What Does Ezekiel 27:16 Mean in the King James?
Syria was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of the wares of thy making: they occupied in thy fairs with emeralds, purple, and broidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and agate.
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
What appears to be one city’s wealth is called its “making,” yet the verse shows it arriving through other people’s trade, materials, and skill.
THE MEANING
Abundance here moves through the hands that make, trade, and carry it. The precious colors and stones form a display whose beauty depends on many origins and relationships. What seems to belong to one place already contains the work and movement of others.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that visible abundance is self-made or self-contained: the display depends on makers, traders, and materials from beyond it.
THE ROOT
מַעֲשַׂיִךְ
maʿasekha
GROWS FROM
עשה
Do, make, carry out.
The word rendered “wares” is formed from the word for work or deed. The verse connects the goods that draw traders to the work that produces them: the display carries the activity of its makers.
ALSO GROWS
maʿaseh: Work, deed, or product.
מַעֲשֶׂה
The same word family frames merchandise as the result of work, not merely as objects on display.
ʿoseh: One who does or makes.
עֹשֶׂה
This form keeps the maker visible within the abundance the verse describes.
סֹחַרְתֵּךְ
soḥartēkh
GROWS FROM
סחר
Trade or travel about as a trader.
The merchant’s word belongs to a root associated with trade and movement. The verse’s wealth is not static: traders connect it to the places and people beyond the city.
ALSO GROWS
soḥēr: Merchant or trader.
סֹחֵר
This is the trader named in the verse, whose presence makes the exchange network visible.
səḥōrāh: Trade or merchandise.
סְחֹרָה
The same root can name the commercial activity itself, joining the trader to the circulation of goods.
רֹכַלְתֵּךְ
rokhaltēkh
GROWS FROM
רכל
Trade or deal in goods; the root is used for commercial traffic.
“fairs” in this verse is rokhaltēkh. The verse uses a second word family for the trading activity, alongside the root for “merchant.” The people who trade and the exchange they take part in appear together, making the city’s abundance a network rather than a solitary possession.
ALSO GROWS
rōkhēl: Merchant or trader.
רֹכֵל
This branch names the person engaged in the traffic of goods.
rekullāh: Trade, traffic, or merchandise.
רְכֻלָּה
This branch names the trade itself, echoing the verse’s sense of goods moving through a market.
THE PATTERN
Visible wealth is assembled through networks of production and exchange, linking makers, materials, traders, and markets.
She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.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 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
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 word translated “merchant” in both verses comes from סחר (sāḥar), the root for trading. Tarshish and Syria appear as distinct traders, showing Tyre’s visible wealth carried through a wider network of exchange.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us