Bible Strands
Ezekiel 27:12
Tarshish was your merchant because of your great wealth of goods; they exchanged silver, iron, tin, and lead for your wares.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Ezekiel delivers a prophetic oracle against the commercial hub of Tyre, cataloging its international trade routes during the city’s impending siege.
The words — The Hebrew תַּרְשִׁישׁ (Tarshish) names the distant trading partner, while סֹחַרְתֵּךְ (your trader) and מֵרֹב הֹן (from the abundance of wealth) state that Tyre’s market dominance depended on accumulated riches to attract foreign commerce.
The thread — Tarshish appears elsewhere as a distant maritime region associated with wealth and shipping, notably in Genesis 10:4, 1 Kings 10:22, and Isaiah 23:10.
Why it lands — The verse requires acknowledging that economic influence is sustained by external exchange and that commercial networks face the same vulnerability as the cities that depend on them.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs.
Cross-references
- Genesis 10:4 And the sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittites, and the Rodanites.
- 1 Kings 10:22 For the king had the ships of Tarshish at sea with Hiram’s fleet, and once every three years the ships of Tarshish would arrive bearing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.
- Isaiah 23:10 Cultivate your land like the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish; there is no longer a harbor.
- Ezekiel 38:13 Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish with all its villages will ask, ‘Have you come to capture the plunder? Have you assembled your hordes to carry away loot, to make off with silver and gold, to take cattle and goods, to seize great spoil?’
- 1 Kings 22:48 Jehoshaphat built ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they never set sail, because they were wrecked at Ezion-geber.
- 2 Chronicles 20:36 They agreed to make ships to go to Tarshish, and these were built in Ezion-geber.
- Psalms 72:10 May the kings of Tarshish and distant shores bring tribute; may the kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts.
- Isaiah 2:16 against every ship of Tarshish, and against every stately vessel.
- Isaiah 23:6 Cross over to Tarshish; wail, O inhabitants of the coastland!
- Isaiah 23:14 Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your harbor has been destroyed!