What Does Ezekiel 27:20 Mean in the King James?
Dedan was thy merchant in precious clothes for chariots.
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 root behind “merchant” also names a talebearer: both carry something from one person to another.
THE MEANING
The line joins trade to movement: Dedan supplies garments for the chariot. Your movement, too, is fitted out through exchanges with other people, whose work becomes part of the passage you make.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that movement is self-contained: what carries you is provisioned through relationships beyond your own reach.
THE ROOT
רֹכֵל
rokhel
GROWS FROM
רכל
r-k-l
To go about as a trader; to carry on trade.
English makes “merchant” sound like a job title, but רֹכֵל (rokhel, merchant) belongs to a word family of carrying things between people. That family names both merchandise and a talebearer, revealing the movement hidden inside the trade.
ALSO GROWS
rekullah: Trade or merchandise
רְכֻלָּה
It names the trade itself, placing Dedan within a wider circulation of goods.
rakil: Talebearer; one who carries reports around
רָכִיל
It extends the carrier image from goods to words, showing how something can move from person to person.
מֶרְכָּבָה
merkavah
GROWS FROM
רכב
r-k-b
To ride or mount.
“chariots” in this verse is merkavah. The chariot word grows from the root for riding. The clothes are bound to movement: what equips the ride is part of the journey, not merely something displayed.
ALSO GROWS
rakav: To ride or mount
רָכַב
It makes the motion beneath “chariots” audible in the verse.
rekhev: A vehicle or chariotry
רֶכֶב
It names the vehicle that carries the rider, linking the root’s action to its instrument.
THE PATTERN
Provision travels across distance through people who carry goods into another’s life.
She is like the merchants’ ships; she bringeth her food from afar.Beside that he had of the merchantmen, and of the traffick of the spice merchants, and of all the kings of Arabia, and of the governors of the country.And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:THE THREAD
Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the LORD.The trader here is רֹכֵל (rokhel, merchant), from רכל (r-k-l); Leviticus uses its related רָכִיל (rakil, talebearer). One root carries goods through Dedan’s trade and words through a community, showing that what circulates can provision or injure.
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