 1895). Gold was another leading export, the mines being located in central Arabia. (Compare Eze 27:22.)
Kedar a nomadic tribe in northern Arabia (Psa 120:5; Son 1:5) famous for its flocks, yet possessing “villages” (Isa 42:11.) In Assyrian inscriptions this tribe is located between Babylon and the Gulf of Akaba. (Compare Jer 2:10; Isa 60:7; Jer 49:28.) It may have been the king of these “Arabs” that Cambyses had to conciliate before crossing the desert. The term “Arab” in the Assyrian, as in the Bible writings, had a limited application and did not refer to the entire Sinaitic peninsula ( Herodotus, Eze 3:5).
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Eze 27:21 Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats: in these [were they] thy merchants.
Ver. 21. They occupied with thee in lambs. ] Heb., They were the merchants of thy hand, or at thy hand, for cattle could not be carried far.
In these were they thy merchants.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
occupied = were the merchants of thy hand. Compare Eze 27:15.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Eze 27:21-25
Eze 27:21-25
“Arabia and all the princes of Kedar, they were the merchants of thy hand; in lambs, and rams, and goats, in these were they thy merchants. The traffickers of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy traffickers; they traded for thy wares with the chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold. Haran and Canneh and Eden, the traffickers of Sheba, were thy traffickers, Asshur and Chilmad, were thy traffickers. These were thy traffickers in choice wares, in wrappings of blue and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords and made of cedar, among thy merchandise. The ships of Tarshish were thy caravans for thy merchandise: and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the heart of the seas.”
“Traffickers …” (Eze 27:22-24). This word is used seven times in this brief paragraph; and the connotations of the term are not at all complimentary. On the contrary, the term means “crooked trader,” using false balances and other `tricks of the trade.’ Like the ancient term “Corinth,” which gave the ancient world the term “Corinthianize,” meaning to corrupt morally, the term `trafficker’ came to mean a crooked Canaanite dealer. (See a full documentation of this in Vol. 2 of my Minor Prophets Series (Hosea), pp. 198,199.)
The skillful organization of the ancient evil world appears in this passage. There was a single, sprawling, net-work of traders under the leadership of Tyre and her navy of “the ships of Tarshish.” Her comparison with a majestic ship was certainly appropriate, because her wealth and glory were derived from and continually dependent upon the ships. Just as Britannia once ruled the waves in modern times, Tyre ruled them of old.
Here is terminated the catalogue of merchandise and products; and in the following verse, the metaphor of the ship is again resumed.
“If one traces the location of the place-names in this section on a map, it will appear that Tyre traded with practically every known nation in the western world from Spain to Armenia, the Black Sea and beyond. Each area, taking advantage, of the available shipping, brought the products of its land to trade with Tyre. The commercial operations of that city were truly vast!
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Arabia: 1Ki 10:15, Jer 25:24, Act 2:11, Gal 4:25
Kedar: Gen 25:13, 1Ch 1:29, Son 1:5, Isa 21:16, Isa 60:7
occupied with thee: Heb. were the merchants of thy hand
in lambs: 2Ch 17:11, Isa 60:7
Reciprocal: Isa 21:13 – O ye Jer 49:28 – Kedar
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 27:21. Arabia was on open country and its people worked in the production of sheep and goats. It is not strange, therefore, that such things were taken by them to be offered in exchange for the wares of Tyrus.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Eze 27:21-24. Arabia, &c., occupied with thee Hebrew, , were the merchants of thy hand; that is, they took off thy manufactures (see Eze 27:15) in exchange for cattle, in which their substance chiefly consisted. Of Kedar and its flocks, see notes on Isa 21:16-17; Isa 60:7. The merchants of Sheba and Raamah These were people of Arabia Felix, dwelling near the Persian gulf. They traded in the rich products of their own country, namely, spices, precious stones, and gold, in which it abounded: see note on 1Ki 10:1; 1Ki 10:10. Haran, and Canneh, and Eden By Haran here, it seems, the place is meant where Abraham dwelt when he came out of Ur of the Chaldees, (see Gen 11:31,) called Charr by the Romans, and noted for the defeat of Crassus. Canneh some suppose to be the same place that is called Calneh, Amo 6:2, or Calno, Isa 10:9, a city near the Euphrates. Others take it for Ctesiphon, a noted city situate upon the river Tigris. Eden is joined with Haran, 2Ki 19:12, as it is here. The merchants of Sheba There were two Shebas, as there were two Dedans; one descended from Raamah. (Gen 10:7,) the other from Jokshan, Abrahams son, Gen 25:3. As the 22d verse is explained of the former, so the latter may be understood here: they were both in Arabia. And Chilmad Both the Chaldee and LXX. explain this by Carmania. In chests of rich apparel, &c. The rich apparel here spoken of was carefully packed up in chests of cedar, to give these clothes a fine scent, and preserve them from putrefaction.