Bible Strands
Ezekiel 27:18
Because of your many products and your great wealth of goods, Damascus traded with you wine from Helbon, wool from Zahar,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Ezekiel catalogs the foreign trade partners and exchanged goods of Tyre in a prophetic oracle of judgment. The passage operates as a commercial inventory preceding the declaration of the city’s impending ruin.
The words — The text identifies דַּמֶּ֧שֶׂק (Damascus) as a direct trading partner and uses בְּ/רֹ֥ב (in the abundance of) to quantify Tyre’s merchandise. These lexical choices anchor the oracle in concrete economic exchange rather than abstract imagery.
The thread — Damascus appears as the political head of Aram (Isaiah 7:8) and as a geographic boundary in Abram’s pursuit of invading kings (Genesis 14:15). The repeated geographic reference ties Ezekiel’s commercial list to established historical and political geography.
Why it lands — The verse states that wealth and trade networks are temporary structures that will be dismantled. It requires the reader to weigh material prosperity against the certainty of prophetic judgment without seeking comfort in economic alliances.
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
Damascus was thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making, for the multitude of all riches; in the wine of Helbon, and white wool.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 7:8 For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered as a people.
- Genesis 14:15 During the night, Abram divided his forces and routed Chedorlaomer’s army, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus.
- Genesis 15:2 But Abram replied, “O Lord GOD, what can You give me, since I remain childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”
- 1 Kings 11:24 and had gathered men to himself. When David killed the Zobaites, Rezon captained a band of raiders and went to Damascus, where they settled and gained control.
- Ezekiel 47:16 Berothah, and Sibraim (which is on the border between Damascus and Hamath), as far as Hazer-hatticon, which is on the border of Hauran.
- Acts 9:2 and requested letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any men or women belonging to the Way, he could bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem.