Book of Ezekiel — Ezekiel 27

Primary-source dossier

The excerpts below are reproduced from the Ictis Anthology — a working paper produced during research for the project. Some of the results were spun off into New Perspectives on the Ictis of Pytheas of Massalia.

“[Tyre is] situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles”¹

“Thy borders are in the midst of the seas”²

And then discusses it’s ports of trade across the mediterranean, starting with Tartessos, or modern Cadiz:

“Tarshish was [Tyre’s] merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in [Tyre’s] fairs.”³

It is worth noting that the line “silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in [Tyre’s] fairs” is an explicit description of tin from Spain being imported to the eastern mediterranean by the Phoenicians.

Whilst tradition states that the text describes events within Ezekiel’s acclaimed lifetime (c623-571 BC), the text clearly incorporates themes and events from later times. The destruction of Phoenicia did not occur in the 7th-6th centuries BC but during the Punic Wars 264-146 BC, for example. The description of Spanish silver, iron, tin and lead appears to also echo authors contemporary to the end of the Punic Wars in the 2^nd century BC such as the Nikomedes Periodos (c. 120s BC):

“[an] emporium, called Tartessos, a famous city, to which tin, gold, and a large amount of copper is washed down from Keltike”

Chapter 27 Verses 12-25

King James Version:

“12 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. 13 Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market. 14 They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules. 15 The men of Dedan were thy merchants; many isles were the merchandise of thine hand: they brought thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony. 16 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. 17 Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants: they traded in thy market wheat of Minnith, and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm. 18 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. 19 Dan also and Javan going to and fro occupied in thy fairs: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were in thy market. 20 Dedan was thy merchant in precious clothes for chariots. 21 Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats: in these were they thy merchants. 22 The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold. 23 Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants. 24These 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.

25 The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market: and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the midst of the seas.”