What Does Ezekiel 27:12 Mean in the King James?
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.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew behind “traded” says “they gave”: the verse reveals wealth moving from hand to hand.
THE MEANING
Here, wealth is relational: silver, iron, tin, and lead become value as they are carried, given, and received. A city’s riches take shape through a network of people and places exchanging what they have.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the picture of wealth as self-contained possession: what a city calls its riches has passed through other hands.
THE ROOT
נָתְנוּ
natenu
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
to give, put, or place
The Hebrew verb behind “traded” is natan, “they gave.” The KJV names the commercial act, while the Hebrew lets you see its movement through giving: the goods change hands, and wealth moves with them.
ALSO GROWS
natan: to give, set, or place
נָתַן
This root keeps the act of exchange connected to the giving of goods.
mattanah: gift
מַתָּנָה
The gift is another form of what is given, illuminating the giving held within the trade.
סֹחֵר
sōḥēr
GROWS FROM
סחר
s-ḥ-r
to go about; by extension, to trade
The merchant’s root joins going about with trade. Its branches keep commerce tied to circulation: the merchant moves among people, and merchandise moves with them. The metals in this verse are therefore part of a flow, not merely an inventory.
ALSO GROWS
sachar: trade or commerce
סַחַר
This names the activity that carries the listed metals between people.
sechorah: merchandise or goods for trade
סְחֹרָה
The goods themselves share the merchant’s root, joining the trader and the traded things in one word family.
THE PATTERN
Wealth becomes visible through the goods that move between people and places.
Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,THE THREAD
These were thy merchants in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar, among thy merchandise.The same Hebrew root for “merchant” appears again, expanding the single Tarshish connection into a wider web of traders and wares. The metals in verse 12 are one part of the circulation this verse describes.
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