Bible Strands
Ezekiel 27:15
The men of Dedan were your clients; many coastlands were your market; they paid you with ivory tusks and ebony.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Ezekiel addresses the merchant city of Tyre as a vessel, cataloging its commercial alliances during a prophetic lament over its impending collapse.
The words — דְדָן (de.Dan) identifies the people of Dedan, while קַרְנ֥וֹת (kar.Not) literally renders as horns or tusks, specifying the exact ivory goods exchanged.
The thread — Genesis 10:7 traces Dedan to the lineage of Raamah and Cush, while Revelation 18:12 echoes the identical inventory of luxury cargo during the fall of a rival commercial power.
Why it lands — The text lists geopolitical and economic dependencies without moral commentary, demanding recognition that commercial prosperity relies on distant alliances that will ultimately be enumerated as liabilities.
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
The men of Dedan were thy merchants; many isles were the merchandise of thine hand: they brought thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony.
Cross-references
- Genesis 10:7 The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. And the sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.
- 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.
- Revelation 18:12 cargo of gold, silver, precious stones, and pearls; of fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet; of all kinds of citron wood and every article of ivory, precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble;
- Jeremiah 25:23 Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who cut the corners of their hair;
- Ezekiel 27:20 Dedan was your merchant in saddlecloths for riding.
- Genesis 25:3 Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were the Asshurites, the Letushites, and the Leummites.
- 1 Chronicles 1:9 The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.
- 1 Chronicles 1:32 The sons born to Keturah, Abraham’s concubine: Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. The sons of Jokshan: Sheba and Dedan.
- Jeremiah 49:8 Turn and run! Lie low, O dwellers of Dedan, for I will bring disaster on Esau at the time I punish him.
- Ezekiel 25:13 therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: I will stretch out My hand against Edom and cut off from it both man and beast. I will make it a wasteland, and from Teman to Dedan they will fall by the sword.