What Does Ezekiel 27:14 Mean in the King James?
They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules.
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 verb translated “traded” carries the sense “they gave,” showing commerce as goods placed into circulation.
THE MEANING
You are shown a city whose reach depends on what distant people bring into its market. Horses, riders, and mules make movement and strength part of the wealth on display. The verb beneath “traded” is “they gave”: these goods are placed into circulation and become part of the city’s reach.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a city’s power is self-contained: its display of strength depends on what other peoples supply.
THE ROOT
נָתְנוּ
natnu
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
The verb behind “traded” is נָתְנוּ (natnu, “they gave”), from נָתַן (natan, “to give, set, place”). Its family includes מַתָּנָה (mattanah, “gift”) and נְתִינִים (netinim, “given ones,” assigned temple servants); the market exchange is voiced as a transfer, with these animals placed into the city’s circulation.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: Gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
It keeps the act of giving visible beneath the commercial word “traded.”
netinim: The “given ones,” assigned temple servants.
נְתִינִים
The same root can describe an assignment into another’s keeping, echoing how these animals enter Tyre’s use through exchange.
THE PATTERN
A city’s visible wealth is assembled through exchange with distant peoples, and the market can make living beings part of its inventory.
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.And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.THE THREAD
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.Genesis uses the same נתן (natan, “give, place”) root for provision given to sustain life; here, that root describes goods placed into Tyre’s trade. The shared verb opens a distinction within one word: giving can provide directly, or circulate strength through a market.
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